Stop Five- Niece JoJo

  I'm now seven days, seven states (MI, IN, IL, IA, MO, OK, TX) and five friends/relatives into this adventure. Amazing. Most of the day was spent in the car, but tonight I arrived at the home of Jo-Anne (Jo-Jo), who is my half niece.

My father is her grandfather. This is the last time we saw each other. We think it was 1963, but there are some things about that date that don't work with this picture. Anyway, from left to right around the table are Jo-Anne, Ricky, my half-brother John, Marie (standing- and who knows how she got permission to visit me on a holiday), my mom and dad (who is grandfather to John's children), Ethel, and part of Susanne.

Ricky has passed, but as a result of finding his obituary I found the girls. All the parents are gone too. Jo-Anne and I barely knew each other, but it was like instant bonding when we saw each other today. We have talked and talked and shared some pictures with more to come. I'll be here a few days. These people are no longer frozen in time.



There will be lots more to share as the week goes on, so I am going to spend the rest of today's blog showing you one more thing that is important to cousin Jean. She gave me a tour this morning. She is trained in end-of-life care, and was in at the beginning of creating this facility named Solace House of the Ozarks.

It's in Joplin, Missouri, but is available to anyone who is referred through hospice. The service is available free of charge because of grants and donations. It is for people who are at the end of life, whose families for whatever reason can not keep them at home but who don't need full hospital care. They have only two rooms. Each room has a guest (patient) bed and a regular bed for a family member or whoever is staying with them. Night staff is paid, but daytime care is all done by volunteers, Jean included. They've had an average of about 50 guests a year since they began in June of 2020, but Jean said the word is getting around and use is increasing.

The entire environment is meant to be friendly and more residential than institutional. The building is actually a house. It is modeled on Clare House in Tulsa, OK.

Jean has been knitting prayer shawls for a number of years, and now some of hers go to Solace House. These are shawls that the knitter prays over as they are being made, so that they are, in a sense, pre-blessed when they go to their owner.

Meanwhile, back in Texas, I suddenly have a grand nephew and neice, and a great-grand nephew. You'll meet them all yet this week. And are JoJo and I happy? You'll have to decide.

We have so many family gaps to fill in. The only word I can think of is "amazing."

See Fun with Jean

Stop Four- Cousin Jean

  I'm now four days,five states, and one complete audio book into this adventure. I'll be spending a full day with my third cousin Jean. We can hardly believe it was ten years ago that we got reaquainted. Before that... we hadn't seen each other since we were 14. You can read more about "us" at the link below.

We have a lot in common and are really looking forward to having more time than just this evening to spend together. This evening we went out to a restaurant, and I had a really good chicken salad sandwich.

Interestingly enough, for the first time, I think I can see a bit of her grandmother in her face. I can see a bit of my grandmother in mine. Our grandmothers were first cousins.

The drive didn't lend itself to pictures. This is mostly what I saw. I would have liked to catch a picture of the Missouri River at Kansas City, but there was too much traffic and it was raining slush at that point. The weather was icky for only that short stretch. It never became much of a problem for the driving.

There should be a great deal more interesting things to share tomorrow. Today was really about getting here.

See Stop Three- Gary See Jean Hall and Joan Hall

More Cousin Jean- 1950 Style

 
You don't want to see more snow. Me neither. So here's some ancient history. This was prompted because Cousin Jean posted a picture on Facebook of a painting of an historic house in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY. It has been recently named an historic site, with a plaque, because the woman who lived there was an early suffragette. So Jean was talking about visiting there as a child.

Whoa! Suddenly I realized what house this was. I'd been there too, and you've seen one picture from there on this blog at Cousin Helen.

So I went into a flurry of scanning pictures, because my scanner now works right (hallelujah!). I posted a bunch of those pictures on FB. But on the other side of the same scrapbook page... Jean's family visited my family maybe a month before the Long Island trip. It was also almost exactly 68 years ago. That's scary.

