Sunday, May 15
Because Mother was in the hospital in Tyler and I had a Patriot Guard Rider mission this afternoon, we decided to not go to church this morning. Instead, we had a leisurely breakfast and then drove to Tyler…I rode the motorcycle and Barbara followed in the car, since I would be going on to Marshall when we were finished.
We found that Mother was doing okay, but not much improved from yesterday. The combination of the small heart attack and the urinary tract infection had really laid her low this time. The internalist who saw Mother when she first was admitted had told us that one of the problems was that when they had released Mother the last time, the infection hadn’t completely cleared, so they gave her some antibiotics to take at the nursing home. That was all well and good, but those antibiotics didn’t clear the situation; thus, the return with a vengeance of the infection. The doctor told Barbara yesterday that they intended to keep Mother right where she was until the infection was completely cleared.
After visiting with Mother for an hour or so, it was time for me to head over to Marshall to meet with the other riders for a funeral mission. I had read somewhere in the mission briefing that the officiating minister would be one of my cousins, Bruce Tankersley, the son of one of Daddy’s sisters from Roswell, New Mexico. At least, when I knew Bruce in my younger days, he lived in Roswell, but that was a long time ago and we had both moved far away from our roots and hadn’t seen each other in nearly 30 years. Due to the mission requirements, I wasn’t sure that I would get a chance to see Bruce, but I was hopeful that we could reconnect in some way.
The day was so beautiful that Barbara decided to come along and see what a PGR mission was all about; so far, she only had my description of what went on and wanted to see for herself. Unfortunately, Barbara wasn’t dressed for riding the motorcycle, so she followed me in the car as we made our way across East Texas on I-20 to Marshall.
Barbara took pictures as I was standing on the flag line, and at one point I got her attention to tell her that I thought I had spotted Bruce entering the funeral home chapel. He didn’t look exactly as I remembered him, but he was the only person who came in carrying a Bible, so I figured he must be the one.
When Bruce left, Barbara took her place beside me in the flag line and we stood there until the service started and we broke the line down.
The ride to the cemetery was going to be nearly 20 miles, so I decided to not go on that part of the mission. Instead, Barbara and I saddled up in our respective vehicles and rode/drove to Shreveport, just down the road from Marshall to spend a couple of hours before returning to Mineola.
The ride back across I-20 was generally uneventful, but we had badly misjudged the time of sunset, and ended up driving about an hour and a half in the dark, not one of our favorite activities in or on any vehicle.
We stopped at the Burger King in Lindale to make our usual Sunday night call to Jean Terpening in Artesia. As I was punching in the numbers, a lady came over to the car and started telling us that she and her husband had lost everything they owned in a house fire in Mineola that week and were living out of their car and, by the way, could we help them out. The story had a thin fabric of possible truth, but it was a fabric with a few holes in it. Still, remembering how Jimmy Clint had spent a month living on the streets of Lubbock and being entirely dependent on the help of others, Barbara took the lady inside Burger King and had her order meals for her husband and herself to get them through the evening. They did express their gratitude to us (unlike a couple of folks we have run across in our travels and tried to help). We wished them well and then I climbed back on the cycle, Barbara got into the car, and we made our way back north to Mineola and Mother’s house, weary and somewhat worn from our day’s adventures.
Monday, May 16
This was a “taking care of business” day for us. While I made a run to the veterinarian’s office for dog food for Spike and then to Sulphur Springs to get some PVC pipe to use as conduit to run utilities between the new storage shed and Big V, Barbara did the weekly mowing, paid bills, and did the laundry.
When I got to the lot, I had just enough time to cut the PVC sections to length and place them before the cement truck arrived to start pouring the slab. Timing really was everything this morning!
Barbara stayed home this evening and kept the home fires burning while I went to Yantis to meet with the youth pastor search committee, and drive to Rockwall for the first in a series of candidate interviews.
Tuesday, May 17
Happy Birthday today to niece Keylin Roberts in Cleburne, Texas!!!
We got a call from Cousin Bruce this morning letting us know that he and Sandra would be coming to Tyler to visit Mother sometime around noon. So, we got ready to go and headed over to the hospital to see Mother as much as we could this morning.
The nurses said that they had taken a urinary culture this morning and that it would take at least 48 hours before they had a reading on it and would then decide what course of action they would take. Meanwhile, they would continue with the IV antibiotics and other medications, some of which were making Mother pretty goofy.
Bruce and Sandra arrived around 1:00, and we had a wonderful visit with them. Mother hadn’t seen them in almost as many years as it had been since I last saw Bruce, so there was a lot of catching up to do. It was fun to watch Mother and Bruce as they told stories from long ago. We alternately laughed and cried through the time as we relived times both good and bad. I think the visit was very good medicine for Mother, because her face started to light up and she gave a few of her famous belly laughs.
About three o’clock we finally called it quits and all headed our separate ways, Barbara and I returned to Mineola where I got cleaned up and went back to Yantis to meet with the youth pastor search committee and then drive east to Longview to interview another candidate.
It was well after 10:00 when I returned home, completely worn out from three days of continuous activity and late nights, and ready to fall into the bed.
Wednesday, May 18
We got up this morning with a single item agenda – go to the hair salon and get haircuts before we have to go to city hall and register for dog tags!
When we were finished with our haircuts, we got a call from Michelle Young in Kansas, asking if we would check their post office box in Quitman to see if their medications had been mailed there by mistake instead of being sent to Inman.
Since we’ve been taking care of the Young’s mail for them, we agreed and drove on to Quitman to see what we could see. Unfortunately, I had failed to bring the PO box key with me and when I asked for assistance at the counter, I was told that they couldn’t give me the mail without written authorization from Gene or Michelle. They did, however, agree to check the box and see if there was a package in it. When the lady said there was no package there and no record of one coming in, we drove out to Holiday Village to see if by any chance Fed-Ex or UPS had delivered out there.
There wasn’t a package at the ranger station, so we drove to the Young’s lot and, sure enough, a large package, wrapped in cellophane, was tied onto their fence. We don’t have any idea how long it had been hanging there, but we called Michelle, told her the lost was found and that we’d return to Quitman and mail it to them.
Along the way, we got a phone call that Barbara’s new glasses had arrived at Walmart, so we went there after we left the Quitman post office and she got the new frames and lenses fitted.
By the time we’d done all that, we were weary with well-doing and decided to go to the house, have a light lunch, and take a nap.
After our naps, we drove back to Tyler to check on Mother and try to see Dr. Plotkin, Mother’s neurologist, to see if and when he would be treating her Parkinsonism again. Everything that had been planned to date had been put on hold until the infection was completely knocked out so Dr, Plotkin could draw reasonable conclusions about which behaviors were related to Parkinsonism.
On the way back to Mineola, we got the call that my new glasses had arrived at the shop where I had been fitted, so we drove almost all the way back to Holiday Villages so I could get the new lenses and frames adjusted and fitted.
At the end of the day, we couldn’t tell you all the places we had been and things we had done, but at least we could both see clearly where we were headed (kind of).
Thursday, May 19
We made arrangements with TJ and Glennis to come over to the house around 4:00 this afternoon for a visit.
Since we would have guests this afternoon, we went over to Tyler to see Mother this morning and talk to whatever nurses and doctors we could find to see how things were going. The first nurse we talked to confirmed that Mother appeared to be getting better and that they would be reading the culture and then determining where to go from there, but they agreed that Mother would not be released before the weekend because there was no way the infection was completely knocked out.
We spent a couple of hours visiting with Mother and telling her about our busy week and our plans to go to Liberal on Monday to get the rest of our things out of the house there, since Leah and Ryan were moving to Pampa and we wouldn’t have free storage anymore.
Around 1:00, the attending doctor came in, did whatever doctors do (he never did say much) and left. The doctor came back in about twenty minutes later, as we were getting ready to leave for the day, and announced that they were sending Mother back to Wood Memorial…today. We reminded him that the admitting doctor had told us that there was no way she was going to authorize a release until the infection was completely cleared, and Dr. Brown just said that the other doctor had spoken out of turn and he was going to sign the release. Mother would be sent back to Wood Memorial Nursing Home this afternoon with a new prescription for oral antibiotics, because he was taking her off the IV.
With all that being said and done, we grabbed what few of Mother’s things we could, asked the nurses to call us as soon as they got ready to transport Mother, and returned to the house in Mineola to await the phone call so we could be waiting at the nursing home when she arrived.
