Friday, May 4, 2018

False alert I posted yesterday about today.

Journal entry by Joanne Negstad — May 1, 2018
Editor's choice to delay, I assume.  The Minneapolis Star/Tribune has been researching Joanne's life in preparation for doing a feature article on her.  Daily, they print a obituary they produce, of a notable person who has died.  The journalist working on Joanne's story told us that it would run today (Tuesday).  It did not appear and then we were told they will run it on Friday.  They are placed in the Minnesota Section on the obituary page and typically are a third to half a page.  We don't know how they chose to feature Joanne.  If you get the paper look for it, but, I'll attach it here for those of you who do not get the paper.
    Joanne had twin recliners...brown, fuzzy, Lazyboys.  At farm sale in S.D. one came up for sale.  The auctioneer started bidding at $20., I raised my hand and the bidding stopped. If I hadn't been so eager I might have gotten it for $10.  While it was dusty it looked like it had never been used.  It was installed in the Little House on the Prairie. 
     With retirement Joanne's life really changed.  She slept later and became a voracious reader...reading was something she seldom did while she was working. Sitting in one of her recliners she consumed a  couple of books per week.  Reading in S.D. was a favorite activity.
     One night in S.D. she began reading the book, Cutting for Stone.  Without any need to arise at a particular time, she would read after I'd gone to bed, and, that was the case when she was reading Cutting for Stone.  Totally absorbed in the story she read on until she heard an unusual sound. Putting her book down to listen, it dawned on her the sound was birds singing...she had read all night! 
     How am I doing?  Perhaps as well as one can expect under the circumstances.  In my spare time I read with three groups of elementary students.  These are the best readers in their rooms who need enrichment.  During Joanne's illness and death I was absent from school, and knowing about my loss, they and many of their classmates made sympathy cards for me.  One 5th grader wrote "One someone close to you dies it is like having a limb cut off."  Ah..the wisdom of youth!

Blessings,

No comments: