Relief and sadness

Barry taught his class on Friday morning and then we took off for Sharon. There was a small part of me that pondered the irony of driving towards Boston at this very painful time. And sure enough, shortly after entering Connecticut, the traffic on the Merritt Parkway came to a standstill. Although our car has a built-in GPS system, it is an older model that does not provide any traffic reports. We had bought a Garmin GPS some months back for use in rental cars; the car rental agencies charge so much to rent one that, after just two times, it pays for itself. The Garmin provides traffic reports but of course we did not remember to put it in the car, so we had no way of knowing whether there was a shutdown due to a gunman on the loose or a traffic accident. I pulled out my trusty maps (I am an old fashioned girl, after all) and we got off the next exit, from which I navigated our way back over to I-95. And from there on it was smooth sailing, with quite light traffic, presumably due to the fact that we were headed towards Boston.

We started Sabbath early, before the capture of the remaining gunman, so we did not hear the news until we saw the Saturday morning headlines in the NY Times, for which we have a weekend subscription in Sharon. The tremendous sense of relief quickly gave way to a flood of emotions, and as Rabbi Sendor said a few words about the horrific events I found myself in tears, and I was not alone. Many people seem to be anxious to learn why these young men committed these heinous acts. Unfortunately, this knowledge is only useful if it could prevent such carnage in the future; I am just not certain we can ever achieve such a goal. And this is not a time to let our guards down. The local news is now saying that there is increasing evidence that these two brothers were part of a larger group operating in the Boston area.

We had a lovely Sabbath lunch at the home of some long-time Sharon friends along with two other couples we were meeting for the first time. It was a wonderful and relaxing afternoon with great food, fascinating conversation, and much warmth. We then headed over to Simmie and Ronen’s house. Simmie and Dina went to a class at the synagogue, while we sat on the new lawn chairs…oh, my, I forgot to write about those. A few weeks ago, Barry and I purchased four chaise lounges, two for each of our children’s yards, so we could sit outside more comfortably to watch the children playing. Let’s face it, we’re getting old and we need comfortable chairs! Although we did not spend a fortune on these chairs (which is not hard to do, we learned), we are quite pleased with them. The really funny part is that Barry and I, the old people who need the chairs, were sitting out there in our heavy coats and gloves while the children were running around barefoot in short sleeves. Oh, my, we really are getting old! In my defense, I believe my internal thermostat has been lowered quite a bit over this past year, and I hear this is not an uncommon experience for cancer patients. It will serve me well during the summer, right? Anyway, it was great to be able to be right there sitting comfortably in the middle of their fun.

Sunday was a busy day. We had arranged to spend the morning with Ella. We picked her up and headed over to a local store to buy some new Lego sets to build. Then we made a quick detour up to the L.L.Bean store to exchange a couple of items I had ordered on-line, and returned to our apartment to play with the new Legos. We did that for a while, and then made Ella some macaroni and cheese for lunch. Then Eliana and Maya came over to spend some time while their parents went out shopping for some new luggage they need for travel they are planning for this summer. We played with their recently arrived Chanukah gifts we had ordered: an adorable and soft stuffed seal for Maya, along with a book about seals, and the American Girl bathtub and shower for Eliana’s dolls.   

We also played a few rounds of Rush Hour, a game that Heidi and Anna introduced to my therapy. I told Barry about it and Amazon Prime delivered it to our door within 24 hours! This is a nifty little game. There is a grid and a bunch of different colored cars and trucks, including one red car. The game includes 40 or so traffic configurations, and the idea is to set up a configuration and then move the cars and trucks around until you can get the red car across the grid and out the other side. It turns out that the children were familiar with this game (there is also a junior version), and Joshua, not surprisingly, is very good at it. The girls also did surprisingly well, and even Maya was able to do the first level with minimal coaching. When I play this during my therapy sessions the rules are a bit more stringent: I have to talk through what I plan to do before doing it, a few steps at a time, rather just randomly moving cars around until I stumble on the right configuration. It can be exasperating but it is actually quite fun. Anna was quite pleased with my performance on it last week, and while I know she is just trying to be kind, it doesn’t hurt to hear that positive reinforcement.

We will be heading back to New York tomorrow morning. I’ve got a busy week ahead, with some routine medical appointments and an extended final session of the writing class. But I will check in soon.

Stay safe and have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca