Day 363, Year 10: Proud Grandparents
Date: Thursday, October 8, 2015
Weather: Yet Another Gorgeous Fall Day, Temp in the 60’s F
Location: AstraZeneca Hope Lodge, Jamaica Plan Neighborhood, Boston, MA
I’ll get to the ‘Proud Grandparents’ part of this log after going through a few details from today. First, I want to wish two special women in my life a very happy birthday—my walking partner Jane Woodin and Molly, the little girl that lives next door to Heather and Jed. Molly is like a sister to Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Happy Birthday to Jane and Molly.
I’m back in Boston tonight with Mark. He had his first double whammy today—one general radiation treatment in the abdominal area and one very specific liver treatment. It is the liver radiation that is new and will continue through next week. So far, so good. He is doing fine. And the really good news from today is that a space opened up and Mark will be able to stay here at the Hope Lodge through next week, his last week of treatment. Hurray, hurray! That certainly makes life a lot easier. And the other really good news is that Mark’s sister Mary Ellen and her husband Lee arrive on the Cape tomorrow to spend the long weekend with us. They left Bonita Beach in Florida on October 1st on a road trip that thankfully included a trip to the Cape. We’re looking forward to the weekend.
And now to the proud grandparent part of today. I picked Sam up from school (Jonah was home sick) and he started telling me about a story he had written at school. He was obviously very proud. All the students in his third grade class were asked to write a story about the beach and they were allowed to type the story on a computer instead of writing it by hand. Well, Sam who doesn’t love writing evidently found his medium. He wrote a great story which I have copied below. It is entitled ‘The Reef’ and there is a photo included. I’ve never tried to paste a photo into a log before, so it might not come through. If it doesn’t, just imagine colorful reef fish in very blue water. Then enjoy a little side trip to a beach in Hawaii.
The Reef
by Sam Goldstone
“Come on,” I yelled to my brother as I ran with my flippers and mask to the water. I wondered what was in the water. I jumped into the water of the Pacific Ocean with a big splash.
The sky was a light blue with no clouds at all. I cupped my ear and heard a big wave crash against the sand and wash shells onto the beach. I squinted my eyes and noticed a dolphin with its pod. The beach seemed suny and warm.
I snorkeled out to the end of the jetty. It was high tide at the beach in Hawaii. The sandbar was still nice and shallow. The sand was thin and there were almost no shells in sight! There were a few beyond the sandbar but not many. At that moment I saw a friend. I asked him to snorkel with me to the coral reef. He said, “Yes.” So we snorkeled out to where it was far over our heads and looked down. There we saw colorful fish and huge mounds of colorful coral. When we looked up, there was a huge green sea turtle. It was coming straight at us! We quickly turned and swam for about a minute before it swam away. Then we swam back to our parents to tell them what we had seen.
I won’t forget that day at the beach! I hope we go back to that beach the next time we go to Hawaii. If we go there I will go back to the reef. When I got home I got on the computer and looked up the name of the beach we went to.