When the phone call finally came, we rushed over to the nursing home, arriving just behind the ambulance, and watched as they returned Mother to her room. She was worn out and frail from her hospital experience and we could only hope that the continued oral antibiotics and the watchful eyes of the nursing home would keep the problem from escalating again.
Obviously, the get-together with Travis and Glennis didn’t happen as planned, but we did arrange to meet under less stressful circumstances at a later time.
Friday, May 20
Today was just a day of get Mother resettled into her routine at Wood Memorial Nursing Home and making final arrangements for our upcoming trip to Liberal. It will be a “quick and dirty” trip, but it still takes lots of planning.
We made arrangements with Pastor Bagwell to use his pickup for the trip. I had considered using the new car since it has a trailer hitch, but the trailer we are going to borrow from Bob and Mary Royar at Holiday Villages is too large for the Dodge, especially with the anticipated load.
Saturday, May 21
There were lots of odds and ends to take care of today. First, I had to find the correct trailer hitch for the Dodge. Not having had a lot of experience with setting up tow vehicles, I had inadvertently picked out the correct size, but wrong style bar for the car. But, a quick trip to the local Tractor Supply Store corrected the problem.
While Barbara paid bills, packed, and did some general cleaning around the house, I got the tow package all put together, drove out to Holiday Villages to get the trailer from Bob, and then took it to the church in Yantis and parked it in the lot so we can hook it up tomorrow after church and be on our way.
When I returned to Mineola, I helped Barbara with the rest of the chores to get ready for the trip. We went to see Mother for a bit…since it was a weekend, there wasn’t much activity around there, but I think she was happy to just sit there and veg without having doctors and nurses coming around to poke and prod.
We had a really neat experience tonight. Our friends Gene and Carolyn Neyer invited us to attend a Quitman Little Theater production of “Come Blow Your Horn.” Now, we have to be honest and say that we went on a lark, not expecting to find much, but wanting to enjoy time with our friends. Boy, were we ever surprised by every aspect of the production! It seems that there is a regular circuit of local community theaters in the area, with most of them sharing their actors, if not their directors. Our eyes are wide open now, and we will be seeking out future productions in Quitman, Mineola, and the surrounding area.
Sunday, May 22
The first few hours of today followed the familiar pattern of getting ready for church, stopping by to see Mother, and then heading out to Yantis for another great sermon from Pastor David Bagwell.
Immediately after church, we hooked Bob’s trailer to David’s pickup, handed the keys to the Dodge to David, and took off for a whirlwind trip to Liberal. We made our first stop at Sonic in Sulphur Springs…obviously couldn’t go to the drive-through, but there was a large parking lot next door that accommodated the truck and trailer quite well while we walked across to order our lunch.
The next stop was at Gainesville for a nap, and then we were rolling across the countryside again through old, familiar towns and cities until we hit US 287 and went through Wichita Falls, eventually getting to Childress, where we checked in at the Super 8 for a night of rest and relaxation before continuing the trip to Liberal. We could conceivably have made it all the way to Liberal tonight, but knew if we did that, we would be completely worthless tomorrow when it came time to load the truck and trailer. Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor!
We had brought some leftovers with us on the trip, so we settled in for an evening of snacking, watching TV, and working at our computers.
Monday, May 23
We got up at 4:00 this morning to begin the Childress to Liberal leg of the journey. After checking out of the motel, we drove up the street to find a place to fuel the truck and grab something to eat. I pulled in to a station/convenience store at the intersection of highways 83 and 287, stopped at the pump, and discovered when I got ready to fuel that I didn’t have my Discover card. Since I had used the card during the checkout, we backtracked to the motel and, sure enough, the card was still on the counter, right where I had set it when I put it down to sign the receipt…not a very auspicious start to the day.
Leaving the motel for the second time, I decided to try a different place for gas, but as I was driving up to the pump, another driver cut me off and pulled in front of me. While I was making a few choice comments, the driver then pulled away quickly, so I pulled up to the pump, only to find that it was out of service. With the trailer attached to the truck, I couldn’t do a U-turn at he pumps as the other driver did, so I decided to pull back onto 287 and go to the first place we had stopped, only to find that traffic was stacking up on both sides of the street and I couldn’t get out of the lot. This day was looking more and more like we should have stayed in bed!
We finally got onto 287, made it to the station we had been to earlier, gassed up, and then headed north on US 83 toward our old stomping grounds of Liberal, Kansas.