I was just turning two and Jean was only a few months behind. I'm on the left and Jean is on the right.



Everyone posed on the front steps of our house. I guess Mom took the picture. Left is Dad, Ray F. Leary holding me. Next is Granny- Emily M. Rowe, and beside her is Cousin Helen (sister to Jean's dad). Then we have Nan- Jean's mom, and her dad George Kilquist holding Jean. Nan is still alive.



Next we have dads and daughters. Check out the car! 1940s something. Guesses or knowledge welcome.



Girls with George. PS. I still have the wagon. I left the background intact because you can see our row of iris coming up and the dark peonies behind them leafing out. That was a nice flower garden come May. The fenceline beyond the flowers is beside the Lehigh Valley railroad tracks.



Finally, the picture with the best clarity is of Jean's family. Helen, George, Nan and Jean.



Fun times. I don't remember this day at all, but it sure looks like we were having a good time.

In other news: spent the whole day doing paperwork and bookkeeping and stuff like that.

	See Jean Hall and Joan Hall
if you like this blog, click the +1   or

Smiles and Miles

 

The missing states were Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. I spent last night in Kansas with our former pastors Al and Beth Verhagen (and daughter Sloane).



Then I headed south into Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I met Mike and Tina Funkhouser. Can you see what they are standing next to?



We had to do a little bit of paperwork.



And a little bit of mechanical stuff.



Then I drove for a couple of hours, some of it slowly to get used to my little Companion. Reached today's destination just at sunset.



And what is that destination? I finally got to re-meet my cousin Jean



We haven't stopped talking for hours! It's been 51 years since we've seen each other and there was a lot of catching up to do. We suspected there were still going to be good connections between us, and we were right!

And, she showed me where she works. She's a Fleet Manager for Con-way Truckload.



I'd like to stay longer, but have to continue home tomorrow. I think we'll be planning to meet again before another 51 years, though.

	See Index for Trailer Refurbish
if you like this blog, click

A Game of Tag

 

Ludington Lighthouse- I had to go to town today, and can't resist checking out this view whenever I am there. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I have mixed feelings about things like this game of tag which sort of seem like blogging just for the sake of blogging. And yet, the person who tagged me maintains the only blog that I visit every day. We haven't "known" each other long, but we share a love of the outdoors and a willingness to try to entice others to enjoy it too. That person is Ratty, who writes The Everyday Adventurer. So, I got tagged. I'll play, but I'm feeling shy so I'm going to whisper. Here are the rules

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
   
2. Post the rules on your blog.
   
3. Write six random and/or revealing things about yourself.
   
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
   
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
   
6. Let the tagger know when your post entry is up on your site.

6 Random Things about me

1. I have an ego the size of Wisconsin. Oh, wait, that's no big secret. Too bad... it meets the random criteria so it stays- see I'm the boss of this list and I say so.
   
2. I've worn a dress once in the past 3 years. And how silly was I to believe the person who told me I had to wear a dress for that evening? The crowd was eclectic and I could have worn a plastic bag with sequins and fit right in. (well, maybe not quite...)
   
3. Guess which one of the bookends is me and which is my recently re-discovered third-or-fourth-but-who's-counting cousin Jean? Too bad she doesn't have a blog.
   
4. I not only play accordion, but I collect accordion jokes. What do you call it when someone throws an accordion into a dumpster? Perfect pitch.
   
5. I think slime molds are way, way cool.
   
6. I'm an acetylcholine junkie.

Here are my six tag links

1. (mi)outdoors (fellow NCT and outdoor lover)
   
2. Joyful Heart (my sister-in-law who just returned to the US from 4 years in Brazil)
   
3. My Open Heart Journal (my other sister-in-law who is in the hospital again as I write this)
   
4. China is an Adventure (a friend who is teaching English in China)
   
5. I think I'm done... I don't yet know enough bloggers well enough to do this to anyone else. Is that cheating?

Ratty, you're a Rat! This took a long time. Just kidding about the rat part.

if you like this blog, click the +1   or