If you’ve read my blogs, you know my daughter, Elizabeth, wrote and published a children’s book called The Elephant On Aaron’s Chest. It came out last February. Ruth bought the elephant pictured below for Elizabeth in celebration of the publication. It had taken several years to finish, but great things can’t be rushed. Great takes …
More Thoughts On The Matter
Note: I began this blog prior to Ruth’s passing. I’m finishing up a thought that began with the September 21, 25 and 28 blogs. The September 28th blog was ready for posting, so I sent it out after Ruth died. Mom was about ninety years old when I organized her postcards for her. I put …
The Worst Thing
Ruth and my first look at death as a married couple took place on April 30, 1979. I got a call at work in Addison from Ruth’s Aunt Casey. She told me Ruth’s dad, Lou, had a heart attack. Lou was sixty-five. Ruth and I were thirty-two. David was four, Elizabeth two, and Michael nine …
Do You Need Anything?
Back in August, Ruth and I discussed a plan to establish a scholarship fund with a portion of our annual required minimum distribution funds. Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are amounts that U.S. tax law requires one to withdraw annually from traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans. Ruth and I began the process of withdrawing money …
The Business of Dying
My parents took a trip to Hawaii while I was working in Addison. I’m not sure of the year, but they left in the fall. I was at a conference in Dearborn just prior to the trip, so I stopped in one evening to see them. They were excited, shared some minimal trip details, and …
Something More
The day Ruth died was like any other day we shared. She was up earlier than me, so she ate early, and I ate late. We spoke like we did thousands of other retired mornings. If I wasn’t out golfing early, we talked, played a game of Euchre, and reviewed our individual days. Golf was …
Sorry For Your Loss
There’s no easy way to start this next series of blogs. I’ve struggled with the words, but none seem to work. Ruth was involved in a car accident last Tuesday evening and she died. This is the first time I’ve used the word. It’s too final. If you’ve read her obituary, you may think I …
No Words
Mom Was a Deltiolgist
Mom was a Deltiolgist. I don’t think she knew it and I didn’t realize it until she gave me the brown tweed suitcase that housed her treasures. It contained a large collection of postcards from the late 30’s through the mid 40’s. Most were written during the “war years”. After she married my dad in …
The Brown Tweed Suitcase
Late in life, Mom gave me the brown tweed suitcase that housed the treasures of her youth. She passed it on about twenty years ago. I knew of the suitcase because I examined its contents several times while I still lived at home. My first look took place when I was in the seventh grade, …