Flashback Friday

In August of 2004, we were in Aurora, Illinois for my grandma's funeral. She died the month of her 91st birthday. This is the Poss group at the after-funeral lunch: my dad, me, Mary, my dad's cousin Sue and her husband Bob, my mom, my dad's cousin Jan, my grandma's sister Aunt Dot and her boyfriend Tony, Peter, Brad, John, my brother Steve, and my sister Kelle. Of the generations above mine, the only ones in this picture still alive are my dad's cousin Sue and her husband Bob. My sister Kathy wasn't there because her father-in-law was very sick and would pass away the next month.

 

Flashback Friday

John's high school graduation weekend in Shorewood coincided with Father's Day in 2008. This is still the only picture I have with just the dads and our kids. So once again I remember Father's Day on the blog with this picture. At the same time, I'm excited that John, Peter, and Andy are dads now. I know they'll have a very nice Father's Day with their sweet little ones. Happy Father's Day!

Flashback Friday

Today would have been my dad's 91st birthday. Here he is with my mom and our kids in Winchester, California in the summer of 2003. This was kinda close to their house. I think this was the day we went to a cheese factory. Out by where we took these pictures there were some cows and sheep. Don't ask me why zero of the five of them were wearing sunglasses.
 

Flashback Friday

Since August is our anniversary month and Mary's same-day-as-our-anniversary birthday always takes center stage, I'll get a head start on the anniversary. This is from our rehearsal dinner at the now-defunct Swallow's Cove in San Clemente on August 22, 1986. 

Flashback Friday

This has been my Flashback picture before, and I think it will be again and again on Father's Day weekend. The picture has more meaning than it did when it was taken, now that Peter and John are dads too. This is from 2008, when Father's Day fell on John's high school graduation weekend and our dads (and moms) were in Shorewood for the graduation festivities.

Flashback Friday

In October of 2005, my parents came to visit us shortly after we moved to Shorewood. One Sunday morning we went out to brunch at the Hubbard Park Lodge. 
 

Flashback Friday

I'm remembering Father's Day in 2008. Our dads were at our house for John's graduation from high school, which fell on Father's Day weekend. This year Peter and John will experience their first Father's Day. It'll be the first without Chuck. And at the end of the month it'll be six years since my dad passed. We were blessed to have my dad and Chuck in our lives for so many years, and now we're blessed to get to witness our boys be fathers. And bridging those two generations is Brad, who's a terrific dad and now getting to be a terrific grandpa. We all have so much to be thankful for in the father/grandfather department.

Flashback Friday

The two best moms. We'll be spending Mother's Day with Geneva, and thinking of Petrene. 

Flashback Friday

Exactly 21 years ago today, the kids and I (and Brad, who was the photographer) were with my parents in the Old Town in Warsaw. This was on April 28, 2002.
 

Flashback Friday

Getting in the Easter spirit, here's Peter (and his bunny) with my dad and Brad back in the early days.
 

Flashback Friday

I try not to have too many repeats of my Flashback pictures, but this just might end up being my annual Father's Day photo for the Flashback. It was taken on Father's Day (in 2008 when both sets of grandparents were visiting for John's graduation from Shorewood High School). It's a rare picture of just our two dads, Brad, and the kids. (It's probably the only such picture.) For this year's Father's Day we're going to go to Brad's parents' house tomorrow and we'll stay until Sunday. Then a few days after that we'll gather in Virginia with our family for Peter and Jessa's wedding weekend. As family getting together time goes, it's going to be a good week.

Flashback Friday

Today we're all gathering in Elkader, Iowa for my mom's funeral and for the burial of both of my parents. In a weird way Covid gives us a reason for happiness at this gathering, because for me and Brad and our kids it'll be the first time we've all been together in over a year and a half. I wish Mom could be with us, because she would have loved having her kids and grandkids all together in Elkader. What gives me peace is knowing that we'll be there anyway, even if it's without her. (By the way, this picture was taken 25 years ago in Racine, in 1996.)

