more changes

A few days ago I sent an email to Dale. We will be in your town.

So today we touched base, and then spent time together.


Dale had been to a friend’s wake a few days earlier. The friend had not hit the 60 year mark and suddenly he was gone. Dale went out of his way to make sure we could spend time together.

You never know, he said.

Tomorrow we are driving 2 hours north to Olympia Washington. Miriam’s sister and brother in law live there. Kay is showing every sign of Alzheimer’s. But the big thing since we saw them in the spring is that Jay has had serious by-pass surgery and along the way his weight dropped a hundred pounds.

They were coming down here today, but he was not feeling well. He does not have the strength he used to have he said hand he just was not able to make the trip.


Suddenly it seemed important to me that we made the trip to see them. Jay is a life long smoker and that is not good. He was a big strong powerful man. Now he weighs what I do. “You won’t even recognize me,” he said.

So tomorrow we will take Emily to school then head north. We can’t stay too late, but it is essential to me that we make the trip.

Jay was glad when I told him of our decision.

“Kay will be so glad to see her sister.”