2022 Life Logs, Day 226: Sadness Doth Prevail
Date: Sunday, August 14, 2022
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds; High 80, Low 59 degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This has been a tough weekend. My neighbor and my friend Shirley Wiedemann passed away peacefully late this afternoon. Her niece Karen Baranowski and I visited with Shirley on Friday, but late last night she took a turn for the worse. Karen spent the day with her, but she was not aware. Shirley was 97 and her heart and her kidneys were simply giving up. Shirley was the owner of the cottage I live in and the three years I have lived here have been wonderful. I will always be grateful to Shirley for giving me the opportunity to live here for sharing her love of living here on the marshy end of the Eel River. She loved the marsh bird life. I caught a photo of an egret standing on the lower dock this weekend.
I think he was standing watch over Shirley.
On Friday I learned that Tom Walker died. He and his wife Bette Lee became sailing friends as Mark and I started our sailing trek from Panama across the South Pacific. Their boat was a St. Francis catamaran named Quantum Leap, large enough to host a number of people, and host they did. Tom was a friend to all and he will be missed by the members of the Class of 2005. That is the name Tom gave the group of us beginning our journey across the South Pacific beginning that year.
I also learned today that my sister-in-law’s husband, Brad, is in the hospital and has sepsis. He was also recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When my brother died in his early thirties, he left behind his wife Sue and their three young children. Sue remarried and Brad became the father of those children, embracing them as his own. My thoughts are with Sue and Brad tonight, hoping he has the strength to fight this very serious infection.
So where is the good news? The Goldstones returned from Maine this evening and came over for a late dinner. It was so wonderful to see them. I got to hear a little more about the sailboat that I have still not seen. I can’t wait to meet Eider, the current name of the boat. They are thinking of changing the name. At first, they thought the new name would be Messin’ About. But the current favorite is Ardenna, the scientific genus name of the great shearwater bird. Another happy thing from today was seeing a photo of Jo and Coco having a mermaid experience. There is a woman in Rincon offering a merfolk school where you can explore the mermaid tail as a means of getting about the reef and exploring the underwater world.
As Jo said, “Why have two fins when you can be an actual fish?! Exciting!!!”
