REMEMBERING  SALLY  IN  THE  SUN
 

When I got the package from Sally's

 daughter-in-law,
my first thought was…

Sally must think she is going to die
if she is giving her things away..

not realizing until I read the letter 

that she had passed on May 12, 2013.

I don't know what it was that drew us together.

I was in my late 20's going to Hawaii to meet my
husband. I remember sitting next to

 her on that long flight.
 At the time, I thought she was very old.

 I am laughing now,
knowing that she was younger than I am now.
I guess that long flight kept us connected because

we talked non-stop;
Sally was a warm, soft spoken person who

was not easily forgotten.



We started sending Mother's Day and

 Christmas cards to each other.  

Into our 25th year, Sally didn't send a card,
and I missed receiving it. 

I, immediately, wrote back to her,

asking if she was still alive.
This was 11 years ago when she

 was 87 years old.  
She wrote back with her words of wisdom:
"You only missed me when I stopped writing." 

It was the interruption in an enduring and

'expected' communication; however, minimal, in words;

the unspoken words were always there in spirit.

I will miss her more now that she

has "stopped writing."

 I am at ease that she was able to pass,

 in peace, from this

 life to a spiritual one in her own bed. 

I started rereading old letters when one stood out.

It was a Christmas letter of Sally Lee's biography, 

from her family, dated 2012. 


Sally, aka Celedonia Akui Lee,
became a ward of the Salvation Army
 at the age of  seven  in Hawaii. 

Before that time, she was a 
sugar cane picker who took the


 long way home to avoid the
 water buffaloes.
 She cooked rice over an open

fire and ate over a trough. 


Given her only pair of new shoes
 at 18 by the SA,

she was "kicked
 out to fend for herself."
She had to drop out of school her senior year


to make a living, as a live-in-maid. 

She lived and loved to the grand old age of 98.

 Sitting next to Sally on the plane in those early years in 1980,
she appeared content and graceful.
Her petite body covered in tinted colors with floral designs,
not drawn for attention.
A soft spoken person without a big stick
because of her killing kindness and generosity.

Her Love and Perseverance is evident through her 

children and their families. She was proud of them all.

Every letter and card came with a full description
of all the names and ages of her children,

their wives and grandchildren;
and what each of them accomplished. 

She had come a long way in life to see that her labor
was rewarded through the accomplishments 

of her children and grandchildren.



Her virtues were considerable compared to the harsh life
God had given her from birth. 

She was truly a child of God
who knew how to encourage others to love.

Much care was taken, to follow her instructions

when I received the package from her daughter-in-law.

A long, loving letter from her daughter-in-law to me,

accompanied Sally's jade bracelet representing 

good health and prosperity.
Her "heart" necklace represented

her love.

 In her purple knit cap, I see her smiling face.
Her small framed body in the sunshine.
Her favorite song: 

                   "Sunshine On my Shoulder"  by John Denver.

Sally 

Her children chose the summer Solstice day

of June 21 to scatter her ashes.
She blew in the breeze off the mountain top,
towards the sun.

Retiring to Montana

We have moved on to another frontier, as shocking as that is to our friends and family. It's really pretend wilderness, for now. The deer seem tame. I haven't seen any bears lately. In fact, people I know in the Southern states have seen more bears than I have seen in Montana.  Although, my friend's husband brings along a gun when she goes berry picking.  Competition is fierce when it comes to berries.
There are wild animals in the woods. My husband did see a hand written note at the mailbox saying a large mountain lion was seen in the area. He said he did see something large, like a dog, fly across our driveway that same week during the day.
"Not sure it was a dog," he said.
Glad, I didn't see it. Of course, when an animal lunges toward you, the best time to move is when it's in mid air.  Hopefully, I am standing on the edge of a cliff.
Unfortunately, that's only in cartoons. I'm raw meat.

Last week, a woman looking much younger than her 70 plus years, introduced herself to us after yoga class when we were still on the 2nd floor, standing in the adjacent room, waiting for a salon appointment.  Her name is Ann.
Kristine and I walked out to the street, around the corner to the health food store to buy local grown organic vegetables. While we were heading back to our car, we heard someone coming up from behind us. It was Ann. She was carrying her dry cleaning. She forgot to tell us that it's her daughter-in-law, who teaches our yoga class.
Standing on the busy sidewalk, we only had a few minutes to tell each other our life story, which we did. Her husband is 3rd generation in Whitefish …
Can this place get any friendlier?  Whitefish is a small community; therefore, we barely moved out of our tracks to accomplish all that we needed to do that day while meeting the locals.

We were told by the locals that we should meet our neighbors.
Kristine and I walked down the road from our home with a sack of Kristine's zucchini bread and caramel candy with"getting-to-know-you" cards , as an introduction to the neighbors.

