Well after Mom, Dad and Cathie all died and all the Covid isolation, I didn’t feel like updating anything much. But it’s time to get back to normal.
As tough as things were, a lot of good things happened too. Trips to Boston, DC, Charlotte, Annapolis, West Jefferson and more. Visits with extended family, old and new friends. New babies, adoptions and graduations. Swearing ins, Galas, all sorts of great events. We even painted the house and I got a new Mercedes Benz (Hayley has my Jeep, lol). I’m healthy and loved – so much to be grateful for in my life.
Sharen recently participated in a QiGong class that presented a program for their whole village of Warm Hearth. She and her fellow participants were amazing!
Everyone lost a ton in 2020 with Covid, mine sucked because both my folks were diagnosed with stage four cancer – I’m an only child to divorced parent who live 30 and 90 minutes from me. 2021 started with losing my Mom in February, then my Aunt Cathie a few weeks ago. Cancer is insidious, it takes everything from you then most of the time it kills you anyway. My Aunt Cathie took her own way out before cancer could take her. I’m still struggling with that.
I feel like I’m untethered and I’m learning way too much about estate procedures. And that Bank of America is the worst place ever to have an account when someone dies.
Intertwined with that, is our our pride and joy over Hayley graduating college (Criminal Justice major, Psychology minor). We are thrilled that Hayley was hired for the first job she applied for and she works for the State of NC in Public Safety.
Graduation was the last time we saw my Aunt Cathie too. I’m so glad she came with us. Bittersweet though.
Had to go to the UNC-SDSU game to see the stripe out! Night games at Kenan are just so gorgeous – there is no place more beautiful for college football. My dad showed up and hung out for most of the game which was a nice gift too.
We went up to Blacksburg again for the July 4th holiday. Jeff’s grandmother Faye is now living in Blacksburg full-time so it was nice to see her. Hayley took a selfie with Jay and her great-grandmother Faye that still cracks me up. Jeff, Hayley and his folks ran the Shawsville 5k again. They came in 4th in the fastest family category and got their photo in the paper. Hayley and her Grandma Sharen both picked up hardware in their age groups. We also got to see Jeff’s folks new house that is under-construction – it’s going to be really nice.
I have about 200 photos to post, mostly from Hayley’s high school basketball and soccer seasons… or July 4th… or whatever, I’m just way behind in general. But in the past 12 hours, I’ve got two old photos of ladies I love (my mom and my mother in law) and I had to post them because I’m so charmed by them both (you should begin humming The Way We Were by Streisand now and don’t make any jokes because everyone should know I’m obsessed with that movie).
My mom is on the right side, in the light pink top with the darker pink floral skirt before a friend’s wedding in 1973. Thanks to Facebook for this one, the poster was the bride and added, “your mom was always such a wonderful part of EVERYONE’S life. So funny. Actually, her whole family was hilarious and I think all her many friends would agree to that.”
My mother-in-law passed this one on to me last night with this story, “this picture that was sent by the daughter (baby on the left) of lifelong friends of mom and dad. The picture is of the Douthitts and mom and dad with mom holding me and Karen as a toddler. The two on the right are “Pops and Frances”, my dad’s parents. Karen or I had never seen this picture before. Cliff and Inez Douthett met my parents while they both were dating, then married, then had children about the same age. When we were young we used to drive to Texas (where they moved to) for visits. Then Mom and dad and they used to travel together when we kids grew up and moved away. Just interesting history. Cliff and Inez are still living. They had a very long friendship.”
We spent July 4th up in Blacksburg again, a very relaxing break. Jeff and Hayley ran a 5k with Jeff’s parents over in Shawsville. I helped set up their new iMac (another convert to Apple). Jeff and I went back home after the holiday and Hayley stayed longer to hang out with her grandparents and Uncle Jay.
Co-pilot
Post-race
Jay is excited to have won a gift certificate in a raffle despite not running, lol
We brought Annabelle with us, she and Clayton enjoyed pinning Hayley down
