Reflections

I woke this morning thinking about my cousin, John Johnson. I heard from my aunt that John had passed away at the young age of 45 in early January.

Memories of times spent together as we were growing up flowed through my mind. Playing a game of jumping over the heater vent that was between the kitchen and the living room in the house on West Park. Going swimming in their pool ~ I was quite impressed that they had their own swimming pool! I remember having picnic's at Grandma & Grandpa Johnson's place - it was like a huge park in the middle of town. I am sure if I were to go back to Grandpa Johnson's place I would find it to be just a large lot with lots of trees surrounding the house.

When I married, I lost contact except via the mail and later email and phone calls between my aunt and her family. I would think of them often and wonder what John, along with his sisters Lee Ann and Bonnie were doing. Then Ron and I reconnected with my aunt in the 90's. Many things had changed, my aunt was remarried. Uncle Don is a sweet and loving man, he reminds me of a big teddy bear. They now live on 1500 acres in Lake County, CA. They have a real cool place: it has the main hunting lodge (that sleeps a lot), the caretaker's quarters (where my Aunt Joan and Uncle Don live), and then the cottage which is a two bedroom comfy place to stay (the bed is the most comfy I have ever slept on). Lee Ann, a teacher, has a daughter, Marcy and Bonnie & Kent have three little girls and also live in Lake County and John was living in Winnemuca, NV, and Chris lives in the Bay Area, she is Uncle Don's daughter from a previous marriage.

We were able to see the whole family except for John at Thanksgiving 2005. That Thanksgiving I also reconnected with my mom's Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Barbara. We were sorry John could not make it for the holidays. Yet, it was good to reconnect with so many family members.

Then last week I got an email from my Aunt Joan saying that John had passed away. I feel for my aunt ~ it is not right for a parent to have to bury a child, no matter how old the child is. Since then I have thought about John a lot. I feel sad that as a part of my family I didn't really know him. I wonder what kind of conversations we might have had with each other. I wonder if we each did things in our lives that the other would be proud of. I wonder what he liked to do for fun? If he liked movies or more physical stuff. All my wondering will not give me any answers.

Now I just wonder he if is with the Lord ~ I believe he is as I believe God is a Fair and Just God and will honor the prayers of those who cry out to him during his life time. What I hope to learn from this is to reconnect with family, and friends who are like family for we never know what our lives will bring.

Alice

Just a note to catch up...

Here it is past the middle of January and I have not written since the 27th of December. In just four short weeks lots has been happening here in Blaine.

First we returned from Boise on January 1st. When we signed in at Boise airport we were asked if we wanted to volunteer to get bumped ~ Ron and I looked at each other and said "let's go for it!" So for giving up our seats on a 3:00 departing flight we were put on the 4:30 departure flight, each of us received a $200 voucher for future travels. Ron immediately starts thinking of Disneyland or Denver or ???? but I immediately think "yeah, we can go to Boise again!" We arrived in Seattle at 6:30, had to wait for the 9:00 shuttle from the airport to Ferndale and arrived home about midnight to more snow and super cold weather.

We jumped right back into our daily life: Ron working or trying to work (with so much snow and ice there were places he could not get his truck into) and me working at the church and making plans to return to work at the C Shop.

But then I hit a glitch. My depression started spiraling down and the decision was made that I would check back into St. Joseph Hospital to address the deep depression I was in. I was in the hospital from January 12th to the 17th. Since being discharged I have been taking things slowly and trying to come up with some tangible things I can do to keep from going down the trail of depression. I would appreciate your prayers as I work on this and Ron supports me during this time. I thank the Lord for a loving husband, great kids, daughter-in-law's, grandchildren and church family for all their support these last weeks and in the weeks to come.

I want to share about an upcoming event BUT oops, it's a surprise for someone who reads this blog so I had better keep quiet. I will tell you all about it in a later blog. Keep tuned!

Well, we are off to a Blaine boys basketball game against Sehome so I will close for now. Just wanted to let you know how we are doing.

Hope this wintry month you are able to keep warm and not have to deal with too much more snow ~ at least those of us in the Pacific Northwest.

Love, Alice