We saw my father at the nursing home and saw my mother at Julie's and then loaded a few things from my parents' apartment into our Dodge van -- plus a red fiberglass kayak, which Jackie thought we should have, riding on the top -- and headed up to New Hampshire to visit Joey and Mary, who were staying at Mary's mother's place (down the road from their own fifteen acres). To the left and below you can see Tommy and Joel in the field outside the house.

      Here's Joel back at Kimball road a couple of months later -- just three days before his twelfth birthday. He and Unity and Orion, a couple of the friends he's had ever since he was in daycare, are lunching on grilled english muffins with cheese.
      The table and china cabinet are the ones we brought back with us in August from my parents' apartment in Washington.
      My father lasted less than two months in the nursing home. A man who had been strong and bright and fearless all the days of his life. A man who never wanted to die.