The Passing of a Southern Belle

I heard yesterday that a lady very dear to my heart had passed away on February 6th at 92. Lillian was born and raised in Louisville, KY and remained the epitome of gracious southern charm the entire time of my interaction with her despite being in poor health. For about 14 months I traveled five days a week at 8:30 to cook Lilly breakfast and help her with nominal tasks like emptying garbage, defrosting her freezer and rewinding and setting her grandfather clock. And probably most especially, being there as some morning comfort and company over the cup of hot tea I’d bring her. 

She was humorous, witty, sharp, and gave me a glimpse into life in the south well before civil rights. I got to know her granddaughters and heard her anguish over her very disabled son—my age, but significantly impaired his entire adult life due to being covered with Agent Orange in Vietnam. I only learned through her obituary that he had passed before her late last year. Lilly steadfastly refused to leave her beloved and very lovely Yuma home so died in it surrounded by family and Hospice. She touched my life in a special way only the very elderly can do and I will hope to be able to someday emulate her state of grace under pressure. She only gave up when absolutely forced to: rest in peace dear Lilly; you were very beloved by many, including me. 

Not to fill this blog entry with tragedy but Marc has been dealing with it as well; a work accident on one of his projects which claimed the life of a young man through a series of preventable accident and inattention involving a forklift. The fall-out is still to come (not to Blenker Company) as OSHA investigates but it has occupied much of Marc’s time since Friday when it occurred. He has to make arrangements for another set crew to finish up the job and he has to physically visit the site tomorrow. He’s been dejected at the fragileness of life and the throes of losing a good worker who was a decent human being and was way too early in knowing death and leaving behind a young family. Just a moment's inattention; one moment we're here and then we're not. As we all know, death comes to those both young and old, and life teaches us lessons about the passing of both. 

While Marc is away tomorrow I will meet with the carpet installers who will be doing our carpet in the master bedroom and closet. After three weekends of work we are still not completely done with the painting but Marc figures he may be able to get it finished this evening. It just involves one more coat on the great room and kitchen walls. Meanwhile, he has also laid the vinyl in both bathrooms and is in the process of setting the vanities.

We’ve been on massive spending sprees at Menard’s and Lowe’s but there will be more bleeding to come. The next major expense comes the next time Menard’s has a sale when we will need to purchase our siding. Budget and local construction history deems vinyl siding as the most prominent choice to hold up to this climate so that’s what we’ll have, in gray with white shake gable end trim. The exterior of our house is fairly Plain Jane but as time goes by we hope to add some window boxes and maybe even a few courses of some type of brick or stone. 

Our laminate flooring should arrive late this week but Marc has to be out of town for a week again starting Sunday so things will sit for awhile. We’re at the fun part of putting the house together with the finishes but there is not a lot I can do to hasten things along since Marc is the guy with the tools. Lastly, Marc’s sister wanted to see the view we will get when we sit in our spa so Marc had me snap some from inside our great room. Obviously we have a ways to go here before we’ll be hot tub soaking, but it will be lovely and oh so relaxing at some point!