This morning Ken was up very early so as to get to the Ford Service Center at 7:30 am. By mid morning he was back with our newly shod (brand new tires around) 2006 Escape that has over 240,000 miles on it (140, 000 driven and 100,000 towing). The oil change and lube helped as well to get it into condition for our travels to Texas next week to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter Janet and her family.
Shortly after he returned I took off in the car for my physical therapy evaluation order by Dr. Raderman following xrays to see why my knees are giving me so much trouble - not pain but lack of flexibility. Arthritis is to blame and I want to try this to see if I can avoid knee replacement. The therapist put me through several different exercises and sent me home with stuff to do regularly along with riding my bike as often as possible.
Sadly, shortly after I returned home I learned that my Aunt Margie died. What a loss!!!!!!! She was the last of my mother's siblings still here and just a real bright spot in all of our lives. During my earliest years she lived next door with my grandparents in a duplex - my family on one side and them on the other. A family room was added across the entire back of the house with just a folding door marking a separation between us so it was easy to visit back and forth.
Margie was the one to make ballet costumes, provide lessons, teach us how to draw with charcoal, take us on special outings, etc etc. It seemed a little cloud traveled over her head as so many sad things happened in her life and yet she was full of bright sunshine eager to embrace all. She raised four children - the two girls were in my wedding party and later adopted another girl. They in turn have had their own families.
She was just always there it seems. She took care of our four children when Ken and I went on a trip, helped me decide furniture layouts in my house, knitted many sweaters, and helped with my parents when they were needing assistance in their home in Florida and I was working full time. We made several trips to Florida together sharing motel rooms and meals and lots of family history stories. How I wish I had her memory so I could remember all she told me. This is the extended family that attended my mother's memorial service back in 2004. She is in the front with her MacRae tartan jacket on. Several of us have on sashes from the MacRae hunting tartan while my younger brother is wearing the Stewart tartan that my Dad claimed as his family tartan.
In the last couple of years I've had the privilege of spending time with her oldest daughter Laurie, and two sons Matt and Tom as well as Tom's family. Laurie has fixed up their family home that sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie and it is now rental property but each spring when she drives to Ohio from her home in California the local extended family gets together for a few days. The same happens in late fall when she returns to get it ready for winter.
This past summer Ken and I visited with Laurie and Margie when we were out in California. We enjoyed lunch out and visits to some of the special spots where Laurie and Margie liked to walk along the Pacific Ocean shoreline.
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