Tough Time in Michigan

It's been over two weeks since my last post.  I guess it's time to get back into the swing of things. When we arrived back in Michigan we knew that it was going to be a difficult time.  We weren't prepared for how challenging it was going to be. On Sunday the 21st of November we received a call from our daughter Michelle in Portland, Oregon.  It seems that our youngest daughter Julie, who also lives in Portland, had some medical problems and was having emergency surgery. After some discussion and debate we decided that Judy should fly to Portland the next morning to be with Julie and help her through her recovery.

I was spending time with Chris and I would stay here in Michigan. Our daughter's surgery went well, and Judy was able to help her and Jeremy get ready to host a nice Thanksgiving dinner for 10.  It was our first Thanksgiving apart since we were married 36 years ago. I spent Thanksgiving with our hosts Stan and Kathleen. Stan had recently bought a new Green Egg charcoal cooker so he used that to prepare an excellent thanksgiving turkey .
 
With snow in the forecast and the tanks getting full, it was time for me to move the coach.  So on Saturday, the 27th, Stan helped me move to a campground just south of Grand Rapids which has one loop open for the winter.  Normally, when we move, Judy takes care of securing things on the inside and I take care of the outside stuff.  I had to make one unscheduled stop to secure a few things that I had forgotten about. Fortunately nothing broke. I picked a good day to move because the next day we got 6 inches of snow.

Last Wednesday morning Chris's wife Teresa died. Chris, and Teresa's two sisters, were by her side when she took her last breath.  I had just been to their house to pick up some pictures to have made into enlargements when Chris called to say Teresa had just passed away. He asked if I could come back to stay with him and I sat with him until the funeral home came to pick up her body.  The funeral was on Saturday and I ended up being one of the pall bearers.  It was a very difficult day. Unfortunately, Judy was not able to be here for the funeral, but ended up flying in that evening.  It's good to have her back.

We will be spending the rest of this week and part of next here in Grand Rapids. A week from Friday we have an appointment at Spartan Chassis in Charlotte, MI to have some service work done on the coach and then we plan to move to the eastern side of the State.  We found a campground about 30 miles south of Detroit that is still open, and we will spend Christmas with our oldest daughter Melissa and her family in St. Clair Shores.  Then we head south to search for warmer weather.

Until later.