2020 Life Logs, Day 110: Keep on Movin’
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy; High 50 degrees, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

We’re still at it. Jed and I moved some of the last things from Vidal to Grasmere today. Unfortunately, we are still not finished. Heather stayed home and started putting things away, but as anyone who has every moved knows, that is a very sl-o-o-o-o-w process. I spent some of my time transplanting things from one place to another. I dug up and transplanted the last of the rhubarb plants and Heather’s favorite hyacinths. The boys also want to transplant a few tulips, so we will do that tomorrow. We have no idea how the hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips they will react to being transplanted during their spring cycle. I guess we’ll find out next spring.

That was about it for today. Tomorrow morning I pick up the Goldpebbles at 10 am for our first day of spring vacation activities. I have asked them to give me a tour of the wetlands area behind their new house and then we will head to the old house to dig up raspberries and attempt to transplant them here at The Cottage. We’ll spend some time brainstorming ideas for the rest of the week. We’ll all have dinner here tomorrow evening and formalize a ‘spring vacation from virtual school’ plan.

2020 Life Logs, Day 109: Proud to Be a Global Citizen
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2020
Weather: Cold and Rainy; High 42 degrees, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

These are challenging times for all of us, but I find myself constantly thinking about those that are impacted more than others. Tonight, I tuned into a two-hour special hosted by late night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon. Global Citizen, in partnership with the World Health Organization, sponsored this event called One World: Together At Home. It was organized by Lady Gaga and watching it made me feel really good about being a citizen of this world, imperfect as it may be. This special was not a fund raiser. Its purpose was to celebrate health workers, and all workers who are making our lives at home in these days of Covid-19 possible, and to support the World Health Organization in their global fight to rid the world of COVID-19. It made me proud to watch this and to know that even though the leader of our country does not support the World Health Organization, there are those out there who do.

The artists performed from home and there were three songs that really hit home with me. One was Barbara Streisand’s PEOPLE performed tonight by Jennifer Lopez. “People, people who need people.” We surely all need each other right now. John Lennon’s STAND BY ME was sung by Johnnie Legend and Sam Smith. The second verse of that song seems so very poignant at this time. “If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall; and the mountains should crumble to the sea. I won’t cry, I won’t cry. No, I won’t shed a tear just as long you stand, stand by me.” This drives home the importance of family and friends who have your back and, hopefully, you are there for them.

Then there was the all time favorite, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD. It was sung by a couple who I didn’t recognize, nor did I catch their names, but Louis Armstrong would have been proud. What an uplifting song. “I see skies of blue, and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, dark scared night. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” Even during these bleak times, to know that there are artists like all of the musicians who participated and people of means like Melinda and Bill Gates out there doing their best to support those who put their lives on the line each day for the rest of us, makes it a wonderful world.
The finale was LET THIS BE OUR PRAYER performed by Johnnie Legend, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, and Andrea Bocelli, accompanied by Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Spectacular performance. And the final thought was this African proverb, “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” It reminded me that each of us needs to reflect on what we are doing to prepare for tomorrow.

Now back to life at hand. Today was a particularly miserable weather day here on the Cape. Cold and rainy. But Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and I worked to get the final bits and pieces moved out of 60 Vidal. The basement is not quite complete, but the rest of the house is finally empty. The couple buying it are very lucky that Heather and Jed were able to get the entire inside of the house painted in February. The house looks great. Heather and Jed are certainly leaving a home that has been much improved over the years. Now we need to turn our attention to the new home, but first we have to get the basement and sheds emptied ay 60 Vidal. I’m hoping that maybe Heather can stay at the new home and start putting things away while the rest of us finish up the move. We spent all of last week moving and then she and Jed both had to work full time at home during the week. So neither of them has had anytime to start putting things away in the new house. The boys have spring break this coming week. No school. So I am thinking of kidnapping them in the hopes that Heather and Jed will have some time to get their new home in order. I’ll let you know how the kidnapping plan works out.

2020 Life Logs, Day 108: Congratulations to Dr. Joshua Lee Martin
Date: Friday, April 17, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Chilly; High 45 degrees, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

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I received a text this morning announcing that my great nephew, Josh, was defending his thesis today and later in the day I received a text announcing that the defense was successful. Congratulations to Dr, Joshua Lee Martin. Josh is a writer, specifically a writer of poetry. I don’t get the chance to see him often as he lives in Georgia. But he was here in June to attend a writer’s workshop on Martha’s Vineyard. I got a few photos of him with Heather and Jed and boys. To celebrate his success today, I wrote a poem for him. Well, a poem of sorts. I don’t think I’ve ever written a poem in my life, but I share my attempts here to show how very proud of him, the grandson of my brother, the son of my nephew Tommy. Here’s my tribute.

