Sophie's Story

     I can't prove it, but I think I started this column on Memorial Day 2008. I wrote a column in response to a quote from some general who said that people who don't come from military families have no appreciation of the military and the sacrifices that those in the service and their families make. I took exception to this and did so on paper.    Though I have no documents to back me up, I'm guessing I probably wrote about how my husband and his family are the living consequences of war. My father-in-law, Mr. Warren, served in Europe during the Second World War. He fought in many battles most notably Normandy. Exposure to those battles caused him to return home a changed man. That had a significant effect on his family and to this day his three surviving children. At the end of every column on Memorial Day, I would end with a small tribute to Mr. Warren.    I just realized that for all these years I have been honoring the wrong people. Memorial Day ...

     I read an article on the internet recently that mentioned gymnast Simone Biles. It was about how she was not afraid of being proud of her accomplishments, the latest being a move on the vault that has not been tried by a woman before. Her leotard had a small silver goat goat on the back. This stands for 'greatest of all time'.    I wish I could find this article to reread. After I read it I remember thinking two things. The first was amazement at the fact that she doesn't seem to be afraid of being the best in her sport and probably the best gymnast ever. Despite the fact that scoring of moves such as the one she did in her latest competition devalues them, she still plans to do them. Why? "Because I can," she said. The other thought was that it takes a lot of nerve to own the 'greatest of all time'.    That article did make ponder a few things. One of them was the whole issue of being proud of something you've accomplished, especially if you happ...

     During the mandatory 15 minute waiting time after my last vaccine appointment of the morning I got a text from C. Once my patient had left I looked at the text. It was alarming.    My stepdaughter, Elin, had been in an accident. She was driving on a highway. It was raining very hard and traffic was moving very fast. Elin hit a patch of standing water on the road and started to hydroplane. Her truck crashed into a guardrail and started to spin. A semi was right behind them. She looked over at her six year old son, Hawk, and screamed. Her life flashed before her eyes. She managed to grab the steering wheel of her truck in time to get to the side of the road.     In shock from what had just happened, she started calling people looking for help.. The only person who answered her call was C. He got her calmed down enough so that she could call her husband. Chet came and picked her and Hawk up. He arranged for AAA to tow the truck to a garage for repair...

      Last week something happened that I thought would never happen. Something I wrote was published on a platform other than BlogSpot.      A few months ago I wrote a short essay and sent it to the church website. I knew that members could contribute essays on various spiritual experiences. These essays are published in the Blog section of the website. I worked on it for a few weeks making small edits to it every few days. When I thought it was the way I wanted it, I attached it to an email and sent it. Then I promptly forgot about it.    A month ago I got an email from one of the editors of the church website. They wanted to publish my essay. She sent a sent my essay back with a few changes. This was my first experience with having my work edited by someone other than me. I liked it. Her few edits greatly improved my writing. She asked me to choose a verse of Scripture to include with the essay. I grabbed my Scriptures and turned to the topical...

     Last Sunday was Mother's Day. Usually on Mother's Day I prefer to be at work so I don't have to go to church. Motherhood is revered in my faith as it should be. I believe that women who choose to have children and stay at home to care and raise them do not get the credit or respect that they deserve.   Being a childless woman can be difficult on Mother's Day, but what made it difficult for me was that it seemed like all the other women had warm, friendly relationships with their mothers. Their mothers are their best friends. Not so with me. My mother and I had a very rocky relationship. In fact, we had not seen or spoken to each other in over a decade.    That changed last year. I took a job in the town where my mother lives. I let my dad know about this so that he could tell my mother since it increased that chance that mom and I would run into each other. A few weeks after I started my job I saw my mom for the first time in many years. She and Dad st...

     I was planning a day of laundry and housework when Ellen called. She and Mac planned to have lunch at Sea Salt and wanted to know if C and I would join them. We could eat and then walk in the park.     The weather was nice and a walk in the park sounded a lot more fun than housework. I said we would.     We needed to take Scamp for some lab work and have a meeting with the siding people. Once those things were done we went to the park.    Ellen ordered our lunch. She ordered fried fish tacos and pickled herring. I'd never had either one and was interested in how they would taste. Mac and C found a table in the sun where it was nice and warm. We chatted while we waited for our food.    Ellen and Mac were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary that day. They wanted to spend the day with us. Ellen wanted to walk the trail down Minnehaha creek to the Mississippi River.     Our food came. The fish tacos...

     It finally happened. All the paperwork, training, equipment purchases and back and forth with various people has been completed. We have vaccine in stock. We waited through the "pause". We are finally able to give Covid vaccine to people.    I had wanted to do this for a long time. We did help people as much as we could during the pandemic. We did curbside service and mailed things out. We wore our masks and limited out trips. We got take out from local places now and again. I wanted to do more. I wanted to vaccinate. Several customers had been asking us over and over again when we would get vaccine.    Now we have it.    We had a lot less business than we had expected the last two weeks. I think people have received other vaccines or have been scared off by the recent news. Still, a few people is better than no people.    I had forgotten how much I like doing vaccine clinics. I try my best to make the experience a pleasant one...