Flashback Friday

This week we lost the life of the party and everyone's favorite, my mom. She died early Tuesday morning, peacefully in her sleep, of cancer. I won't go into the specifics; her obituary is on my facebook page. This picture is from my nephew's wedding in May of 2014. He was the first of her grandkids to get married, and my mom was over the moon. She knew that a wedding was the next step to a baby, and she loved being a grandmother so much that she could not wait to become a great-grandmother. (In the past few years, as some of her grandkids in longterm relationships—I won't name names, Peter—weren't making getting married, she would say: "I don't even care if you have a wedding, I just want more babies!") From this same nephew at the above wedding, she eventually became a great-grandmother two times over. I remember last year, practically a year ago to the day, we were getting ready for another of her grandkid's wedding. (Mom would go into the hospital on the Monday after the wedding, so it was just before her cancer took a bad turn.) She was having her two great-grandchildren stay with her over the wedding weekend. They were ages three and not even a year. She bought them so many clothes and toys, I couldn't believe it. So much so that I sent a text to their parents, warning them that they probably needed to bring an extra suitcase to bring it all home on the plane. Needless to say, she had a fun weekend with them. She loved her expanding family and I chose this picture in part because it shows all the branches of her family: one of her own kids (me), one of her bonus kids (Brad), and one of her twelve grandkids (Peter). From her original four offspring, her brood has become almost 30. Her family was the deepest source of pride and joy in Mom's life. She was the light of that family and we will all miss her beyond description.

Flashback Friday

This Flashback goes back only a year. Last year at this time my mom and my sister Kelle came up to Long Beach to take me out for my birthday. Now a year later, Kelle has been living with Mom since December and Mom is in hospice. 

It's Been a Month

After I got home from San Diego at the end of May, I gathered the ingredients to make more (and better) masks. (I think altogether I've now sewn about 85 of them.) In June I sent the kids the masks I made for them and I got some fun photos back in return. It's hard to tell who's behind all these masks. This first one is Peter and Jessa.

I sewed a lot of masks using some sports team-themed fabric that I ordered. But I made most of them with some quilting fabric that my mom gave me, like this golfing fabric worn by John.

Not sure if we'll have a football season this year but if we do, Troy is ready.

Mary looks fashionable and Covid-safe on her way to the grocery store. The only one I don't have a photo of in a new mask is Andy, but I'm sure that any day now I'm going to get a picture of him with what I'm sure is his favorite of the masks I made him: his Milwaukee Brewers mask.

I went back to California in the middle of June. My plan was to be there for three nights. My first stop was at my mom's house for the night.

My mom's dog Simba looks so happy. He's a new dog since Mom moved to San Juan Capistrano last year. Before that he spent two years depressed, in my opinion, that my dad was no longer around. I'd never seen such sustained sadness in an animal. But as soon as he got to the new house he was back to being his cheerful self. It's been great to see him so much happier.

My stay in California got extended from three nights to two weeks. While I was there I slept at my mom's house on my first night and on my last night. Kelle set me up with this very comfortable setup on the patio so I don't have to be in the house. It was super comfy and practically like camping!

Shortly after I arrived, my uncle Kelly got sick with congestive heart failure. In less than a week he went from home to the hospital, from the hospital back to home with hospice, and then sadly passing away on June 23. Brad drove out to be with us on both of the weekends and for the funeral. This picture was taken two days before Uncle Kelly died. The caregiver was late in arriving that morning, so the four of us were all alone and we sat in the living room and had a really nice long chat over breakfast. Brad had gone to the store and bought coffee cake as requested by Uncle Kelly. Later that night Brad grilled steaks, also at Uncle Kelly's request. His illness progressed quickly and he didn't eat anything more after this particular day, so I'm glad he had some of his favorites.

After Uncle Kelly passed, we drove up to see my mom. He was her last remaining sibling and they were really close. For this picture, we tried to space ourselves away from Mom, so we took off our masks just long enough to snap the photo, and then we scattered apart from Mom and Kelle as soon it was over. Okay, now here are some lighter happenings .....

This summer Sirius got a snazzy new bed so he doesn't have to get so dirty from the ground. As you can see, he really loves it.

He's more of a "let me lie on the ground and get dirty" kind of a dog. Last weekend he hung out with his dog pal Watson at my sister and her husband's cabin in Colorado.

Even though his back is to you, Sirius is once again proving he's a dog who prefers to come into contact with as much dirt as possible.

I think John and Troy had fun exploring the area around my sister's cabin in this little vehicle.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Mary and Andy discovered that you can kayak in the District!

Right after the long weekend Mary had her first day of school! She started a Master's of Education program at the University of Pennsylvania. Needless to say, she's attending from the comfort of her own living room. Her summer session, as well as the fall session, will be online.

