Thanks to ALL for your prayers as our family made our way to Glendale, Ohio. Jim, Jeanne, Jamie and I left Kyiv on Saturday morning…and arrived in Glendale Saturday evening. Seven-hour time difference, though.
Mom, my sister Janet and her husband David arrived in Glendale from the Cape not too long before us. But they had been driving (with Annie…their golden) since early Friday morning with an overnight stop in Rochester, New York.
Anna began her 35-hour trip several hours ago. As she wrote, living halfway around the world (Nepal) has its disadvantages…
Sister Biz and her husband Steve live just north of Cincinnati, and after putting in a l-o-n-g day selling coffee drinks (…more about that enterprise at a later time), joined us at Mom’s sometime after 9, I think.
Dear family friend Aunt Mary greeted the weary and hungry travelers at Mom’s with TWO crockpots of pot roast and vegetables. And rolls…to better soak up the broth. Yum.
Though I think we’re all still in a bit of shock — random tears here and there — I really think we were just all too tired to fully remember why we were all together. Of course, putting clothes out for the undertaker to pick up on Sunday was a grim reminder. And, yet, was comforting in a way: Biz had pulled together hats that Doug wore representing the Eastern Shore where we had lived (M.R. Ducks), a Glendale hat, a Cape Cod hat, and a Steamin’ Joe’s coffee hat. He was also known for wearing coins in his penny loafers — so we switched out one with a Ukrainian coin.
Ukraine time, I think we finally hit the sack around 5:30 a.m. Quickly need to adjust to our NEW time frame!
Today we meet with the Episcopal priest who will be putting the funeral service together. Again, please continue to pray for us all through this week. So much fun to see everyone. And yet there’s an empty place in our hearts. I half expect to see Doug come walking around the corner with some smart-aleck comment…
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