This is the fifth anniversary of Thomas's death. We plan to go to Mass in about an hour, then visit the cemetery this afternoon. Unfortunately it is raining here, the remnants of tropical storm Ida apparently, so this will involve old shoes and not much lingering.



Louise Penny invited me to write her blog entry for today which is an act of incredible generosity for such an accomplished writer whose name is beginning to be very well known indeed (New York Times bestseller list!). The address is http://www.louisepenny.blogspot.com/ I wrote this time about Thomas, rather than our grieving.



And one more thing. It will be announced today by the Montgomery County Executive's office: Ike Leggett has decided to name the Rockville Library the Rockville Memorial Library! After years of campaigning for this, it is going to happen. We are very grateful for this as well. When they put out their press release, I will post a link here.

The anniversaries are kind of strange days I've realized. In other years, I've mourned as we approached the day. This year, the week before was so emotionally difficult because of the Fort Hood events, and also suspecting that something was to be announced at the reception last night with the County Exec. It's just that you reach this point and in fact, the day is easier than expected because you've done so much of the work already. So for this day, my family will gather with a few friends, we will remember Thomas, we will eat and drink, we will celebrate the new life coming --Thomas's older sister Anna is expecting a baby in May. Our happiness will always have a small catch but that is OK.