And the dish ran away with the spoon…

Marvin: There’s a spoon on the wheelchair.
Jim: What, Dad?
Marvin: There’s a spoon on the wheelchair.
Jim: No, Dad, there’s no spoon on the wheelchair.
Marvin: It’s right there.
Jim: No, Dad, that’s a blanket.
(Frustration furrows Marvin’s brow.)
Barbara: Here, we’ll look for it.
(Jim and I pick up the blanket and shake it out. No spoon.)
Jim: It’s not in the blanket, Dad.
(Jim and I pick up the bedspread, underneath the blanket, and shake it out. No spoon.)
Jim: Dad, the nurse must have picked up the spoon and taken it away.
I think to myself but don’t say it aloud: The dish ran away with the spoon.
(Confusion on his face followed by a sigh of resignation from Marvin.)
The spoon issue is put to rest. For now.

Bittersweet

I think you have to reach a certain age to appreciate the meaning of the word bittersweet. I am of *a certain age* (and have been for a certain long time) and this Father's Day is a bittersweet one for sure. My beloved father-in-law, Marvin Cooley, is very ill and in the hospital with multiple issues, not the least of which is congestive heart failure. While he might get a bit better, we have no illusions that this 92 year old is going to be out working in his garden anytime soon.

I am also remembering some of the better times with my own dad who's been gone for a year and a half now. Each of them so different from the other, but each of them occupies his own special place in my heart and my memories. My dad was a gregarious man with an intoxicating zest for life that was also contagious. He loved travel and instilled the same love of it in me. The picture below is of Dad, my nephew Colin giving Dad the rabbit ears, and me on our way up to Hanging Lake in Colorado in 1997. Dad was 77 years old at the time and had a heart condition so it was with great reluctance that just a short distance from the top (the climb is about a 1000 foot total rise in elevation in about a one mile hike) he had to stop and let us go on without him.


Marvin has always been a great naturalist and has filled his life - and ours - with a myriad of ways of learning about and enjoying nature. Some day I'll write about the "Barbara Lily" but today I'll just post this picture of him at the cottage near Mackinaw with his grandson Zach, circa 1979.


How sweet that Marvin is still here. Happy Father's Day, to both of my dads, and thank you. Love, Your Daughter

A Gentleman and a Scholar

My life has been blessed by the presence and love of many good people over the years and tonight my thoughts are centered around one in particular, Marvin Cooley. A gentleman of the first order - and a gentle man - Marvin is also a scholar who knows more about Michigan flora and fauna than probably anyone else in the state. He also has a dry sense of humor and has delighted in ribbing me since I joined the family in 1983. He's played many a prank on me that necessitated retaliation of equal (or greater) force and we've both delighted in pulling a fast one on the other. While he's always been fiscally conservative I've not missed a single opportunity to portray him as tighter than Scrooge but the truth is, he's a generous man.

This generous, kind, gentle man, my father-in-law, is very sick and in the hospital. The doctors think he can recover but he's been sick for some time now and he's very frail. We're very concerned about him. So I'm sending out my warmest thoughts of him and to him and hoping that the universe answers with kindness, strength, and compassion. Here's a picture of him at about the age of 4 or 5, in the early 1920s. Just look at that soulful face...

Be strong, Dad, and know that we love you.