HURRICANE “IKE”; BACK IN MARYLAND FROM DALLAS
Catonsville, MD, Friday, September 12, 2008

Attentive followers of this blog will recall that this is the actual day that Kathleen and I were to fly back to Ecuador. Since I already had a return ticket before we inserted a visit to Dallas to see my mother for a week, and since making any changes to the original ticket was going to be expensive, I opted simply to leave Kathleen in Dallas, return to Baltimore for a couple nights and meet Kathleen today at Houston Airport to catch the COPA flight to Panamá City and Guayaquil; this used to be a Continental route but, restructuring their business, Continental has passed us over to an allied airline from Panamá.

The best-laid plans, however …! Hurricane IKE has caused Houston International Airport to be closed for a day or so. Since I could not get through either by internet or by phone to re-schedule, I simply drove down there this morning with Kathleen’s mother and re-scheduled on the spot for Sunday.


After returning to Catonsville (fortunately only fifteen minutes by car form the airport), I went back to bed and then spent a few hours sorting pictures from the Dallas trip.


It was great to see my Mum, still very bright and alert mentally though her vision is now gone and her hearing weak. But we visited for a few hours every day as well as singing a recital for her a week ago that went really well and singing at the church service in the residence on Sunday morning.


Parting was a little tough. The last time, at Mum’s 90th Birthday, she was upset and said she might very likely not see me again. Of course, three years later, this becomes even more topical. We were able to talk sometimes about death and dying without being overwhelmed by the subject and our farewells were warm and loving without being unbearably emotional. We remember more the laughing and Mother’s story-telling from her youth and family-rearing years. It was great!