Thanksgiving and Christmas were spent with Linda’s parents in Mobile, AL.  Meals were had at their retirement community dining facility, which is much more restaurant style than cafeteria.  You select from a respectable menu, and the meals are good (think Denny’s, or Holiday Inn).  There were also several Christmas programs, a choir performance, and a Christmas sing-along.  Linda’s brother, Kirk, came in from Atlanta for a visit, as well.  We also went to a New Year’s Eve Party at their community.  There was lots of great conversation, and more dancing than you might expect.  However, I should note that the party ran from 7 – 9 pm.  Technically, it was a still a New Year’s Eve party, but no one hung around to see the ball drop.  It is a great group of people, many of whom led very interesting lives.  Still, Linda and I plan to stay on the road for a long time before we would consider settling in at such a place.

Since you have hung in through the pablum above, well, here is where it gets more difficult.  Per plan, we packed up and winterized our RV to leave in Alabama while we headed to Colorado for 2 months of skiing and other winter fun.  We were on the road for 3 hours when we got the call that Linda’s mom had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance.  We turned around but arrived back in Mobile too late.  Linda’s mom had passed.  She had been in pain from a failed hip surgery for a number of years.  Her actual passing was unexpected, and quick.

If you will allow me a moment, I will share a few brief thoughts on my mother-in-law.  Whatever horror stories you may have heard of MIL’s, none applied to mine.  She grew up in post war Berlin, and came to the US at age 26, speaking little English.  Her teaching certification from Germany was not valid in the US, so she set about gaining US certification while tending bar.  She met her future husband and they married 6 weeks later (I didn’t think you could even get a venue that quickly)!  She started teaching in the US, and had a daughter, Linda, and 5 years later, a son.  When, after a couple of years of difficulty in school, Linda was diagnosed as dyslectic, it was a caring teacher and Linda’s mom who painstakingly transformed her from a struggling child into the exceptional student who eventually got a bachelors in petroleum engineering and a masters in CIO.  Linda’s mom became so engaged in dealing with her own learning challenged child that she altered her career course and specialized in learning challenged children for the remaining 30 plus years of her teaching career.  The last 20 years of her career were in Alabama.  She had a huge impact on her students there, to the effect that you had children with their traditional southern drawl, but also with a distinct Germanic accent.

She was a remarkable woman, and is greatly missed by those who knew her.

Above: Kirk Somers, Liese Somers, Joe Somers, Linda Somers Suppan

Although we missed being there for her final moments, we were blessed with the opportunity to spend 3 months sharing time, meals, and conversation.  Had we not retired and hit the road, that would never have happened.  We move forward missing her, but without regrets.

For the life celebration service, our son, daughter, and son in-law came to Mobile, as did Linda’s brother, Kirk, his wife, his two sons, one daughter, two daughter in-laws, and one son in-law.  That’s the whole bunch.  Although the occasion was sad, it was great to share time and stories with the extended family.  The generation following us is most talented and quite remarkable.  They are interested in issues of significant world-wide importance, and are willing to work and make sacrifices to deal with those issues.  They have a compassion for others, even when they look/act/think differently, that exceeds anything I ever possessed.  I hope that we have not hindered them too greatly with some of the messes we leave behind.

On 16 Jan, we re-packed our RV and hit the road, Steamboat Springs, Colorado bound.  News from the high country will follow in episode 13.