April showers bring May flowers, or so they say. I
confess it has been 75 days since Janie and I sat courtside at the Cavs – Bucs
game in Cleveland and 311 days since she met Dan and I at the Pier W restaurant
on my birthday. (We’ve been together in August in Cleveland, October in Columbus
and again in January in Cleveland. We have a comfortable chemistry and just enough mutual
admiration to fuel daily text messages. It also supports my own ongoing
campaign to keep the U.S. Postal Service in business.)
My wife Lynn has been gone 417 days. I have been
blessed with remarkable kids (Lindsey and Ben) who have families of their own –
each with caring spouses and each with boys born in the vintage year 2016.
A huge, and somewhat unexpected, bonus is Toby, my
mother-in-law, of whom I have always known to be a courageous stoic. We talk on
the phone weekly. Recently she offered
this amazing bit of encouragement. "It’s important to turn the page…and you
have," She says. This amazing woman (now in her 90s) lost her husband in 1993
and her daughter (my wife of 41 years) in 2022. “Stay busy, it’s important,”
she advises. I love the Matriarch!
My trip to Cleveland is driven by the desire to see
Janie again but tempered by the window of low airline fares. I land on April
6-9 and my brother Dan negotiates the special rate at the Winton Place in
Lakewood. It’s Easter Week. Janie apologizes about a variety of family plans
she has with her grandchildren. (Janie reports: Well they are going to have to make a
traditional nutroll, and there is an Easter Egg hunt… She's back from a drive to visit her youngest (Luke) and his fiance (Meredith) in Charlotte. She added a side trip to South Carolina to watch some professional tennis...before returning to Cleveland.
Janie is good at staying busy herself. She's been divorced for 9+ years and navigates family occassions with her four children, here former husband, her three brothers, a bundle of cousins, a former sister in law, five granddaughters and another one by former daughter-in-law's previous marraige. All the while she remains a Soccer mom at heart, a basketball fan and a devoted reader of the Sunday New York Times. She maintains a robust schedule of trips to the theater, concerts, comedy shows and movies. She has been a nurse for 42 years and, in spite of declaring retirement, she takes a pretty regular number of shifts at University Hospital. (Needless to say, I feel fortunate when she can any make time for me.)
Berthe Moriset about 1869-73 by Edouard Manet
My brother Dan agrees to greet me at Cleveland Hopkins airport and I've got a pair of ticket to see Noises Off at the Beck Center on Thursday evening. An outline and some highlights of this vist:
April 6 (Thursday) - Southwest STL to CLE. Winton Place. Panera (w/Janie), Noises Off at the Beck Center ("Hang up the phone, Leave the Sardines.").
April 7 (Friday) - Museum of Contemorary Art (MOCA) and Cleveland Institure of Art with Dan. The Winking Lizard with Dan and Netti. Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) evening event CMA Mix 5:30-10:30 with Dan. It's opening day for the Baseball Guardians,
April 8 (Saturday) - Dan's working at CMA but I ride to University Circle. CMA 10:00 to 2:30. Ace Cab to Winton. Old River Tap and So in Rocky River with Janie. Mac & Cheese and Quesadillas. Winton Place with Janie until 11p.m.
April 9 (Easter Sunday) - return to Saint Louis on Southwest Airlines via Atlanta.
Note: No rain at all but I feel like Spring is still the beginning of so many things.
No comments:
Post a Comment