January, 2022

 Jan. 1, 2022. After a lovely Christmas visit, Dan, Elisa and Zoe drove up through the night to home in New Jersey. They like it that way, as the traffic is less hectic, especially around Washington DC. That way 2 passengers at a time can sleep, switching over when  needed. The house was very quiet, but there was plenty to do for the coming semester. 

Jan. 7th. Kate's last school play. Here she is as the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. 



I was busy at the school too, as the Strings teacher and her four children were catching colds from each other (no, not Covid thankfully). The Middle school 5-week strings class was fun to work with, we hope they will want to play in the school orchestra next year.

Jan 15th was a unbelievable day for us all - the sudden death of Maggie's husband, Steven, in the downtown area where they lived not far away. Nothing could be done for him. 



The rest of the month was a blur, just going along the daily workday.  I flew up to Milwaukee on the 27th to be with Maggie and the boys. The next day, Friday for the funeral, Dan arrived at the Milwaukee airport and his Dad, Steve Salemson, picked him up to go to Maggie's where we had lunch. The celebration of Life Service for Steve Miller was at 5pm for visiting at the Funeral Home until the service at 6:30pm.  Steven had worked for 30 years in the medical field as a counselor for mental illness, eating disorders and many other issues. So hard for Maggie and the boys to believe he has gone. 

Most of the Wolfe family came from all over the US. Sadly, two of Maggie's sisters were not able to attend - one  from Hong Kong who was not allowed to fly to the US. The other sister from Arkansas was not well enough to fly or to drive. Families who were able to come, they, with many friends and co-workers filled up the chapel. 

                                            Flowers from Dan and me with South African proteas. 
                                            Our local florist is from Zimbabwe, and she always has wonderful floral                                                    designs.

Saturday, Jan. 28th. Family members who were able to stay, brought delicious food for the brunch. It was in the same cafeteria of a school we used for the Christmas party in 2018 with Betty and lots of family.   
                                                                             Family!


                                            At the brunch Dan gave me a surprised birthday cake together 
                                            with a lovely card made by my granddaughter Zoe.
                                            The cake was larger than that square, I didn't eat the rose,
                                             it was too pretty.  

Sunday, Jan. 30 - Flights to Minneapolis and Raleigh Durham. I was fortunate to be going west to avoid the very bad storms over the East Coast. Great niece Michelle and husband JB were on American, I was on Delta, but happily we met up outside the arrivals and they drove me home. An exhausted and emotional  time, glad to be home. My cats were happy to see me and my neighbor kindly looked after them. 

Sunday, Jan. 31. Thank you everyone for my birthday wishes and cards. Elisa and Dan's lovely roses warmed me and the house. I have to say I had a good nap today! 



                                                                              

Comments

  1. Betsy A. SalemsonJanuary 31, 2022 at 8:56 PM

    It was a bittersweet month. Thank you for sharing all of this.

    ReplyDelete

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