I woke before dawn to Taddy’s request that we get up and discover a new day together. After a rainy Monday, Tuesday promised to be beautiful.
The trails at Lebanon Hills were still cool and damp as we set off in the early morning darkness. Tad earnestly tried to track a bunny while also attending to his necessary morning business along the way.
By the time we returned to the motorhome, daylight had arrived, but the sun was still slowly sneaking up behind the trees on the hill behind our campsite.
I gave Tad a treat, turned up the furnace, started the coffee and crawled back into bed beside Janice. I nestled against her and dozed while the coffee percolated.
Eventually we returned to The Visitor by Craig Falconer, another science-fiction mystery we have been enjoying on the road. We began our day exactly as we had ended the night before: Janice's head resting on my chest as we listened to a couple of chapters together.
After coffee and a light breakfast, I received a text from Ashley. Her wedding-dress fitting had been rescheduled, so after getting the kids off to school she was coming over to see us.
Around 10:00, Ash, as she prefers to be called as an adult, pulled up in the purple Jeep she had gotten since our last visit. Purple was her favorite color as a little girl, and I couldn't help smiling that nearly 40 years later, some things haven't changed.
It was wonderful to see her.
We caught up on her very busy life and then took Tad for a long hike on the trails. Ash and her former husband, Matt, have three kids: Odin, 16; Ike, 14; and Bo, 11. Her fiancé, Orion, and his former spouse have four: Cara, 17; James, 16; Edward, 14; and Rose, 12.
Ash and Orion do an amazing job working as a team to get everyone where they needs to go, including three different schools. I am also proud of the respectful relationship Ash and Matt have maintained as they share time with their children. It takes a lot of cooperation, patience and love to make a blended family work.
Ash gave us updates on all the kids and the beginning of the new school year. She and Orion are getting married in November during a cruise to Cabo San Lucas, and all seven kids will be their grooms! I can't imagine the planning involved in pulling everything together. Orion has been working more than 60 hours a week for several weeks, yet Ash says he is always there for her and the kids.
After Ash left, we had a couple of hours before my cousin Pam was coming over so we could take her to lunch for her birthday.
And that's when I discovered a treasure.
Last year, during our Minnesota visit, we scanned hundreds of photographs from my Aunt Jo's photo albums using a high-speed scanner we had purchased for the project. We ran out of time before we could scan a large packet of letters from our parents' cousin Johnny in Norway, so Pam loaned the packet to me. We brought it back to Minnesota on this trip to return to her.
As I looked through it, I noticed a stack of letters and a photograph that I hadn't scanned.
The photograph was of my cousin Tommy.
Tom was 2½ years older than me and was like an older brother. He died of cancer in 1973 when he was only 17 years old.
Inside the photo jacket was a newspaper advertisement from WCCO-TV promoting an eight-part series that had aired as part of the 10 p.m. news about dealing with death. The eighth and final segment featured Tom and his family.
Then I realized what the stack of letters was.
They were letters from viewers who had watched the program and had been moved by Tom's story. Among them was a letter from reporter Don Kladstrup, who had gotten to know Tom and his family well while working on the story.
I sat there reading them and was moved to tears.
More than half a century after Tommy died, here were the words of strangers whose lives had briefly intersected with his. They had watched a courageous 17-year-old boy and his family confront something most of us struggle even to talk about. And then they had taken the time to write.
What an unexpected gift!
Sadly, the videotape of the series that Aunt Jo once had has been lost. I never saw the program myself. I took photographs of the letters and other materials with my phone, and I am going to contact WCCO-TV to see if by some miracle a copy survives in their archives and has been digitized.
Shortly afterward, Pam arrived, and we headed to a nearby Five Guys for her birthday lunch.
We laughed and reminisced about growing up together. Pam and I have always been close. She has always been an excellent athlete, and Tommy was the one who taught us how to throw a football and a baseball. Pam and I played softball and tennis and bowled together as kids, traditions we carried into adulthood.
Sitting across from her at lunch, especially after discovering those letters about Tommy, brought so many memories rushing back.
We returned to the campground and took Tad for another walk. We made plans to get together again next week at Pam's new condominium.
Special times.
Around 5:00, Orion brought Bo and Rose over for a quick visit. It was fun to see them, although our time together was brief. The whole family is coming over tomorrow for a cookout, which should make for a wonderfully lively evening.
Our visit was cut short because at 7:00 we had our monthly two-hour Umpqua Watersheds Board of Directors meeting.
To get a strong enough Wi-Fi signal, Janice and I carried her laptop to a picnic table near the campground office and joined the meeting from there. It was wonderful seeing our friends back in Oregon via Zoom and catching up on the important work everyone continues to do together while we're traveling.
By the time the meeting ended, it was completely dark. We're two hours ahead of Oregon here in Minnesota, which makes those evening meetings feel particularly late!
We walked back to our little rolling home, and I pulled out the final bottle of home-brewed beer that my Brew Brother Al Walker had given me before we left Oregon. It seemed like the perfect excuse to call Al and Trudy and give them an update on our adventures.
They are two of our dear friends, people we spend a lot of time with and frequently camp with. Their dog Tyson is Taddy's best friend. It was simply good to hear their voices.
And so another day came to an end.
It had begun before sunrise with Tad and me walking quietly through the damp Minnesota woods. Along the way there was my daughter, grandchildren, cousin Pam, memories of childhood, a photograph of Tommy, letters written by strangers more than 50 years ago, friends and colleagues gathered on a laptop screen from 1,700 miles away, and finally the voices of Al and Trudy from home.
People separated by miles.
People separated by years.
Some still walking beside us. Some living now only in our memories and in the stories and love they left behind.
Yet somehow, on days like this, they don't seem so far away.
Life is great.
And we are grateful.
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