Happy St. Patrick's Day

I've been too lazy or busy or something to write anything lately. It has been a nice few days though in regards to getting to talk with people I don't ordinarily talk to - a couple that I haven't seen for over 40 years.

I have done a few searches for my friends from our freshman year at Troy over the years. Only problem is, I wasn't sure who they married, and it's hard to find someone just looking up Elaine and Beanie. Somehow I found them by remembering a sister's name, so we're just beginning to catch up. One has a daughter's wedding in April, so I don't expect to hear anything out of her for a bit.

I got to visit with my cousin Debby last week. She's the urchin on the front row in the picture. She's better behaved now - but not much. We still laugh at the same things and can tell each other exactly what's on our minds. Her mom, my Aunt Betty, died last fall, and we went to take some spring flowers out to Greenwood Cemetery. I have some pictures of that beautiful afternoon once I get enough energy to find my camera.

I then, through my other cousin Bobby, got reconnected with maybe a step-cousin, Teresa. Her dad married my aunt, so I guess that's a step-cousin. We spent some time together growing up, but I got to know her better my last year of high school when we rode to school together. She's living in Wyoming, and it's so good to chat with her. We're going to try to find time to get together for a bit in May when she comes to Andalusia.

And another old friend called me last weekend. Karen was, I guess, my first real friend. We found each other again about 5 years ago after going our separate ways after high school. She visited me in Greensboro and Columbus, and we took a fun road trip from Columbus to New York where she lives a few years ago. She's promised her red guest house to us if we need a place to live when we retire. Summers only for me though. I don't want to get involved in plowing my way through snow to get to the grocery store.

More about all these good people later. I have to get to work now.

Beautiful Pictures

As promised, here are the pictures of our Guatemalan friends. If I get a name wrong, I hope I'll be forgiven. I'm not going to say which one is the "angry walrus" or who is pollito (chicken), Porci (Porky), or colocha (curly) and to protect Gaby, I won't mention the name she told me for Carlos.

Teto no quieree agua.

Even I could figure out what this meant. This is Diego (Yeyo) offering some water to his little cousin Roberto Alejandro (Teto).

The two boys a little older:

This is Teto, son of Gaby and Carlos

And Diego, Dina and Allan's son

And more pictures of the boys. Did I mention yet how cute they are?

Here are the parents of the little guys. You can see where they get their looks.

Gaby and Carlos with Gaby and Dina's dad.

Dina, Allan, and Diego

Sisters Dina and Gaby

Dina and Allan

Gaby and Carlos

Gaby and Teto

I hope I did the pictures and the subjects justice. I have enjoyed getting to know Dina and Gaby by email. They have given me lots of laughs this week, and I hope we can meet either in Guatemala or Alabama. We three ladies chose Hawaii to meet, but Mike kind of shot that idea down. I found out that his calling us tres bruhas in his email was not very nice. Think the 3 Macbeth characters, Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Even bruhas have to sleep. Again, I hope the names match the pictures.

Sadness

I woke up this morning feeling somehow down but couldn't figure out why. I went about my morning chores and came in to work a few hours and checked my email. My cousin Bobby had sent me a web site from one of his classmates, Philip Wise. I had followed his Caring Bridge site since last spring when he was first diagnosed with cancer but had lost it with my computer crash. He and Cynthia were high school friends of ours but, like so many others, we had lost touch with them for 40 years. Mike got in touch with him last spring before his diagnosis, and they met in Lubbock for lunch. They kept this journal of his illness and always seemed to be so brave and hopeful. This is the entry for yesterday:

Dear Friends,
Cynthia and I have been making plans to move to Birmingham. Gary and Vicki Furr and Fisher and Caroline Humphreys have worked to make this possible. They've found us a townhouse and will have everything ready to move in when we arrive in a couple of weeks. The children will come down to move what we need. Needless to say, none of this would be possible without them!
We discussed this move with our medical oncologist. He thought the move was fine, but he does think that now is the time for me to switch from seeing a medical oncologist to hospice care. We have decided that we will do that when we get to Birmingham. I'm slowly getting weaker and still slowly losing weight. Hospice is a wonderful program that I’ve observed at close hand. It will provide better and more frequent care -in our home.
This is not the message we wished to send to you, but it is the reality of our situation. We continue to be so grateful for the help and encouragement of all of you. Your prayers have sustained us during these days.
We do not know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future.
Yours in Christ,
Philip and Cynthia

His Caring Bridge site is here.