He was once a little boy;
Bright-eyed and curious about the world.
He loved to read about history.
But did any of us ever think he would become a poet?
His Great Grandfather Martin had no formal schooling.
His Great Grandmother Martin finished eighth grade before getting married.
She had little education, but she was a storyteller supreme.
Maybe that is where some of the little boy’s poetic talent originated?
His Grandpa Dickel was no poet, but he did have a way with words!
As does his father.
His Grandma Conda smothered him with unconditional love that words can’t express.
He lost his biological mother in a tragic accident when he was just five.
His father struggled to live on with two little boys.
Grandma and Grandpa Martin came to live with them;
A grandfather who offered love,
A grandmother whose love was so deep, so true, so strong,
That it carried all of them through.
The little boy continued to be a quiet child, those eyes always penetrating and questioning.
Then a second mother came into his life, pouring love into the void left after his mother’s death.
With the love and support of a father and a second mother,
That little boy became a man.
He became a man that expresses his soul through the words he writes.
Today that man became Dr. Joshua Lee Martin;
A man of letters;
A man who will move his generation forward with his words.
I am so proud of that little boy, now that man with a PhD.
And I know my brother, his Grandfather Dickel, is smiling down from the heavens above.
His Grandmother Conda was the core that held their family together.
She loved that little boy so much.
I know, too, that she is looking down and bursting with enough pride to make the heavens explode.
Congratulations, to mom and dad, Marilou and Tommy;
Congratulations to Dr. Joshua Lee Martin.
Carry on, my man . . .

2020 Life Logs, Day 107: Getting Your G-BOMBS
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 47 degrees, Low 32 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

I am always focused on trying to eat the healthiest foods that I can. But the coronavirus threat has made this even more important. What are the foods that best support your immune system? Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD, has a fun acronym to help you remember the healthiest foods that contain the nutrients needed to help your body fight off any illness. The acronym is G-BOMBS.

G = Greens
B = Beans
O = Onions
M = Mushrooms
B = Berries
S = Seeds

I eat a huge amount of greens, especially kale. Creasy greens are my favorite, but I they grow wild further south, not here on Cape Cod. Pinto beans are my favorite, but you can’t eat them every day. So, I include garbanzo beans or black lentils in my lunchtime salad. I eat onions with everything, raw and cooked, and try hard to incorporate mushrooms in something I eat every day. My favorite way to have mushrooms is to slice and sauté them in soy sauce. I then put them in the fridge and add them cold to salads. Berries have always been a favorite and I love the fact that organic blackberries are available in the stores here these days. That was not always the case. They are expensive so I limit myself to six organic blackberries a day. And seeds. I put pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, ground flax seeds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, and chia seeds in my daily morning smoothie. So, I am trying to get my daily G-BOMBS. Hope all of you are getting your share of these healthy foods.

2020 Life Logs, Day 106: Ollie and Hayes
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 49 degrees, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

If my parents were still alive, they would be celebrating their 96th wedding anniversary today. So, I decided to spend part of my day writing about them. I share that story below. In addition, I spent a couple of hours continuing the packing up of 60 Vidal and prepared for my Memoir Writing class tomorrow. That was it for my day. Now here’s my tribute to my parents.

96th Wedding Anniversary Tribute to Ollie and Hayes

If my parents were still alive, they would have celebrated their 96th wedding anniversary today. I am the youngest of their seven children. The first two children died, one at birth and one at age 3 of whooping cough, but five of us survived. By the time I came along, one sister was already married and the others were teenagers. Only two of us are still living and I have it as one of ‘missions’ in life to share some of the family stories with the younger generations—grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren of Ollie and Hayes. So, on this, their anniversary day, I share a little background information and the story of their meeting and wedding day. It is a story of country people from southern West Virginia in the early part of the 20th century. What I cherish about recounting these family stories is that they tell the story of the building of this country, one family at a time. Each family has its own unique story and I want to do my part to pass the stories of my family on to the younger generations.

On Tuesday, April 15, 1924, Ollie Lillian Biggs married Hayes Winfred Martin in Laurel Branch, West Virginia. There was never a town named Laurel Branch. It was just an area with a few farms. Today locals in the little town of Paint Bank, Virginia, only six miles to the east of Laurel Branch, can’t tell you where it is. But the home Hayes grew up in, where Ollie and Hayes were married, is still there in the curve of Monroe County Road 17 where Potts Creek makes a gentle turn from running west to the south.

In 1924, my grandfather owned the land on both sides of Potts Creek. Fred Martin’s home and farm were on one side of the road. His sawmill on the other. My grandmother died in 1910 of what was called consumption at that time, tuberculosis now. Hayes was not quite seven years old when his mother died. He once told me that he dropped out of school to take care of his mother and his little brother. And as far as I know, he never had any further formal education. His father remarried and he viewed his stepmother as a wicked witch. Her name was Willie and from my dad’s point of view, she used her two stepsons as servants. My dad never, ever talked about his past, but according to information I gleaned from my mother, my dad left home when he was 13 and went to work in the mines. I always assumed she meant in the coal mines, but the closest coal mine would have been at least 75 miles away. I learned in recent years that there were iron ore mines in Paint Bank, only six miles from home, so it is more likely that as a very young teenager, this is where he fled. Again, according to my mother, he was injured in a mining incident when he was 19 and moved back home to Laurel Branch in the summer of 1923. That is when they met.

Laurel Branch is in Monroe County which occupies the southeast corner West Virginia. Along the southern border of Monroe County is Peters Mountain. It is the dividing line between West Virginia and Virginia, and it looms over most of Monroe County. Laurel Branch is on the Virginia side of the Peters Mountain in an area that was maintained by the new state of West Virginia when it separated from Virginia in 1863. The nearest little town to Laurel Branch is Paint Bank, Virginia which is six miles to the east. The area once known as Laurel Branch and a narrow strip of land going about six miles further south to Waitville, is all there is of Monroe County on the south side of Peters Mountain. My mother’s family was from the larger land area of Monroe County to the north of Peters Mountain. She was the only girl in a family of the six children that survived infancy. Her father made a living by hauling things, mainly timber, with his horses. As a family, they moved to where her father could find work. In the summer of 1923, the family was living in Laurel Branch, West Virginia, where Ollie’s father was hauling timber to my grandfather’s sawmill. One summer day, my mother and her girlfriend, Nellie Lane, went to the store at Fred Martin’s place. Fred was my grandfather. As I stated earlier, Hayes was home due to a work injury. He was stirring apple butter in a shed next to the house when Ollie and Nellie walked by. Hayes tried to get them to help him stir, but they were in a hurry to get to the store to see their boyfriends. Ollie’s boyfriend was Tom Martin who helped run the store and Nellie was interested in his older brother Junior. Hayes got someone to stir for him and followed the girls around the house to the store. That night they all went to silent movie that was shown in my grandfather’s barn. By the way, that barn is still standing. In later years, my mom said, “During the movie, Hayes got up on a bale of hay and kept teasing us.” He asked to walk Ollie home, but her brothers said no. But by the next April, they were married.

The next part of the story is almost unbelievable, but my mother told a convincing story. First of all, the wedding was to be a double ceremony. Barely 16-year-old Ollie Lillian Biggs was to marry 20-year-old Hayes Winfred Martin at the same that Ollie’s brother Lee Poindexter Biggs was to marry Hayes’ first cousin, Gladys Porterfield. My father at age 20 was the oldest of the four. The night before the wedding, my mother and my Aunt Gladys decided they should cut their long hair. They used a bowl which they put on their heads while the other did the cutting. In their minds, the result was a stylish and very popular 1920’s bob. But the next day when Hayes and Lee saw their wives-to-be, they almost called off the wedding. It did go ahead, but when it came time for my father to say, “I do”, he stubbornly just stood there staring at my mother’s hair. My Uncle Lee said “I do” for him and my mother was never sure if she legally married my father or her brother! Then comes the really unbelievable part. As Ollie told the story, “The boys (Hayes and Lee) only had enough money to get one tick (mattress cover) stuffed with hay, so we planned to share one bed with the four of us in an empty house known to be haunted.” Why not? After all, it was free. As a joke, the man who stuffed the tick overstuffed it, so when they all four tried to get in bed, they kept rolling off. According to my mother, they simply giggled that first night away until my father swore he saw a headless horseman riding around the house. Thinking it was a ghost, they all ran home as fast as they could. No one had ever talked to Ollie about the facts of life and she swore until the day she died that on that wedding day, she had no idea where babies came from. Regardless, nine months later, she had the first of her seven children. I guess she quickly figured that one out.

