I have been neglecting this, life having once again overtaken me. My mother-in-law, Thomas's grandma, will be moving in with us at the end of this week and the preparations for that have been trying, I went to Europe for nine days because an opportunity arose and, if there is one thing that 2004 taught me, it is that life is terribly uncertain so take advantage when you can; and I've been busy trying to do my last year of PTA activities. This coming weekend is also the White House Commission on Remembrance's annual event: this year it is a Weekend of Remembrance, and it will include a dinner and a picnic. I think it will be good, but I am also thinking it will be sad. I said goodby to Thomas at just this time of year, saw him for the last time on October 3rd, 2004, and it all just seems a little too real today.

*****
Thinking back to that first anniversary weekend (and looking at my calendar!), I see that was when I participated in the race with Julie Werner (described very early in this blog). We did dinner with the guys and then at the end of the weekend sent them back to Fort Lewis. That following week I see that they started on my kitchen and I worked several times. A friend took me to see Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center. We received a number of cards and letters around the date, including one from a friend of my nephew in Sacramento who had been touched by Thomas's story and arranged for a Mass for him in the cathedral there.

Because of the kitchen work, we ended up having Thanksgiving in my mother-in-law's petite apartment. No matter how cramped it was, it was definitely better than that first Thanksgiving in the restaurant had been. No one got sick and we all fit in reasonably well, even Gene in his wheelchair.