After stops for McBreakfast in Shamrock and more gas in Perryton, we finally made it to Ryan and Leah’s house, the one we sold them when we retired and moved away, and, with Ryan’s help, started sorting through all the things we had left there. Ryan's help was especially appreciated because broke away from some of his own packing to assist us. With their upcoming move to Pampa, Ryan and Leah certainly had their hands full.
What we discovered in the first hour or so was that we had left much more than we remembered, much of it which had to be re-boxed in order to withstand the ride to Mineola on the trailer. I had several large boxes of vinyl 33 1/3 records, many of which dated back to my high school days, and there were boxes and boxes of books that we had forgotten about…almost my entire collection of Stephen King and JRR Tolkien books were still stored in the garage.
The most important of the items we needed to get was a secretary that had been in the Little family since 1898 and which is traditionally passed down to the eldest grandson. It had passed to Daddy after the death of his father, and Daddy had painstakingly refinished it, along with several other pieces of furniture from the old homestead. Since there was no room for the piece in the motorhome and we didn't want to store it anywhere, Leah and Ryan held on to it for us until time for them to move and downsize. When we first brought the secretary to Liberal from Mother's house in El Paso, Barbara found a number of family heirlooms and antiques to put in it, giving it an honored place in the house.
Unfortunately, Keith was interviewing a job candidate and the Georges were in class, so I visited with Debbie Gray, my bookkeeper when I was there, left the gifts with her to be handed over as soon as possible, spoke with a couple of other folks, and then went back to the parking lot where I found Barbara talking to Charlene Plett, our good friend and the media specialist for the high school.
After hugs and promises to stay in touch, we pulled away from the school, stopped to top off the pickup’s fuel tank, and headed back south toward Childress.
One reason for stopping in Childress tonight was to have a chance to visit with one of the cousins, Rob Sandley, who is the chaplain for the prison unit that is located just outside of the town. Luckily, Rob was done with work for the day and was able to come to the motel to see us.
After a few minutes of getting caught up with each other, we began to think about food and where to get some. We tossed around several ideas and then Barbara said she just wanted to stay in the room and veg out, so she decided to order pizza for herself while Rob and I voted that we’d go out somewhere. Rob said that, believe it or not, there was a great Thai restaurant in Childress, so we went there to give it a try (and it was great…go figure…not a decent Mexican food place in town, but great Thai).
While Rob and I were chowing down on good food and having a fun time solving all the problems of the world, I got a call from Cousin Danny in Tallahassee, Florida, so for a few minutes we had a three-way cousin’s reunion via cell phone…gotta love this technology.
When Rob and I finished our meal, he drove me out to the prison unit to see where he worked, and drove us to downtown Childress, where only the locals are likely to go, since travelers generally remain on one or both of the two main highways, 287 going east and west, and 83 going north and south.
After the tour, we went back to the motel where we said out goodbyes for the evening and Barbara and I settled in to check email and Facebook entries, send a couple of updates, and then get some sleep to prepare for a l-o-n-g ride tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 24
We managed to sleep in late (for us), but were on the road again by 7:00, making our way back across north Texas.
The trip was rather uneventful, and we arrived in Mineola around 1:00, just in time to check in with Mother at Wood Memorial to let her know we were back safely. Then, it was on to the house to begin unloading the truck and trailer.
Fortunately, Cousin Ladd was available and willing to come help, and we soon had the vehicle and trailer unloaded and boxes stacked in somewhat of an order in the garage.
After putting away our travel things and getting a load of laundry going, we took a short nap before I got cleaned up and dressed to go out to Yantis to meet with the search committee and drive to Dallas for yet another interview.
As we were leaving Dallas after the interview, a huge storm broke overhead and we traveled back to Yantis in driving rain, deafening thunder, and blinding lightning. As we were driving along and I was texting Barbara about where we were, we decided that if the storm didn’t stop before we got back, I would spend the night in either Yantis or at Big V.
Luckily, we ran out of the storm around Emory, had clear sailing to Yantis, and I was able to return home around 11:00 or so, just minutes before the second wave of the storm broke over Wood County.
