(Nan, Lee Ann and Ron on the left, Laurie and Lee Ann on the right)

The rest of my visit with Laurie was a bit more conventional in some ways. We stayed overnight at my cousins' home: they all discovered the people they knew in common, we ate dinner and watched television before collapsing. The next morning we got up, ate a great breakfast, took pictures of each other in Nan and Ron's beautiful house, and then went to visit my aunt Dodo (her real name is Laurel but this is what we call her) who lives in a group home for people with Alzheimer's. Aunt Dodo is approaching 87 and has been declining for a number of years--she did not know me, but I knew her and I am very glad that we went. Then we said goodby and headed off to Vancouver, WA, stopping at one fabric store on the way (only one, I promise!).

Laurie dropped me off at a Starbucks in Vancouver--it felt odd to say goodby to someone who had literally been part of every moment for 48 hours. We covered a lot of territory in our conversations and it was good for both of us. Friends for life: who knew the gifts our sons would give us?

In Vancouver I stayed with my old friend Anne, who got me started on scrapbooking some of the pictures from the collage of Thomas that Anna had made for the wake. Then I headed north to Nan's sister Peg's home, saw another cousin there, Molly--Molly's parents lost two children to natural causes and seeing Molly reminded me that they kept going, even cheerfully on the outside, for many years. I don't know how they did it, and I did break down for a minute with her thinking about that.

Then north again to my sister's home. It was there that I spent the last weekend we had with Thomas, and it was hard to go back. I stopped at Ft. Lewis to see if they had finished rebuilding their Memorial Park (there is a memorial with Thomas's name on it) but they had barely started. I'll be back again. I passed the Taco Bell where we said goodby in the parking lot and he told me he would be back home. I miss him.