2020 Life Logs, Day 105:  Slowly Getting Back in Gear
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Weather: Sunshine; High 55 degrees, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Throwing my back out and having a scary allergic reaction all in one weekend set me back a few steps.  But today I felt like I was ready to get back into gear . . . slowly.  The back is doing okay, but I have to be really careful.  This morning I had a Zoom Book Club meeting and then this afternoon I went over to Heather and Jed’s old house and did a little packing of bits and pieces in the kitchen, carefully packed some of their most precious decorative pieces, and dug up a couple of rhubarb plants and some thyme to transplant.  When I sent Heather a text saying that I was headed her way with rhubarb and thyme, she responded, “If only it were time, I could use some of that.”  When I arrived at the new house, Jed was clearing a place in the garage for three palates of wood flooring that are being delivered tomorrow.  I transplanted the rhubarb and was really bummed when I accidentally broke the main stem of one of the plants.  It was not totally broken off, so maybe it will heal.  And if not, hopefully the root will generate a new plant.  I brought the thyme home with me as Heather is hoping to purchase containers for a kitchen herb garden on the deck.  I’ll return it when the planters are in place.  I brought the fragile decorative pieces into the dining room, one at a time, and put those on the shelves.  And then I helped move a few things from the garage to the basement.  I did have on the back support belt that Peter Baranowski loaned me and I iced my back as soon as I got home.  That worked, so I will continue to do a little more each day.

I got my second Misfits organic produce order today.  You never what is coming, so each delivery is a surprise.  Today, delivered to my doorstep in all recyclable or compostable materials (no plastic) were:

2 golden beets
1 celeriac root
3 jalapeno peppers
1 huge and 2 small sweet potatoes
1 bunch of kale
2 zucchinis
1 European cucumber
1 bag of broccoli (in a compostable bag)
3 yellow onions
3 limes
1 mango
3 oranges
Plus extras I ordered:
1 bar of Taza dark chocolate
3 kinds of mushrooms–white, oyster, and shitake

I’m loving getting my weekly fruits and veggies this way.  This week’s challenge will be learning how to use the celeriac root.  I’ve never cooked with it before, so I’ll let you know how that turns out.

2020 Life Logs, Day 104: Recovery Day
Date: Monday, April 13, 2020
Weather: Rainy and WINDY; High 56 degrees, Low 51 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

In yesterday’s log, I reported that I had talked to my friend Lynne Kirwin in New Zealand last night. This morning I got this image from her via email.

Just had to share that with you.

I continued to busy myself today with food preparation. I made my favorite Greek chicken thighs with artichoke hearts (minus the kalamata olives as I don’t have any) and I tried a new banana bread recipe. I don’t often eat baked goods these days, but I had three bananas that were begging to be used. I found a recipe with no sugar that uses almond flour instead of wheat flour and chopped dates instead of sugar. I am happy to report that it is delicious. But other than a little cooking, I did absolutely nothing today. But I am also happy to report that if I had a head cold, it magically went away. This leads me to believe that I did really have an allergic reaction and those daffodils that were sitting by my computer. Just in case, no more indoor flowers for me. And the last happy report is that my back gets just a little better each day. I’m not going to be hauling a lot of heavy boxes in the near future, but I think I can ‘gently’ get back to normal activities. This evening Peter Baranowski dropped by to bring me one of his spare back support belts that I can wear when lifting things. I put it on and it felt great, so I won’t hesitate to use it. Thank you, Peter.

The weather was the big story of the day. I took my long walk with Shadow at 7:30 am thinking I would avoid the rain that was forecast to arrive around 8 am. It came early and we got soaked, but we enjoyed the walk. We ate breakfast and then we both went back to bed and slept most of the morning away. I would normally think this was being lazy, but with both the mending back and the ‘instant’ allergic reaction, I figured they were telling me I need rest. For once, I listened. We got up just before 11 am and found that the wind and rain had increased. I then checked my Voice Mail and found I had a message from my electric provider telling me that an extended power outage was a possibility because of the high winds. I’ve never gotten a warning like that before, so I took it seriously and got the battery-operated lights ready, just in case.

Mid-afternoon, Midge Frieswyk dropped a little bag of goodies inside my storm door. She was delivering muffins to all in our dining-in group just to brighten our day. We had pre-arranged that she would put the muffins inside the storm door and then knock to announce their arrival. Thank you, Midge. As she walked back to her car, I opened the door to get the muffins and wave to her and saw that her husband Bill was in the car. I haven’t seen him since November when a fall landed him in rehabilitation facility. And there he fell and broke his hip and didn’t get released until Thursday, March 12, just when the coronavirus shutdown was happening. We were all so glad he could come home and I was delighted to get the chance to wave to him this afternoon. But I almost lost my glass storm door in the process. When I tried to close the storm door, the wind caught it and took me with it. I battled with the wind and had to pull really hard to get the door shut, but in the end I won. I think that was at least a 30 mph gust. Right now it is still windy out, but I think it is settling down. When I heard about all of the destruction in the southern states today from tornadoes and high wind, our windy day seems like nothing.