I found when I got home that Barbara had used her time to call Keith, the physical therapist from At-Home Healthcare to try to get some ideas about what we should be doing with Mother to improve her attitude and her motor skills. She had also called Chris about the new shed and cover at Our Little Lot, but didn’t catch him and he didn’t return the calls.
We listened to the weather news to track the storm, but decided it was moving away from us, so we gave it up for a lost cause and went to bed and crashed for the night.
Wednesday, May 25
I got up early this morning to drive back to Yantis to unhook the trailer from David’s pickup, hook it to the back of the Caliber, and return it to Bob at Holiday Villages. Note that I said that that’s what I went there to do. As with many of my plans, there was a major flaw…the handle on the jack stand was frozen and wouldn’t move either up or down. After determining that making the transfer was not going to happen, I borrowed David’s keys again and used the pickup to take the trailer back to Bob’s lot, where I used one of Bob’s jacks to lift the trailer off the hitch and then rigged some blocks for a temporary stand until the trailer could be moved to it’s regular space (Bob and Mary were gone at the time, but I left them a note telling what had happened).
With the trailer unhitched and in place on Bob’s driveway, I drove the pickup back to the church, returned David’s keys, and then hopped in the car for the return trip to Mother’s house.
When I got back to the house, I found that Barbara had had visitors during the morning. Our good friend Heidi was in town with her mother and her oldest daughter, Hannah. While they visited, Barbara decided that we needed a three-generation picture of the ladies, and the accompanying photo is the result…three really beautiful women, inside and outwardly.
Once we got the meal cooking and or baking, we took care of some minor household chores to make the place presentable for company. We also called At-Home Healthcare for some additional advice and I decided it was time to check on the possibility and ramifications of bringing in hospice to help with Mother’s care.
Keith, the physical therapist, and told us to check out Heart-to-Heart Hospice in Tyler. His family had utilized their services and he was totally sold on them. I got their number and made the first call, not knowing even what I was asking for, other than that we needed information.
The receptionist was very kind and, after hearing what we were asking, transferred me to one of the nurses who, it turned out, had been one of the nurses who had worked with Mother at Dr. Bankhead’s office here in Mineola. Melanie listened to me stammer and blunder around and then proceeded to answer each of our questions with a compassion and professionalism that one rarely finds these days. There were no decisions to be made today - maybe not even in the near future, but there is no question in our minds as to whom we will turn if and when the time for such services comes.
Ladd, Angela, TJ, and Glennis arrived around 4:00 and we had a delightful time getting caught up on what was going on in each other’s lives (as well as enjoying another of Barbara’s delicious meals).
Thursday, May 26
I went to the dermatologist in Quitman this morning for a checkup…had a couple of places on my arms frozen and was told to come back in November…good news on that count.
When I returned to the house, Barbara and I tackled the garage once again, unpacking what boxes we could from the Liberal house and sorting and restacking the others so we could at least get the car moved inside. It had been our hope that the new storage shed would be built by now so we could move all these things out there and not clutter up Mother’s place, but that evidently isn’t going to happen for a while.
We did make one trip to Wood Memorial today to see Mother. She isn’t happy with being there, but we keep stressing that she can’t come back to the house until she regains her mobility, and that won’t happen until she completes the physical therapy regimen they have planned for her. Also, it will be necessary for us to have time to line up enough competent assistance to meet her physical needs when she can return to the house…so many things that have to happen in the right sequence before we can move forward!
Lately, we have been going through old family photographs (and there are a bunch) and I’ve been scanning them into the computer so we can have multiple records to share with all the kids and grandkids.
This afternoon, I gave the scans to Barbara and she spent the evening organizing them and posting a number of Jimmy Clint’s old youth athletic team photos on his memorial Facebook page, a very bittersweet experience, but a way to bring some form of closure to the past and move ahead into the future.
Friday, May 27
Barbara and I went our separate ways today. I met a group of Patriot Guard Riders at the local McDonalds and we rode to Trenton to join up with a large contingent of East Texas PGR members to await the arrival of North Texas PGR cyclists who were escorting the remains of a U.S. Army soldier who had been taken as a POW in Korea 60 years ago and then subsequently killed by North Korean soldiers. The remains were recently discovered and identified through DNA and were returned to the United States. PFC Floyd T. Coker was flown back to the States to be repatriated at DFW, and was brought home to Paris, Texas, today for interment there. The turnout of citizens as we passed through the various communities and the extent of the honors they accorded Private Coker, his family, and the escorts, was deeply moving. I felt that if there is one place in the country that can be held up as textbook case of compassion, caring, and patriotism, it is East Texas. When I returned to the house, I couldn’t tell Barbara about the experience without tears welling up in my eyes and my voice choking.