Our nearest neighbor, down the hill and across the road had already introduced herself some days ago when she heard Kristine sneeze from our deck. Kristine heard her yell back, "Bless you."
Kelly and her husband just moved here this year.
She had been in the National Guard and had 2 tours under her belt, in Afghanistan and Iraq, as a "medic" and "mechanic." The military must have cataloged her under the "M's."
Don't let anyone tell you the military can't mold you into what they "need" because Kelly's degree is in Botany.

She said, "I am into canning now."  She gave us 2 large jars of canned cherries to sample.  We noticed that they had already accumulated several boats and vehicles, including 2 Harley. Planted a large garden; built a chicken coop and had 2 large friendly dogs. Her husband was on a business trip that day, but Kelly seemed more than capable of taking care of everything; in spite of the fact, that she is 4-5 months pregnant with their first child. In fact, I think I saw her tilling the garden earlier.

There's a small quaint, picturesque cabin on part of, what was, Kelly's property, that belongs to  newly weds. We could hear the jazz band playing at their wedding a few weeks earlier. We sat on our balcony with a glass of wine enjoying the music. Of course, if we had introduced ourselves earlier, we would have been at the wedding.

Our other closest neighbor is a retired Airline pilot, Pete, and his wife, Terry. Their traditional log cabin has some of the trimmings of an American Indian home with a miniature totem pole. Our deer also grazes on his immaculate, mowed, lawn and yard.

We have been in Whitefish, Montana for 4 weeks, getting accustom to the weather. The weather seemed God sent. He knew we needed rain, so He sent it at night while we slept and in the morning the sun came out and everything was clean and cooled off.
This was in the first weeks. Now, it is pouring rain and cooler during the day. We were told it will rain most the year.
Although, it had been in the low 90's with thunder storms, some humidity, it was nothing like the California weather last week when it hit 104 degrees; along with the Santa Ana Winds that blew our patio furniture and umbrella across the yard and filled the pool with dirt and leaves.
My husband made a trip back to California for business and stopped in to see our home which is in escrow for another week.
It didn't take long before he felt the California house looked older to him. He is glad we sold it after seeing what the heat and Santa Ann winds did to the potted flowers, yard and pool. It sucked the life out of them.

Yes, I know Montana will be cold in winter, as "everyone" in California, including strangers, kept telling me; but I always felt cold in California too, during the winter months. It is all relative.
At least I know it will be cold in Montana. In fact, I have a large box of coats in the attic because I ran out of places to hang all our coats.
You would think it was winter in Montana now; looking at our Mud room rack and hall closets. We have coats galore.  Just bring your own boots.

Which brings to mind a local antique dealer who tried to sell me a dirty old bear coat that even a bear would be ashamed of wearing.
He said it would be a conversational starter. I told him I would be afraid to take it off his wall for fear it would wake the sleeping rats, nestled in it.

Yes, small communities have their issues too. I want to honk my horn at drivers who pull out in front of me on the main highway between Whitefish and Kalispell, a 15 mile, 60-65 mph road "without" merging lanes.
They tend to wait until I am close enough to gauge my speed which for them just happens to be when my tailwind blows up the dust, in front of them;
although, they can see me coming a mile away in the wide open spaces of farmland which are surrounded by the Glaciers and Rockies.
Seeing the little white "crosses", some with flowers, planted along the side of the road makes me anticipate the "worst," so I slow down.

The environment, especially around our home, is very laid back and peaceful; although we are always busy doing something. Kim is sawing down dead trees and hauling them away while picking out weeds. He is building a woodshed for the firewood, and eventually, will build up to a natural wood burning sauna located near the house. Kristine is quilting and baking, almost nonstop.

We knew when we stepped off the plane in 2007 that Montana was the place to be because the open landscape and clean air made us feel alive. I remembered that feeling, the first time we visited Oceanside, CA in 1977; the ocean air was breezy and fresh. Now there is too much traffic, over population and pollution.
We enjoy Montana; like we enjoyed California in 1977.  Hopefully, we will be here for awhile before the rest of the Californians come.

Montana:  Inge's backyard last Fall

Obama and Assad: The Mittens Are Off

The Mittens Are Off

I almost feel sorry for Obama listening to the press conference in Russia on Syria. He actually has his tail covering his balls while pretending he doesn't. 

Obama chose not to help over 100,000 innocent Syrian people who were killed by Assad over the last 2 years by conventional weapons. 

August 2012, out of the blue, documented in a news video, Obama puts down a red line daring Assad to cross it by using chemical weapons against his people. 

What moral value was this challenge based when over 100,000 have already died? Conventional weapons don't count; Kill all you want?

Assad called Obama bluff. Obama now blames congress and the world for not coming to "his" defense and awkward challenge against a bully. 

Mr. President, you can fool your followers most the time through your false statements on ObamaCare, Benghazi, IRS, NSA, Fast and Furious;  but it is much harder to "fake it" when you are addressing the enemy on the world stage. It is harder for the Liberal media to whitewash it.