1987

      What where you doing in 1987?  In the fall of that year Joanne moved to her position as Vice President of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. A few months later I followed her to Minnesota. In 1987 the late Wallace Stegner copyrighted a novel he called Crossing To Safety.  In 2024 I read it and was much impressed.

     Safety is the intimate story of a long friendship of two couples. It's told in a non-linear fashion. For example when Sally gets sick on a camping trip told early in the story we're not told until much later in the book that she had polio. The book's culmination is with the death of Charity, one of the friends. This is not to give too much away because her terminal illness also begins the book. As her friends and spouse convene in her bedroom towards the end of her life she says "'Dying's an important event....You can't rehearse for it. All you can do is prepare yourself and others. You can try to do it right. In a way cancer is a blessing, it generally gives you a little time."'  P. 290  The book is filled with profound reflections on life, work, disability, university life, art, grief and dying. It's a book worth recommending to those concerned with death and dying.

    I'm glad I read it!

Takk for alt,

Al

PS 1:  I saw a pheasant chick yesterday for the first time this year. It appeared about three weeks old meaning an early hatch. It was in tall grass so there likely were siblings.

PS 2; With rain all day it occurred that it's news when it's not raining.