This afternoon and evening brought more work in the garage as we sorted and resorted the things we had brought from Liberal and found places for some of them (my records, especially) in the house, and for others in the garage cabinets. This is quickly becoming an unending activity!
We visited Mother late this afternoon and then returned to rest and relax for the evening, knowing that tomorrow was going to be another busy day.
Saturday, May 28
TJ and Glennis left town this morning to get Glennis to the Tyler airport in time for her 11:00 a.m. flight back to Tallahassee.
Barbara and I spent the day working around the house and yard, trying to get the place whipped back into shape after all our various activities of the past two weeks.
Since it was a weekend and Mother didn’t have her regular routine of rehab activities at Wood Memorial, it was kind of difficult to tell how she is doing. Weekends seem to be down times for her, but there just isn’t much that can be done about that, as the staff always works shorthanded those two days.
Sunday, May 29
Barbara was worn out and feeling puny today, so she didn’t go to Sunday school and church. I made a quick trip to see Mother, and then headed out to Yantis for the morning services.
Since it was a holiday weekend and no evening services were scheduled, I returned to the house at noon and we spent the rest of the day resting and relaxing. It had been a hard week, and we were ready for our own down time.
Monday, May 30
It’s Memorial Day in the United States of America. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated among black and Northern white communities after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. In the Twentieth Century, it became a national holiday to honor all men and women of the US Armed Forces who gave their lives in defense of our country and its ideals.
The original agenda for today called for me to take Spike to the vet and hand over a large box of newspapers that we had been saving, but since it was a holiday, the agenda fell apart. Instead, we spent the day doing things we wanted to do around the house. I washed the car and motorcycle, while Barbara did the laundry and baked brownies.
There was no need for trips to the post office or Mother’s mailbox, but we did drive over to Wood Memorial a couple of times to visit with Mother and, on the second trip, to share some of the brownies with her, a gesture that Mother greatly appreciated.
Tuesday, May 31
I got up early this morning to go to the weekly prayer meeting at Yantis FBC and then rode the cycle back to Holiday Villages to do some work around Our Little Lot, hoping against hope that maybe the work crew would show up with the steel to start construction on the shed and cover (they didn’t). However the new concrete slab was curing nicely, giving us hopes that soon the rest of the project would be underway.
We met back at the house at noon and then made a run to Wood Memorial to see how Mother was doing. It was a beautiful day, and as we drove into the parking lot, we saw that Mother and her physical therapist, Lee, were sitting out on the front porch enjoying the warm sunshine and a few minutes of conversation before heading back to the PT room.
Another bit of business today was to call Heart-to-Heart Hospice in Tyler to get more information about hospice services and how to access them. After talking with the physical therapists at Wood Memorial, it is quickly becoming apparent that our dream of Mother being able to walk again, even with assistance, is fading. The Parkinsonism has taken over to the point that her legs are useless, and her incontinence issues are going from bad to worse. The major questions now center on how much assistance we can get from hospice and whether it will even be possible to serve Mother at home anywhere nearly as well as the staff at Wood Memorial Nursing Home is doing. So many questions and so few answers…we never dreamed it would come to this.
Our inquiries about hospice and the possibility that Mother might not be able to return home were met with varying opinions from family members. Thoughts on the matter ranged from outright criticism to abject apathy. It was fast becoming obvious to us that no matter what we did, someone would not agree or even care, let alone be particularly supportive, so we decided that since the matter was fully in our hands and I was legally responsible, we would do what we thought was best for Mother’s comfort and care. That didn’t mean it was something we wanted to do, and we aren’t making decisions lightly, but I am also charged morally and ethically to consider all aspects of the situation and do what I think is best for Mother, and that is what I intend to do as we continue this journey.
This evening we made deliveries of brownies to our neighbors, John and Wanda across the street, and Addie next door…also another few to Mother, who dearly loves them.
“Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in your life you will have been all of these.” – Dr. Robert H. Goddard, American rocket engineer (1882 – 1945)
From Mineola and Mother’s house,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams
