Sophie's Story

     Last year my mother and I started having contact again ending a 15 year estrangement after a family argument. Last summer she was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. My siblings had been dealing with this for awhile and had already taken charge of my mother's health and finances. They had decided that our parents should move to a senior apartment complex near to where my sister and I live.    Our parents moved there right before Thanksgiving, the first time they have lived in the same place in nearly 20 years. To help with the transition, my sister and I visit once a week. She visits on Wednesday and I visit on Thursday or Friday.    My Dad sometimes goes back to their house in southern Minnesota to get things that they want to have. Someone always goes along to help. Last trip it was me. This past weekend my sister went with him.     Because Mom can't be alone for more than an hour or two someone has to stay with her. It was my turn.    I packed a bag with

     If you read the last column you'll know that C and I spent a long weekend in South Carolina. The reason why we were there was because it was C's 50th year class reunion. To be more accurate it was 50 +2 as the reunion has been postponed twice due to Covid.    We had not originally planned on going, but things lined up at the last minute. I had a long weekend off. We were able to get plane tickets. We hadn't been to South Carolina in a really long time. Lynda, a woman from C's class who headed the reunion committee had been urging C to come to the reunion on Facebook. She promised us a loaf of sourdough bread if we would make the trip. C and I discussed it. This was an opportunity that would not come again. We made arrangements for Scamp's care, packed our bags and headed out.    We flew on a different airline than we usually take when we travel to South Carolina. We actually got a direct flight into Asheville. There is a small regional airport there. The flight

     C and I spent a long weekend in South Carolina. We had not been back in three years and it was good to see some familiar places again.     One of the things I like to do when I travel is to experience the culture of the place I'm visiting. To go to places where the local people go. One of the places I've always wanted to go to is a Waffle House.    Waffle House is a restaurant chain with locations all over the south. They can be easily found because of the tall yellow signs in the parking lot. They serve breakfast all day along with lunch and dinner options.     One thing I found interesting when looking for information about Waffle House is the Waffle House index. The chain is known for having good emergency preparedness plans that can be put into action quickly are are known for staying open during extreme weather. If the Waffle House is closed, the emergency is pretty bad. It was an informal metric coined in 2011. (per Wikipedia)    C and I decided to eat at a Waffle Ho

     Recently I spent some time with a friend who I'll call Bonnie. (not her real name) I hadn't seen or spoken to her for a couple of months. She's going through a rough patch so I mostly listened to her as she talked.    She talked about a lot of thing and one of the things she talked about was a woman we both know named Marie. (not her real name either) Marie attend the same church we do. Bonnie went on for several minutes about how Marie talks about her experiences in church leadership and her educational and personal accomplishments.  She felt that Marie was doing this to make herself seem better than everyone else. Her disdain for Marie was very clear.     It made me uncomfortable. I know Marie, she's a friend of mine. I could see how Bonnie could think that way about Marie. It might a cultural thing. Here in the Midwest, someone who is open about their accomplishments is clearly full of themselves and prideful. Modesty is an important virtue.    Marie isn't f

     I was asked to work on a project for a Relief Society lesson in May. We had been discussing what we were going to do for Mother's Day. It can be challenging to hold a Mother's Day lesson in our church because not all women have children and we want to be inclusive. We decided that it would be a good idea to focus on all the things that women do in our ward and in our communities. Women with children contribute more to our communities than raising their children. It was our intent to honor and recognize women for all that they do.     The project I was asked to work on was a visual of some type. Something that would represent the talents and contributions of the women in our ward. We thought it would be nice to have something with the words that women would use to describe themselves. We decided one way to do that was to post on the group Facebook page a request for three words that a member of the group would use to describe herself.    It's an interesting question. Wh

        Many people who know me would describe me as disorganized. They'd be partly correct. I have a lot of piles of things in my house, but I know what is in the piles. there are certain things that have their place and if they are not in their place, I have no idea where they might be.    Last weekend, I organized the drawer that I keep my tea in. Lately my tea collection has been spilling onto other places and that is not good. I want all my tea in the tea drawer where I can find it. That way I know what I have and can replenish my stock as needed.  In the process of organizing, I did something I don't normally do. I Threw Away Tea. I've never thrown tea away before, but I had stuff that I didn't like and some that was old. I had bought some tea at a place and didn't notice that it had stevia in it. I don't like the bitter aftertaste that stevia has so I never drank it after I first tried it. It felt good to throw things out and clean up the drawer. When I f