Starting again . . .

It has been a long absence,  but here I am. 

Right after my last entry, the first part of July, my brother had a heart attack.  My mom who is 91 lives here in Bozeman in her own condo since her move here last summer.  My brothers illness really took a toll on her.  My brother had surgery in mid-August to replace the titanium valve from several years ago as that was not working and he is doing fine now. 

Mom continued to struggle during my brother's health issues and then her younger sister passed.  Mom had been so vibrant, so independent and able.  That suddenly that started to end, as it can, with memory loss, angry phone calls made that were not remembered,  family conflict over issues that didn't exist, overtaking and undertaking prescriptions and continually wanting to move away.  And we keep working on it.

In late July, we enjoyed a huge family reunion here at our house with lots of cousins.  We ate "fried chicken" made memory of the Kimble family who all loved their friend chicken.  My dad and his two sisters were the parents of the 75 "chicken-eatin'" relatives.  It was a milestone for us all - lots of memories made and certainly worth the work.  You can see some of the cousins in the photo above.

Our Scottish Terrior, Kassie, got sick right after the reunion and was soon diagnosed with bladder cancer, inoperable, and yesterday we said our final good-bye to her.  

I always think about being on the Oregon Trail.  You just keep heading "due west" through all kinds of good and bad and that is what we are doing.  Today it seems like we have arrived somewhere - not sure where - but not a place of celebration.  Just a destination.   And then we will head out again.

I have continued with my studio work - including some art quilting, traditional quilting and design digitizing.   I want to start a new blog focused on my art.  I will post that here when I get it up. 

It feels like my "third act" is completed.