My mind is firmly planted on my friends from New Hampshire. Bob, Michelle, and their children Davis, Sabra, and Siera. The last two are twin girls. Know, Siera, I only put you last because your name falls alphabetically after your sister. That is what English teachers do.
My dear wife, Carrie, and I are very fond of this bunch. Carrie and Michelle go way back. They graduated from high school together. They spent a great deal of time together growing up. Each time I hear them telling a story about something that happened back in the day, they both have such a fascinating look on their faces. They laugh and they recall and they are both so grateful they have each other to relive those wonderful times they shared growing up together. Who wouldn’t?
There is another Michelle in this mix too. Same age. Same class in high school. Get the three of them together…and you might as well step aside. I wish the three of them could get together more often, just so I could watch them laugh.
I told about Bob in one of the first posts I wrote here in July of last year. Bob took me to Fenway Park in Boston. I still don’t believe I was actually there. I think I was. It seemed like a dream. Bob drove to the game that day. If you knew how much I drive every day you would know how important that was. Bob drove. I got to look around. It is a time I hope I never forget.
Before my dear Carrie and I got to New Hampshire last summer, we spent a week in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. While we were there, we took to the vehicle on a couple of occasions and made short trips to do some sight-seeing and vittle finding. The Old Forge restaurant in Lanesborough, MA is firmly planted in our Top 5 eateries of all time. I got a mushroom ravioli that was probably the best thing I ever tasted in a restaurant North of Interstate 20. What can I say, I am a southern boy a heart.
One day we went up to Bennington, Vermont…just a drive of forty miles or so from where we were staying. I fell in love with the place. The people? Friendly. Speaking of friendly…we discovered Friendly’s Ice Cream Restaurant in Bennington and I was taken aback. In the Midwest we have Dairy Queen. In the Northeast, they have Friendly’s. I like Dairy Queen. I really like Friendly’s. Give me a big waffle cone full of chocolate-chip ice cream and you will find a happy man. Mission accomplished at the Bennington, VT Friendly’s.
If you get a chance to go to Bennington, I encourage you. As I said, the people are friendly. The town is spotless. It is not a fancy place. It is a nice place.
While we were in the Bennington visitor’s center, we were asked if we were familiar with the work of Robert Frost. Being an English teacher from way back, I know who Robert Frost was…and I am very familiar with his work. After all, most of us have read the poem The Road Not Taken…you know, the one where he talks about two paths in the woods. One was worn and one was not. He chose the road less traveled by and said it made all the difference. He took the path that was not worn. What Frost did not know was that he would create a worn path all his own.
The lady in the Bennington visitor’s center told us Robert Frost was buried in a cemetery at a church no more than a few miles from where we were talking about it. What she said, I still think about and laugh.
‘If you are in the cemetery, you can find the grave of Robert Frost very easily. There is a worn and beaten path that leads to his marker.”
Frost may have chose the road less traveled by in life…but he created a road most traveled by in death. That is a classic oxymoron.
Sadness.
It is hard to let someone go. Friendships don’t always last like we think they will. It is hard to let them go. Love affairs don’t always end the way we hope they will. It is hard to let them go.
Even when we know it is best that we let someone go, it doesn’t mean it will be an easy thing. It is hard to let someone we love go.
Our friends from New Hampshire have been back in town since late last week. Michelle got to the hospital where her Mom was admitted and she never left….until…this morning. Nine nights she spent at the hospital.
Michelle’s mother, Mary Beth, lost her battle with cancer this morning.
Carrie and I left the hospital last night after midnight. We were hanging out with Sabra and Siera and we also saw Bob and Davis. We didn’t see Michelle. And that was okay. She did not want to leave her mother’s bedside. Her dad, Tommy, was there too. Our thoughts and our prayers are with them at this most difficult time.
No matter what the situation is…when you lose someone you love, it is hard to let them go.
That last sentence speaks the rights.
Danny Johnson