Amy and I went on road trip to Dallas a week ago last Wednesday to do some marketing work for our boss, Trey, who owns a dry-cleaning business. We then departed for the Mogollon Rim in Arizona where Amy's grandmother, affectionally known as "Mimi" and her son, Amy's uncle Alvy lives.
We have been here in Arizona in the nearby Sitgrieves National Forest for 5 days now with Monday morning our planned departure date.
It has been a fun and relaxing stay here in Mimi and Alvy's home which sits on 4 acres surrounded by an ocean of cedars and pines. This area is part of the renowned Mogollon Rim, a 200 mile escarpment in North Central Arizona.
I heard from back home in Colorado that our area got anywhere from 15 inches to over 2 feet of snow. And, here I just planted my mini garden before we left!
The fun here has been offset by some bad news from Illinois. My former secretary from State Farm called me this morning to give the heart rendering news that my old fellow insurance adjuster pal who started with me back in 1986 lost his wife of some 30 years. She was only in her early 50s.
I have heard it said that God takes you after he has deemed that your life's work and purpose is over. But, it seems inconceivable to me that someone who still has children and young grandchildren that their purpose is somehow finished. On the other hand, I have no idea what God's plan is for any of us. That's a question for another day in another dimension.
We are fixing to leave AZ on Monday and get back to Idaho Springs late Tuesday. After that I plan to get on board with a roofing company and sell new roofs because of the recent hail storm down in Lakewood and Denver. I have done this type of work for years along with catastrophic insurance claim handling.
And, I have other irons in the fire which I am not at liberty to discuss. So, we will just see where the road leads.
Meanwhile, our genetic testing from the OBGYN came up with nothing negative. We dodged a bullet there to be sure. And, we learned from that DNA testing that we are going to have a son!
Amy is struggling to some degree with her pregnancy because this is her first. Likewise, I am trying to come to terms with the fact that I will be 58 years old when my son is born. Looking further into the scary math of the situation means I will be 76 years old when my boy graduates from high school! The other father's will range from their late 30s to 40s or 50s. Yikes!
My favorite author and poet, Edgar Lee Masters, of Spoon River Anthology fame, had 3 much older children like me but then married a woman 32 years his junior and had a child, Hilary, when Edgar was 60 years old.
I remember reading of his struggles in his biography with having a young child at his advanced age. He remarked that young Hilary was his most talented child and that he absolutely loved having him around his hotel room at the Chelsea in Manhattan. During the child's school years his mother would take young Hilary back home with her to Kansas City. Then, during the summer vacation both mother and child would travel to New York to spend the 3 months with Edgar Lee. They would usually rent a house in upstate NY and Edgar Lee would put in a garden and work on that in the morning and do his writing in the afternoons followed up with long walks with Hilary and Ellen in the early evening.
Those years with little Hilary and his young wife, Ellen, were his best, he once wrote.
When Edgar Lee died at the age of 81 in a Pennsylvania nursing home young Hilary now 22 years old and a recent college graduate was put in charge of the funeral arrangements.
In honor of the recently deceased the schools and businesses of Petersburg, Illinois closed up early on the day of the funeral to give the townspeople time to watch the passing funeral motorcade as it wound it's way up the hill to Oakland Cemetery. Just a few feet away from his grave lies Ann Rutledge who was Abraham Lincoln's first and greatest love. Masters was once commissioned to compose a epitaph for her tombstone. It was one of Master's best poems.
I have visited Master's gravesite many times and I am amazed with his own epitaph carved there on which reads as follows:
"Good friends, let's to the fields...
After a little walk and by your pardon
I think I'll sleep, there is no sweeter thing,
Nor fate more blessed than to sleep.
I am a dream out of a blessed sleep-
Let's walk and hear the lark."
Hilary went on to have a distinguished literary career as a writer and a professor. He died of complications from surgery in 2015 at the age of 87.
Amy and I are poring over possible names for our baby. I think one possiblity is Edgar Masters Schoenbein in honor of my favorite writer and poet. But, Amy will have the last word on the name.
Other names we are considering are Samuel, Rudolf, Atticus, Aiden, Jefferson and even Caldwell. Hahahaha!
Well, it's time to get back to Mimis for supper. We are at the local Safeway right now where we can get Wi-Fi so I can update my blog.
On Sunday, we plan on attending church with Mimi as she is a faithful and long time member in her local congregation.
The Sun is setting fast now and the winds are picking up so see all y'all on the sunny side.
The pics show Amy with Mimi, Mimi's house and Uncle Alvy, Mimi, Alvy's neice, Mela and Amy feeding ducks at the lake this morning.
BR Schoenbein
Amy Schoenbein
Baby Schoenbein
May 19, 2017- Friday
