Hurricane Helene

I spent several days at the home of my friend Ann before heading east on my son's birthday. It was so hard to leave her behind after spending so many days together and watching her go through some of the most difficult days of her life... I had planned to spend Jim's birthday with him, meet my friend Marty for sunrise at Jubba Beach Wednesday morning and head for home early Thursday, but my plans have been thwarted.

It's been a quiet day. I did not get up before the sun and drive to the east coast. Hurricane Helene is crawling up the west side of Florida, threatening havoc. My friend Marty, who was to meet me at the beach, was called on to secure several boats in the Daytona/Palm Coast area. I took a short drive around Sanford and got caught in the rain coming out of Walmart. It was a wonderfully exhilarating, warm, tropical rain. Several bands passed over today and more wind and rain are expected throughout the night and well into tomorrow. I won't be heading north toward home until the threat of storms and flooding has passed, whenever that may be. The kids have been given a day off school tomorrow.

What Day Is It?

What can I say about the last week and two days...? So many fragmented thoughts have still to be knitted together in my heart and mind. 

Forty years ago on the sidewalk outside our apartment, a little boy rode a tiny bike and threatened to knock my three year old off his tricycle. "How about I knock you off your bike?" I'd asked him, and he quickly replied, "My mom will call the police." Last night that little boy came home from the store with a half gallon of Rocky Road Ice Cream and said to his mom, "I brought the things you asked for and Martha texted and asked for ice cream, so I brought that too." (I hadn't, but that's beside the point.)

Friendships don't always begin with pleasantries. At our first encounter that little boy had also walked right up to me and declared, "We worship Jehovah." He stood directly in front of me as I sat on the ground watching Jimmy ride his tricycle, and waited for my response. "We worship Jesus," I told him.

While I remember those first moments of interaction, most of what came in the days, months, and years to follow blends together into an afghan of lifetime friendship. I heard her family call her "Ruthie," while the neighbors told me her name was Ann. My mother stepped up when the family needed daycare. On a moment's notice James and I were invited to her wedding in the community center at the apartment complex and learned on our way there that her new husband was the cousin of our friend. In time both of our families moved to the same little town in Wayne County, NY and I babysat on and off while she worked. We each had another baby giving each of us four (Josh, Joel, Charlie, and Drew for her, and Jim, Dave, Beth, and Joe for me). We took our kids on picnics, talked on the phone for hours, and argued religion. Tragedy struck their extended family and they moved a half hour farther out into the country. There was a barn and horses and a continued friendship.

I don't know why some people face trials and tragedies over and over and over, I only know that each one she faced knit us closer together. It's not my place to list them here, but I can tell you I have never stopped loving her and her children. Last Friday morning when she sent a text telling me the doctors at the Pennsylvania hospital had advised her to ask family members to come and say their last goodbyes to her sweet husband, she was a thousand miles from home. My daughters didn't hesitate to encourage me, for the third time in as many weeks, to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to the hospital. I sat with my friend, did everything I could to help her and the staff, met her son at the elevator when he made his 7:30 pm arrival, and made no attempt to hide my own sorrow when her husband David left this world at 12:30 am on Saturday, September 14. We spent the night at a hotel, met with a Pennsylvania funeral home, picked up her camper from a family member, and made the drive north from Watkins Glen, NY to my home in Webster. On Tuesday we headed south and I followed them home. 

I could look heavenward and ask God all the same "why?" questions I've asked in the past but the trusting Him to be there is much easier than understanding any of the "whys?" He is the one who knit this friendship together. He is the one who takes yarns of contrasting and complimentary colors and fashions the strands into unimaginably beautiful blankets. I don't understand, but I know He does.

Playing Catch Up (again)

Very often I write for myself. This is one of those times that I will need to look back on in the future and so I record my thoughts and memories here while they are fresh. The events of life tumble and spin often leaving us wondering how, what, and why? This is one of those moments...

