I'm Baaaaack!

Aren’t you all just thrilled to be pieces! I for one am truly touched by all of you who continued to read my random thoughts and make comments. Thank you so much for your condolences regarding the death of my uncle....

My 92 year old mother, God bless her, despite being bed-ridden, and suffering from short term memory loss, is wonderfully healthy. There were moments of humorous lucidity, “Can’t you think of something more imaginative besides Grapenuts?” And moments when she was somewhere else, “Where’s my mother?”

She is not difficult to take care of as she is so very uncomplaining. It’s just that she requires 24/7 care. As my sister says, one is always “on.” Hopefully I was able to give Erva a bit of break from the daily routine of feeding, changing and doing laundry.

I spent the majority of my time here, in my seraglio, protected from mosquitoes, the fan blowing on me, a damp rag draped over my head. Here I read, worked on future blogs, tatted, and watched movies on my computer.

Many mornings between 5 and 6 AM I lounged on the chez lounge on the porch, drinking my coffee and writing in my journal.

I made a new friend while there. She visited me on those mornings when I lounged on the porch. She took up “residence” on the chair next to the chez. From there she had a commanding view. Occasionally she’d leap from the chair onto the chez chasing after a mosquito, once she landed on my foot. Of course I named her Chairese.

A few weeks into my stay, Chairese expanded her territory to include my seraglio, climbing on the mosquito net to feast on tasty morsels. She’d show up in the morning, eat to her heart’s content, disappear and return off and on throughout the day. Here she is on the net.

Yes I got to the beach once a week on Wednesday, my “day off.” I spent most of my Wednesdays with my high school friend, Margaret. We even got over to St. John once and ate lunch with my cousin.

This is me and my cousin Rafe Boulon, Chief of Resources for the St. John National Park Service. I think you can tell we are related….The nose, the chin line, even the smiles, give us away.

I am passing on to him our grandfather’s 48 star flag which flew over Trunk Bay, where Rafe still lives. I have returned the flag to its original home. You can see a picture of it flying back around 1929/30 here.

After lunch Margaret and I went to Hawksnest.

This is the view from the western end of the beach, where swimmers don’t usually go because the reef prevents one from even wading. The island in the distance is Jost Van Dyke, part of the British Virgin Islands.

This is the eastern end where everyone goes to swim. The beach across the way is Private Hawksnest. I am continually amazed by the colors. Ocean, sky and hills.

My “visit” was not a vacation. It was time spent with my mother, time given to my devoted sister, every minute of which was precious and dear.

Lastly, due my uncle’s death, I went to Puerto Rico to be with the family. We came from Chicago, Florida, Washington, D. C. and the Virgin Islands to pay our respects and have a grand time. In our family funerals are more about celebrating the person’s life than about mourning the loss. And so it was a three day party with lots of food and drink, reminiscing and laughter.

Here we all are three generations (minus 2 of us who were, what else, eating.) A motley crew for sure.

I have many blogs cooking, and will probably try to post something about once a week. See you then.