Tikka has appointed herself the school mascot.

Tikka must be getting used to having Mary around a lot more. They get outside for walks every day and work on obedience training.

Speaking of obedience training, trying to educate a deaf dog on proper swimming pool safety has been tricky. This was Allie's second time to fall in the pool, and she's made it abundantly clear that she cannot swim. So for now we have a life jacket on order and she doesn't get to hang out with us by the pool until she's got her safety gear on and hopefully has a swimming lesson or two under her belt.

Peter and Jessa's new cat, who is now called Elaine, got dibs on the cat window bed. 

Finally, a correction. In my last non-Flashback post back in June, I posted this picture and said it was Peter and Jessa's new cat, Elaine. But I was wrong! Appearing from within that box is none other than the one and only Peaches, who I mistook for Elaine. (And I know Peaches loves boxes so how could I have made that mistake?!) Peaches: my deepest apologies to you. I'm sure it's been tough to have a new cat in the house. First she got your blog appearances, and now she got your identity. That is really adding insult to injury, and I'm so sorry for the slight. Don't tell Elaine but as my mom likes to say: you're my favorite cat.

Flashback Friday

It's been six years since my parents came to St. Louis and they, along with John and Troy and Brad and I, drove to Oklahoma for a family wedding over Memorial Day weekend. Look how much has changed in six years.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Mother's Day started innocently enough. Joyce and I had a good morning with another caregiver during "orientation week." Then I had a fun Zoom call with the kids. Toward the end of our Zoom, I could tell that Joyce was sick. And boy oh boy, was she ever. Without going into details, suffice it to say that in the course of a few hours she was so ill that I eventually called 911. I did not want her in the ER, and tried to avoid it, but that's where she ended up. It was a good thing as she needed to be admitted. After two nights in the hospital, she came home on Tuesday, basically good as new.

It must be tough to have all that happen to you and not be able to remember it, and not understand why you have new diagnoses and where they came from. This would be hard for any person with dementia but especially hard for an 89 year old who hasn't been hospitalized since she was 8 years old! Talk about being on a hot streak. So, to help us both I wrote her a book explaining what had transpired. Apparently it's an absorbing read!

She got back on the walking path the very next day!

When Joyce was still in the hospital I took advantage of a free afternoon to drive up to San Juan Capistrano and hang out with these two troublemakers, from a distance of course. With a lovely patio to sit on and absolutely perfect weather, we had a wonderful visit through the screen door.

Mary Too

 

Mary arrived at Grandma's house on March 6, which was two days after Peter left. She got there just in time before the pandemic kicked into high gear. I remember we met some friends at a spring training game on March 8, which was close to the last day that things felt normal for me. Those friends came down here on Monday the 9th, and it was during the first days of that week that things started to slow down in a surreal kind of way. By the time they flew home on the 12th the self-isolating had begun. So, Mary got in under the wire for sure, as did our friends. She went back to DC on March 10, and even by then there weren't many people on her plane.

Mom takes a nap in the front room every afternoon, and it looks like Mary quickly got the hang of things.

She and Simba had some good time together too.

And she and Kelle (and Kelle's friend Supriya) and Simba and Grandma took advantage of some nice weather. So there you have it, the sum up of the Harrison kids' visits to San Juan Capistrano. There was also a visit by Brad last month, but sadly I don't have any photos. But the bottom line is that everybody was able to visit before things got bad pandemic-wise. Now, I'm here in Tucson self-isolating and waiting for when the time is right to drive back over. Mom and Kelle are self-isolating and while I'm sure it's tough not to have visitors, they're both staying healthy.

Last of the Boys' Trip

My mother is not a Lakers fan, but here she is looking in all other respects pretty normal with the boys on John's last night before he headed home to Colorado—and I do love this picture. 

Peter was there for an extra couple of days by himself and they took advantage of some nice weather for an outing outdoors.

Grandma must have given Peter some lessons, and she must have done a pretty good job too, because look how comfortable he is with the walker.

Erin and Peter and their grandma.

On Peter's last day before heading home to Philadelphia, one final walk around the condo complex.

More of the Boys

 Wrapping up the overlapping time between Peter and John when they visited at my mom's house .....

 The boys cooked together .....

 And worked together .....

And hung out with their grandma both separately and together. I'm so glad that everyone got out there before this pandemic.