2020 Life Logs, Day 102:  Moving Day 2
Date:  Saturday, April 11, 2020
Weather:  Mostly Sunny; High 54 degrees, Low 48 degrees F
Location:  At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

The U-Haul truck didn’t get returned at 10 am this morning.  Heather and Jed decided to keep it for one more day to move more of the ‘big stuff’.  Heather returned it at 6 pm this evening and I know she and Jed are totally exhausted.  They have worked so hard for two full days with not a minute of down time.  They will take a break from moving things tomorrow to celebrate Easter and get the things they have moved to the new house organized. Then Monday it is back to work and school at home for the week.  Lots of progress is being made, but the move is not done yet.  Maybe by the end of next weekend.  My back is tenuous, but it is hanging in there letting me move at the speed of a turtle.  I am still helping out, but everything takes a lot longer with my back issue.  It is killing me that I am watching Heather and Jed work so hard and I can’t be more helpful.

Heather. Jed, and boys will do their annual Easter Egg hunt in the morning in the yard of their new home and then Shadow and I will join them for dinner.  When I left there this evening, Ollie assured me that the Easter Bunny would find them at their new address and then he got that twinkle in his eye and added, “Mommy and Daddy will make sure of that.”  I do believe he was telling me that he knows there really is no Easter Bunny, but he will play along.  The little ones grow up way too fast.

2020 Life Logs, Day 101: Moving into 43 Grasmere
Date: Friday, April 10, 2020
Weather: Mostly Overcast, Mid-Day Hail; High 48 degrees, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

It was a Good Friday in more ways than the traditional. It was a good Friday for the Goldstones. Exhausting, sometimes frustrating, but a good day because they are spending their first night in their new home. The frustration was that there was just no way that Heather, Jed, and boys could get everything loaded into the U-Haul in one day. They got the main furniture moved, but there are lots of bits and pieces still to go. Thankfully, they don’t have to be out of the house they are selling until near the end of the month. But it is exhausting to think that this moving will continue on and on. They will get there; it just seems so hard right now.

I started my day by heading straight to the new house to unload my car that we had packed last night. On the 4th box, I did it. I lifted just the wrong way and out went ye old back. Really bad timing. I can still function, albeit a bit bent over, so there will be no more lifting for me for a while. What a bummer. I can still be helpful with cleaning and organizing, but it does slow things down a little bit to have one less person to carry things. Nevertheless, I continued to unload the car and then headed to what I’ll call the old house. Once there, I found everyone just a bit fragile. It had finally hit all of them that they were leaving the only home they have ever known as a family. The wonderful memories will go with them to the new house, but parting is such sweet sorrow. By day’s end, however, I saw everyone’s spirits lifted. Once the furniture was in the living room and dining room in the new house, the sun started shining and it lit up the whole house. The most striking thing is that you feel like you are in a tree house. There are two sets of double sliders in the living room and another set in the master bedroom, so lots of glass from which to take in the beautiful view. The front of the house looks like many other homes, but the view from the back side of the house looks down on the backyard and the tree tops of 30 acres of conservation land. The sun rises on that side of the house and sets on the front side of the house. The dining room is on the front side, so the early risers will have breakfast watching the sun rise and all will view dinner time sunsets.

Mid-afternoon, Heather and Jed had arranged to have “front porch” photos taken at both houses to support the local Service Center. The Front Steps Project is a national movement. A photographer comes and takes photos of families that are homebound due to coronavirus stay-at-home orders. The families come out on the front steps and the photographer takes the photos from a distance. Families pay a fee for this and the proceeds of the Falmouth project goes to the Service Center. Heather and Jed wanted to support the Service Center and loved the idea of having ‘official’ photos on the actual moving day. It did take time out of the moving day, but it officially documented the move. The photographer that came to the new house asked each of the boys to think of a word that describes their feelings about this coronavirus time. Ollie came up with the first word, dangerous. So true. Then she went on to tell the boys that this is something they will remember throughout their lives. We are living through a time that is unprecedented and she pointed out that moving during this time really is something to remember. It would be so much easier if we could hire help, but that is just not in the picture. So onward we go.