Welcome December 2020!

 TERRY

Terry has a day with NO trips to therapy or anyplace else.  That darn left knee is just so so painful and I am hopeful that she can get the MRI SOON.  As I write it is about 7:45 and she is in bed reading with the TV on.  She does go to therapy tomorrow and it is 30 days so insurance says there must be an evaluation to see if she needs more therapy.  I think that is a slam dunk in terms of more therapy.  BUT she was so limited yesterday in the water as that bum knee just is painful.  

Here we are in the last month of the year.  As we all know 2020 has been a year to remember but yet one to put behind us and forget.  I have to be careful what I write as we no longer have Dave with us and I do think he is happy where he is BUT I also feel he would still like to be with us IF he had the choice.  Not sure I said that right BUT.

I play tennis at 9:00 this morning and then will be off to get a prescription for Terry as we need to put some thing on the wound where the stitches were taken out yesterday.  

Not really much to say today.  I did get a text from Jerry W thanking us for the Christmas letter so I know they went out and have been delivered.  What is one to do when you are ALL finished with Christmas cards and presents???  I do have some things that need to be mailed by mid December but for now they are in the freezer!  That is right, in the freezer.  AND they are not cards!

DECEMBER 1964

Just a short note about the December.  Mom is no longer doing the church Christmas Program as we are now going to church in Veblen South Dakota.  Bergen church closed it's doors maybe 2 or 3 years ago and for now the church stands vacant.  Later someone purchased it and moved it to Lidgerwood as a home.  As the days in December go on I so wished that Mom still had the program as now she has little to keep her mind busy and the death of Ronald which was two months ago now still hangs in the house as smoke from a stove fire would.  It permeates every room and then hangs on Mom and Dad as some invisible hand is tugging on their shirt or dress.  It is a bright spot IF one can see any kind of smile on Mom and Dad, the silent one, pretty much stays to himself and often in his darkroom.  Where in the past he would be sitting near the stove in the living room reading a camera or gun magazine now more often than not he holes up in the darkroom with the door closed.  Mom does some knitting as she sits in the living room but you can tell that she is going through the motions and that is it.  Not sure if anything she worked on came out the way it would have last year.  At this time Janet and John are in Italy IF I remember correctly and that means that two of the four Lee kids who live away from home are not available to come visit.  It seemed to me then and even today that Helen and I, who were still home, did not fill the bill so to speak.  I am not saying anything bad about Mom and Dad it just seemed that way and as I look back I can understand.  Anyway December came and with it not much changed as one would expect in December.  Mom did NOT make her filled cookies which was fine with me BUT.  For me I tried to fill my mind with school.  We were in the middle of basketball season and I put my full being into that.  Todd and I were the co-captains and I took that in a serious way.  It was my senior year and in December I had decided it would be nice to have a girl friend in high school.  Not sure that was a good idea but it did provide some relief from the home front.  Helen was now a freshman and I, of course, tried to keep an eye on her as she kind of was the quiet bell of the ball as a freshman.  If one looks at her picture in the yearbook from 1965 she looks pretty innocent but then looks do not always show the true picture!!!  I say that but really she was about the prettiest freshman gal and her homecoming queen in her senior year proved that.  I will not get into her activities after I graduated!!!  Anyway December 1964 was one to remember yet maybe one to forget as well.  I do not remember if Dave or Joan came home during that month but I can say for certain that IF they did it did little to dent the cloud of grief that hung in every room of the house.  Every Christmas season has it's memories and for 1964 they were not the best.

So here I am at 8:20 and soon it is time to get ready for tennis.  I am on my second cup of FP and it is a large cup as I am using a Christmas present from the South Bend Lees that is an extra large cup with a drawing of John compliments of drawing skills of Liam.  Enough as I sip the last couple of drops of FP and get ready for the rest of the day.