Photos 6, page 13
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Massachusetts
| November 2-10, 2009 |
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| I went to Massachusetts to visit for a week. Just for the fun of it, I used my GPS. It seemed to work OK except that it lost the satellites about halfway across... Flying doesn't bother me but claustrophobia does... |
| My Dad & I went up to the cabin he'd built in Whitingham, VT some My Dad & I went up to the cabin he'd built in Whitingham, Vermont some built in Whitingham, Vermont some years ago. I helped split up some years ago. I helped split up some firewood - he's getting a little creaky and has a little trouble doing it these days. He built the cabin himself: cutting down the trees, dragging them to the site, them into place. He also built the fireplace and chimney... I'm very impressed! |
| On another day, we went up to Henniker, NH where the family burial plots are located, going back several generations. Henniker is where my grandfather grew up on the family farm |
| That's my Dad in front and his younger brother, Theodore, Ted, who we've always called "Uncle T". |
| This is where I was relative to Boston and New York City. As you can see, I was in three states during my visit. For reference, the distance from Bradley Airport to Greenfield (cyan line) is about 60 miles, all interstate; Greenfield to Henniker, NH (red line) is roughly 80 miles on good secondary roads; Greenfield to Whitingham, VT is a little over 20 miles on back roads. |
| Dad & Mom live conveniently right off the Greenfield exit from Interstate 91. Even more conveniently, the "extended care facility" (not nursing home!), Charlene Manor, is right outside the back door of the condo that Dad is living in. He's able to just walk over every day to visit Mom. They're both 89. Dad can still get around pretty good but Mom had a stroke some years ago and has difficulty getting messages from her brain to her muscles. She has difficulty standing or walking or speaking, but still seems to be in there. Sometimes she's alert and engaged and sometimes she's spaced out. She almost always seems to be in good humor. I like her. She's like a little pixie! Everybody at the care facility likes her too. |
| Mom |
| The weather was really nice while I was there so we spent a lot of time wheeling Mom around outside. That's my brother, Marc, in the white shirt, brother Larry in the dark green shirt. |
| Mom and Marc. The poster in the background that I gave here years ago says, "Just when I knew all of life's answers, they changed all the questions." |
| the three brothers, Me (61) on the left, Mom (89), Marc (55), and Larry (59) on the right. Oldest sister Leane (62) had just returned to her home in Montpelier, Vermont. She has recently retired spends a lot of time visiting and making sure Mom and Dad are getting what they need and handling all the paperwork involved in aging - Medicare, care meetings at the facility, retirement funds and all that junk! |
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