I recently found out that an old family friend, Nadine, was living in one of those senior facilities, called SHAG, right next to our Auburn Fred Meyer store. I have known her my whole life. No, a more accurate statement would be that she has known me all my life. She and my grandma (on my dads side) were best friends for most of their lives. Her husband, Herman, was such an amiable-looking guy. I always remember his affable face and his warm, friendly grin. Herman died recently and Nadine was left single after many, many years of them being an inseparable couple. She has two daughters, but only one of them really visits her from what I understand. My mom is the one that recently told me about her.
I decided I should visit her! Would she know me?
Her senior housing apartment was very local to me, so it was very easy. To make it easier, her apartment was ground-floor and has outside access and an address number on the outside of the window. When I walked up to the glass and knocked on it, I could see her sitting right there on the couch in her little living room reading a book.
She jumped right up and came to the sliding glass door when I knocked. She opened it up and looked at me questioningly.
"Nadine?" I asked in a questioning kind of voice, knowing full well that it was her of course. "I'm Rick--Bob and Arla's oldest. I heard you were interned here and decided I should come and visit you!"
"Come in," she said, stepping aside and studying me closely, "I can see it now that I look at you."
I didn't get a tour of her apartment, but from what I could see she had a nice, small place and none was needed. There was a little stack of reading materials and nibbles near her couch where she sat. She wasn't watching the TV, but it was on--probably to keep her company. It smelled like, well--old people (no offense to anyone intended), but it was toasty warm.
She was very animated and energetic and had plenty to talk about. She's a pretty savvy lady and seemed to be equally at home with answering questions or leading a topic herself. We talked for almost two hours before I finally told her goodbye, promising to visit again. It's been a week so I guess I'm overdue to drop in again.
On a totally unrelated note, Sue and I have decided to join a Boeing recreation club for photo geeks. The Boeing Employees Photographic Society meets most Wednesday evenings between the months of September and June. We dropped in one night three weeks ago to check em out for the first time. That was the first Wednesday of the month, which is "projected" image night. We sat and watched as projected digital images and slides were shown before the crowd, which voted and commented on them. We didn't think any of them were particularly amazing or anything, but it was interesting to take part in it. A nice group of folks--half of them of retirement age.
We talked about that night on the way home and decided that it might be fun to try out. Membership is prorated, so joining halfway through the year would only cost us $14 total, so why not? The way it works is, the first Wednesday is "projected" images, the 2nd Wednesday is "instructional" night (this month's talk was about Adobe Lightroom, version 4), and the 3rd Wednesday is "print" night. Suz forced me to pick an image out of my pile of pictures. "If we're going to go to print night you're going to pick something out to print. It won't kill you." (i hate it when she's right.) Neither of us garnered anything near a good score, but at least we took part. Also, we had the smallest prints. Our 8x10's looked puny next to the bigger prints of the regulars, but still--it was fun. Tomorrow night Is the 4th Wednesday of the month, and they reserve that one as "speaker's night" if they have one lined up. Tomorrow's speaker is a (the?) guy that takes pictures of Boeing planes from other planes. Here's an article about him. He takes some nice pictures, but then--he's got all the tools he needs! They also tend to have a photo outing on the 4th Wednesday occasionally. That would be where we're all turned loose somewhere in common to see what we can capture.
Seems like everything around her lately is Ireland, Ireland, Ireland. So much to see, and so long before we get to go see it!
Pint o' Guinness anyone?
1 comments:
Really nice to reconnect.
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