We had a
very special weekend. First, a little background is in order. Barry (class of
1973) and I (class of 1974) did our undergraduate work at the University of
Rochester. Barry earned his Ph.D. from the U of R in 1978, and was a
postdoctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island from
1978-1980. In the summer of 1980 he was offered a position at the University of
Texas Health Science Center in Dallas. So we put on our cowboy hats and headed
southwest. About a year after we moved there, a new family relocated to Dallas
and became part of the small traditional Jewish community. They had two
children at the time, a little boy who was Simmie’s age, and a daughter 5 years
older. Simmie and their little guy became good friends, and although their
daughter was quite a bit older than our daughters, she and they loved spending
time together. Our two families were often together on Sabbath and holidays.
But eventually work took us in different directions: they settled in Denver,
where they eventually had three more children, and we moved to Massachusetts
and later New York. But we have never been out of touch, even in the days of
snail mail and expensive long distance phone calls. Over the past 20 years we
have grown very close with the oldest daughter. She came to New York City for
college and stayed for a number of years after graduating, and frequently spent
Sabbaths and holidays with us during those years. She moved to Florida 14 years
ago and now has three children. We have managed to remain close, with less
expensive phone calls and the internet helping a great deal. And we spent time
with her when she and her children met us at Disney World for a few days in
2011.
Her
marriage ended in divorce a few years ago, but for nearly two years she has had
a new beau in her life. With the distance between us we had never met him. Over
this past year she has called, written, sent us gifts, been the real sweetheart
that she is. She runs her own business (check it out at www.babyktan.com) and has
joint custody of the children, so finding time for personal travel is a
challenge. But she was determined, and some weeks ago she called us with some
possible dates for a trip to New York, which happened this weekend. Her new
beau came along with her while all the children (hers and his) stayed with
their other parents.
What a
wonderful weekend it was! I am still amazed that they spent the time (a scarce
commodity) just to come visit us. It was wonderful to see her and to meet and
get to know him. We did what we always enjoyed doing – spent a lot of time
sitting around the table eating and talking, and went into the City and heard
some live music Saturday night. Something I had not really noticed until I
started writing this is that both of their names begin with the letter M. So
all I can say is “thank you, M&M – we love you.” It seems so appropriate
that two such sweet people should have such a “sweet” name as a couple!
Today is
a quiet day at home. We have some refurbished window treatments being installed
today. I learned that these are called cornices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornice).
We had them made when we first moved in to this house, along with a matching
bedspread. The whole ensemble had faded terribly over the years, and we had
long since replaced the bedspread but were still looking at the very sad
cornices. So this had been on my list of projects for some time, and I finally
got it done, but not in the way I would have expected. It started with wanting
to replace our quilt cover, which was also rather old and sad. I found
something in a catalogue (the same one that had the Monet bedding I wrote about
some months ago) that I really liked – flowers, birds, and butterflies in
vibrant colors on a deep red background, not at all what I would have ever
imagined buying but somehow we both agreed that it felt right at this point. When the
quilt cover arrived, it dawned on me that I could order a matching sheet and
use it to recover the cornices. They look terrific.
Next
project: plants in the living room. We have one very large flower pot that has
been empty for over a year because the plant died, and two other good sized plants
that are not looking especially healthy. I am the first to admit that I do not
have a green thumb! But we do like having plants around, so I accept that they
just have to struggle through their lives under my care and then be replaced.
As long as my children and grandchildren feel I am not quite as incompetent
with them as I clearly am with house plants, I am happy.
Tomorrow
I have my weekly cognitive therapy and then my music class. Wednesday evening
we have tickets for the Allman Brothers Band during their annual run of shows at
the Beacon Theater (we had tickets but missed the show last year so we are
excited to get back to hear them again as we have done for most of the past 15
years or so). Thursday I have my film class followed by the first session of my
writing class. We will be heading back to Sharon for the weekend. On Sunday
Eliana and Gabriella have a program at school: the first graders receive their
prayer books in a very sweet ceremony. Then Barry and I will be working on
preparing our apartment for Passover, which begins two weeks from tonight. We
will spend the entire holiday in Sharon.
Have a
great week, all!
Love,
Rebecca
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