hello dear friends,

thank you truly for all your kind words and concern on my previous post, chuck is healing and will be back to new in no time. i'm writing now from my ipad, since my computer became infected this week and is out of order. there was a lot of good and not so good in our family this last week. my 96 year old nana passed away. there is so much that deserves to be said, but suffice it to say she was well loved and she loved us back, times forever. our puppy owen became sick, he stopped eating and couldn't keep anything down. trips to the vet, including x-rays, meant possible surgery. my youngest son left for university two states away, on the eve of his birthday. i couldn't bake him a cake or hug him on his day. then while searching for a knitting pattern, i accidentally infected my computer. and finally, my auntie (who'd been in assisted living) fell ill also two days ago and passed away today.

my mom, who has alzheimers, doesn't know that her mother and sister have died. my cousins thought that nana was calling auntie to heaven, to be with her. I like thinking that too. our family is planning a memorial to celebrate their lives. that will be easy to do.

tonight i feel a comforting calmness, my nana and auntie are together and at peace. my two youngest are happy and thriving away from home and on their own. owen gave us a scare but now he's back to his rambunctious self. my computer is still down, and ordinarily that would seem like a big deal, but now it just doesn't.