Three weeks ago my friend Ann left Florida with her husband David. They hooked up their camper and drove from the Ocala area through Virginia and into southern New York State, back to the place where they grew up together. They had plans to drive all the way north to Lake Ontario but first there was an August 25 family reunion for David. A day or two later his nose started bleeding and it just wouldn't stop. They went to the ER. When I went down to visit a week later, because he felt too week to drive 2 hours north, it was still bleeding randomly. On the evening of September 1 she took him back to the ER. They eventually transferred him to a hospital with a Level 2 Trauma Unit. That is where I went on Friday morning (September 6). With his platelet levels plummeting, the prognosis is dire. We had a bit of hope on Saturday when a trial treatment helped to raise the platelet levels. He was able to converse coherently and was even up and walking. He looked so good that I felt it was okay to go home, but his levels are dropping once again. My heart is breaking for my sweet friend who finally, after years of heartache, found the love of her life and is now losing him.

So, I have driven south to the Pennsylvania border twice in the space of a week. I watched as a support team from the Jehovah's Witnesses came to love, encourage, and pray with them and found myself impressed by their network. (They are Witnesses.) This past Friday night I stayed in my friend's camper while she slept in a hospital chair in her husband's room. I am completely undone by the fact that I am any comfort at all to my friend. We have been through a lifetime together, much of it separated by distance yet stitched together by love. Your prayers for my friends is appreciated ever so much.

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We got some rain here Monday afternoon. Buckets of it! I was out taking a few photos on the front step when my phone sounded the alarm. (Flower photo at the top taken previous to the alarm sounding.) It was a warning for possible flash flooding in my area. Thankfully I don't have a basement, and I don't have a creek running through my back yard either, although we did have a bit of a "lake" for a time. The town of Webster, NY is right along Lake Ontario so in some ways it couldn't have fallen in a better location.

Day Dreaming

 An autumn walk on the beach is sounding absolutely fabulous at the moment. This is the lake. I'm dreaming of somewhere warm and sunny in say, October or November.

PS. Sorry for the Brain Barf of the previous post. I'm feeling better now.

Brain Barf

When the brain is too full it's time for a blog. There are so many thoughts bouncing that I'm likely to give up writing partway through and stash it as a draft forever, but I'm going to give it a whirl anyway. Obviously politics, but I don't want to turn you off at the get-go so that'll have to wait.

* I received a packet from OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) in the mail on Friday. It is topped off with a letter to the judge stating that the contents within states, "the attached forms and documents should be admitted without regard to the truth or falsity of the contents of such forms and documents, and no implication may be made by the hearing officer as to the truth or falsity of any of the contents of any of the forms or documents solely on the basis of such forms and documents having been admitted into evidence."  I'm not entirely sure what all of that means but having looked through the packet, it is severely lacking in information that would exonerate either one of us such as the water being heated and brought into the room by another individual or the fact that we were both addressing other potentially harmful situations at the exact time of said incident. I'm finding myself entirely discouraged by this process. Phone appointment with the judge mid September, hearing date set at that time.

* I have yet to find suitable employment outside of the home. I applied at the local credit union by internet yesterday. Questions about prior employment are hard to answer. I can't even imagine how it must be for those actually convicted of a crime. 

* It's been a fabulous summer with a few stressful moments tossed in. My skin is tanned and I am loaded up with vitamin D. My toes have been polished and my cup is full. I spent most of my time with grandchildren but also enjoyed lots of outside time.

* I hate election years with a passion but have decided the stakes are high enough this time around that I can't afford to keep silent. I do not agree with all of the Democratic policies, however I see a clear and present danger lurking on the other side. A President like DJT or JD Vance can never, ever be handed complete immunity from prosecution. What are we thinking? Have we learned absolutely nothing from history?

* One of my best friends is 2 1/2 hours away, sitting in a hospital room with her husband. He is gravely ill and they are 18 hours from their home in Florida. They hauled a trailer from home, brought their dog, and my heart is breaking for them. There is nothing I can do but pray and be a support system. I visited them on Sunday at their campsite. When I left she took him to the Emergency Room. He is a 10 year heart transplant recipient and my friend is terrified of losing the only man who ever truly loved her. 

* So that's it for now... Aside from me dreaming of driving to Florida to walk the beach. LOL!