Sadness 12-03-23

This has been a sad autumn for me. Four friends have died,  And now my sister in Oregon has died.   She turned 88 on November 12th and died on November 30th.  She had four boys and a  girl and the second son called to tell me.  Ellamarie had not spoken to me in several decades, would not take my phone calls and I suppose she did not open any cards or letters I sent. I don't know why she took against me.  I moved to California when I was 18, while she was married and started her family.  Before our mother died in 1972 I went up about every other year,  but  ultimately she would take the children and go to eastern Oregon until I left!   She never came down to see me.  She lived in our childhood house in Portland and, as  far as I know never traveled.   She has been widowed for about ten years.  I am sad,  but we have  been  estranged for decades now and the connection we had growing up was broken  long ago.  She  passed  that  break on to her children who I do not know and have  random contacts with only two.  

These are the only pictures I have on the computer of us together.

Ellamarie and Del In Portland, Oregon,  August  2004

Ellamarie and Del - Portland, Oregon    About 1951?

We were both sick, but a door-to-door photographer came by and our mother thought we should  have a picture taken.  Ellamarie had  naturally curly hair which could be dampened and twisted  around a finger.  I,  on the other hand, had perfectly straight hair and wore it in pigtails.  And this is what happens when they are brushed out.   

Del and Ellamarie  - Portland, Oregon. About 1941

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KoKo is home and Christmas lights are going up! 11-12-19

KoKo had a lovely weekend with friends Cherie and Jim, they even let him sleep with them!  He is such a happy dog and just loves everyone.  I am glad to have him home, I hadn't realized that I had not been home without him much in the last three years.  It was lonesome around here. 

But I finished the quilt I was working on and at some future time will post a picture.   I found a few places I missed in the foliage and will have to do some more stitching there.  

On our walk tonight there were two houses with Christmas lights up - ALREADY!   This one has the "icicle" lights and the other has colored lights, but their garage was open so I will take a picture some other night.  

Today has been my sister's 84 birthday.  Hard to believe.  I doubt that anyone in my family reads this blog and sister doesn't do computers.  But, anyway, Happy Birthday to Ellamarie Kathryn Spencer Goleman of Portland, OR!

Sisters 08-06-10

I was looking through some pictures on Picasa, thinking what I should delete, if anything. When I first started doing photos on the computer I saved everything, but over the years I have learned what to dump and what to retouch and keep. Today I came across this picture of my sister (now 75) and me. I never hear from her and rarely see her - maybe every three or four years if I drive up to Oregon. The only time I know of that she visited SCalifornia as an adult was in about 1958 - she didn't inherit a wandering foot as I did. Our maternal grandfather was a wanderer.

This was Aug 17, 2004, when I was driving to Cheyenne, Wyo, via Seattle (for APNQ), Portland (to see family), and then east through the Columbia Gorge. I took Ellamarie, my sister, her daughter and two grandchildren out to lunch at a place of their choosing. People say we resemble each other, but I don't see it. She has the blue eyes, up-tipped nose and slender frame of our father's family, and I have the hulking physique of our maternal ancestors. This was before I had my eyelids lifted so that I could actually see out of my eyes when I looked down!

I saw Ellamarie when I went up to see Aunt Dorothy last November - she looked about the same as she does in this picture - maybe a little grey hair now. Both our maternal grandmother at 85 and mother at 65 had very little grey hair, whereas everyone on the paternal side developed grey hair in their 30s. Guess neither of us has the grey-hair gene.