So much time, so many years have gone by since my last post. October 2019 to March of 2024 is over four year. Much water has passed under many bridges. Shortly after our visit to Missoula that year Sarah tried to move to California and was gone about two weeks before she decided it was not going to work out. We celebrated Christmas and New Years. In January 2020 Tay and Sarah moved into an apartment in Donnelly. Tay was going to school there and Sarah was working at Tamarack.

We had been hearing word of a possible pandemic starting in November of 2019 and by March it was definitely happening around the world. Soon there were cases of it in Washington State. I had surgery on my back on March 17th, 2020 to remove some bulging disk in my lower back. Earlier that month, Sarah’s boyfriend, Dave, came from Wales and shortly after asked her to marry him. They were married in June. On March 18th the Pandemic became real for our country and lock down began. It was a crazy time. Having to stay at home, wearing masks everywhere. Unable to meet in groups of more than 10. After I recovered from my surgery I was able to work, a dentist office was consider a necessary business so we remain open. There were so many conflicting ideas about how to handle this crazy time. Isolate or herd mentality was a real fight. Where it came from and conspiracy theories that it was deliberate became the norm. There was a battle over being vaccinated or not. This went on until middle of 2022. We did not know many people that passed away from Covid. There were so many deaths. So many sad stories. It is a time that will not be forgotten.

Early spring we began to plan to add on a downstairs bedroom, with the help of the inheritance from my father, we were able to do this. Rob got going on testing for a new septic on our property. We had some timely visits from friends, Dave and Tina and Dan and Wink, who encouraged us to build and even helped us. Dave drew up preliminary plans which Rob was able to take send to an architect and Dan and Wink said they would come and put up the shell. Permits were gotten and work began. We started by tearing off the sunroom on the south side. Then the pouring of cement took place. Then on October 5th Dan and Wink started working along with their son Tom, who came with his wife Rehma. They got it done in two weeks or so, finishing right before the first fall rain came.

In the middle of all this I was diagnosed with breast cancer. After they did a biopsy there was so little cancer that they could not see where to put the marker. (They put a marker to show where the cancer is.) Shortly after I had a mastectomy and the result of the lymph nodes was negative so I did not have to have chemo or radiation. In October, right when Wink and Dan came I had reconstruction surgery that went well. It is such a miracle. I can say that I had cancer for two weeks in the middle of a pandemic!

Back tracking a bit, I wanted to share some pics of our time in Wyoming for my Dad’s memorial in June. Both of our boys and their families came, so wonderful. Sarah was still in Wells. It was a great time to get together with my siblings and their offspring. We had a service in the cemetery. My mom and dad’s urns are together in a tomb stone that had two spaces to put their urns and then they were sealed up. Here are some pics of our family together. (To be continued…)