Back at home

Praise God. All slept well last night...
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and ... I am...
Back home again, safe and sound... if not still a little rattled by the sincere desire to do well at school and thus pressing the stress button every so often - rather like a lab rat desperately trying to figure which gizmo releases the tasty pellets this time. Hehehee.
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OMGolly! I just realized I gotta whip up an art piece for the blog, here - before the sun sets.. .... maybe on oldie again? heh.
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Aunt Dona called with information that Aunt Freda is not at her best, but perhaps on a more rapid decline than what I'd been impressed with last spring. Aunt Freda is in her mid-nineties. (That 92 year old Uncle Jim I wrote about in September is one of her little brothers.) JK, Freda's daughter, who happens to be in the same assisted living home as Freda, (JK used to be a university professor, has MS. "It" finally brought her back to this home state of ours and into an assisted life-style, 4-5 years ago) has passed along the news that Freda is most likely (the doctors say) suffering mini strokes, effecting memory and a slight aspect of speech, which has become softer than ever and a touch slurred.
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Aunt Dona's call was for the roadtrip to visit them.
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I SOOO wish they were here, in the "hometown" with 'everyone' else. *sighs* They are in Grand Island (2-3 hours away... & yes, Nebraskans often measure distance in time :P) because 'Roger' lives there. Roger is Freda's son. Roger has a mediocre reputation with some members of the family, swinging the wide swath from things he's done to stuff he doesn't do.
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Reading between the lines at the Thanksgiving table last night we see Freda, her friend and regular diner table mate May, daughter J.K., niece Dona, niece Dian (my Mom) and great-niece 'Dorko'. Roger, the single, solitary, living relative within a 150 mile radius - was no where to be seen or heard from - and it wasn't talked about either. *sighs*
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I can easily count a half - dozen or more people that would visit them on a regular basis if they were in McCook. Can't help, selfishly wishing they were here...
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It was a nice visit, albeit short - spent the day with them all. I helped J.K. activate a hotmail account. I'll send her directions on how to actually use the thing via snail mail this coming week. Aunt Dona had brought J.K. the most thought full gift, which we all took great delight in. Some one at a recent highschool reunion had been selling CD recordings of the local high school band and choir too, made during the time when J.K. had been a member of it and when it was at such a pinnacle of perfection, that they'd been honored and dispatched around the nation to strut their stuff! I must say! They really did sound professional! I've never heard a highschool band that 'spot on' - ever!!! J.K. was thrilled beyond measure. Heartwarming to see a gift, this early in the season of gift giving hit home so sweetly for the recipient and all present, sharing in the moment. =)
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Pictures were passed around, memories discussed.
Aunt Dona had come up with a journal in my grandmother's hand. She started reading from the tail end of it which were entries dated into the 1920's, "Praise God, all slept well last night" ... we had an enjoyable time celebrating our 72nd wedding anniversary ... Dona began to explain that this was a copy of a journal that came west from Stockbridge MA with our Pioneering grandparents. In Stockbridge they'd rubbed elbows with the rich and the famous - there were some surprising names dropped in a letter contained in the journal, one entry discribed the day the news litterally rang out along the eastern seaboard through the sounding of church bells tolling, of President Lincoln's death. The inscription on the inside cover said it was a copy of a copy of the original, which was my Great-great-great grandfather's journal. It was a treasure I'd like to have a copy of. I got the briefest glance at it - reading over the first few pages which were dedicated to our family's history and the storys of 'olden times' and a gentle admonisment that any person reviewing the book should not do so, unless they had at least a spark of interest in the family who's history it contained...
more discussion
- apparently my triple-great grandfather and many members of his family were diligent in keeping journals. My grandmother had been in possession of several - then in her zeal to gather more of the family history together (Grandma and Freda were loyal members of the D.A.R. or the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Family/History research/documentation is something that they do) she sent them off to 'cousins' out west and they, unfortunately, were never returned.
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I told my mother on the trip home that I thought that might have been one of the most important things discussed during the visit. I didn't know any such thing had ever existed before. I wonder now if those items can be tracked down and copied in a format that could be easily broadcast and shared with all interested members of the family!!?? Gives me something to think about, other than my current course of studies anyways.
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Mother just called... and we'll be off together once more now, this time to visit the next generation coming up, those beautiful nieces of MINE, and yes... praise God, still - all slept well last night.
(Thought I saw my cat, picking a pair of ear-plugs out of her little kitty head, this morning! :D)