I went to visit with my stepdad Ray yesterday. He was with a few of his friends eating lunch with them. When he saw me walking towards him he lit up like a Christmas tree! I always go at this time of the day to see him because I not only enjoy his company, I enjoy visiting with his friends, too. I never know who will be at the same table, perhaps Barbara, Jane, Ryan, or someone I have never met before. All of them greet me with a smile, even the residents sitting at surrounding tables. They make me feel like a celebrity! :O)

I love the photo above that Ray allowed me to take of him yesterday. I think I caught something of the real Ray. He is wise and calm and, well, just plain steady. I do not think I have ever seen Ray angry in all the years that I have known him. He recently turned ninety-six years young. He was seventeen when he joined the Navy decades ago, a time in his life that he remembers with fondness and nostalgia. He grew up as a young boy helping his dad make home deliveries of coal in the winter and ice in the summer. Like a lot of folks of his generation I do believe his middle name was “Hard Work”. He has now been retired for thirty-two years. He walks with a walker but is fairly strong physically and totally with it mentally.

Ray was around eighty years young when he and my mom met. She was seventy-five. They met at a dance for seniors and it wasn’t long after that they decided to marry. The romantic part of me loves the idea of a man in his eighties and a woman in her seventies finding one another and sharing their lives.

I try to visit at least one time a month. I had decided last week I would drive over early this week to see Ray. And you know, it wasn’t till yesterday afternoon that I realized this July 15th was the five year anniversary of my mom’s passing. Ray and I both miss her, we just don’t always choose to talk about her. I wonder if Mom had somehow given me a little nudge to visit yesterday. I like to think so.

I will go again in August to see Ray and his friends. I like to keep up with how he is and check on him. I look forward to hearing the stories they all tell, some of them true and some of them not… memory issues with some of his friends can produce some whoopers with their story telling. Ray just shakes his head and smiles. That’s Ray, wise and calm and steady. :O)

c   Love, Joan