From the Deep Freeze

Brrrrrrrr.....13 degrees here this morning with very heavy cold winds. Bright moonlight shone on my face and woke me at 5 am from the most peaceful wonderful, sleep just before my friends from NPR came on with the news. Yesterday, I probably should have stayed home to rest as I had little or no voice. That made for a stressful day, as so much of my time is spent on the phone. By seven last night, I was ready for bed! It was windy and rainy, the window open a crack and I was sound asleep at 8 pm. MMMMMMMMM, love it. So much better today!
After work, I'll be headed over to casa LM & Ms G. We have some celebrating to do, some chili to make together, and a visit with his sister this weekend.

The celebration I mentioned above is quite a story and has had us both in tears of joy and disbelief this week. LM has a friend, Freddie, whom he has known since 1960. They were both in the Cape Cod TV/electronics business, and met on a bus to a convention in the Catskills Mountains of NY. Through the years, they spent a lot of time together fishing, playing cribbage and helping each other keep their respective businesses running. Ironically, Freddie, now 90, lives here in my town, but I never knew of him until LM and I became a couple. Freddie's personal life was pretty much a mystery to LM, although we knew he had a "girlfriend" of 50 years who lived nearby. Last week the girlfriend, Joan, died alone in her home. Last Sunday, Freddie, brokenhearted, called to tell us, and ask LM to stop by on Monday to play cribbage. Little did we know the dramatic twist which would come from that visit. No sooner had I gotten back to work at lunch on Monday, than LM called me from Freddie's to ask me to use my work computer to help him with a search. He told me that Freddie, now facing his own mortality, and very much grieving the loss of Joan, wanted us to help him find his daughters whom he had not seen for 50+ years!! Evidently, they have been estranged all that time due to Freddie's divorce from their mother. All we had were their names and some other sketchy details. As I was beginning a search, LM was going through some boxes in a back room at Freddie's house. Simultaneously, he found an unopened 10 year old Christmas card from one daughter and I found phone information on-line, and within minutes, LM was talking to one of the daughters who was so emotionally overcome that the rest of the talking had to wait for a bit later. Both daughters have been aching all their lives to have contact with their Dad, and now it was happening. Evidently, they both have spent summers here all their lives but not been able to contact their Dad....various reasons, but it just never worked out. Obviously, they are thrilled, and this opens a huge door for Freddie, virtually alone in the world with Joan's loss, to now be surrounded by both the loving families of his daughters as he finishes out his life. Meanwhile, there were many, many phone calls back and forth with the daughters and LM, trying to facilitate a reunion. Freddie is still very emotional about Joan's loss, and felt it would be too much for him to see his daughters right now, but as I was recovering on Wednesday afternoon, we finally got Freddie to agree to have his daughters visit yesterday afternoon. The reunion did happen and when last LM spoke with Freddie, it was going well. We will know more today and cannot wait to be together with them all. How quickly life can change....it was almost instantaneous. Another nice twist to this story is that Freddie, alone as he has been for a long time, has inherited Joan's cat, and they are now best buddies. Things always come along in life, just when needed!!
Happy weekend everyone and thank you so much for all the well wishes!