Here today, gone tomorrow

It was a wet Sunday. We needed the rain even though I wish it would have waited until I left for North Dakota.

Sunday Jackie invited me again this year to go with her to the Octoberfest celebration at the senior center in Whitefish. It seemed the closer I got to Whitefish the harder it rained.

What a difference from last Friday and Saturday where the temperature was in the 70s and 80s F. It certainly feels like Fall now when the temperatures are in the 40s and 50s F for high temps.

The rain slowed my trap checking down but I did trap four more pocket gophers. I also caught a mouse in the gopher trap under the hay shed wall. That may explain why recently the trap has been triggered without me catching anything. That is the second mouse I caught this year in one of the leg hold gopher traps. For the mice, they are completed caught when the trap is triggered.

One of my hiking groups wanted to go on a hike but Monday was the only day I had available. Because of Sunday's rain and the forecast of more rain Monday, the hiking plan was canceled. I'll have to wait until I get back next month.

Monday turned out to be relatively dry although overcast. On Saturday and on Monday I fenced three fruit trees. All three had a couple strands of wire as a fence around them but I wanted to add a real fence to them as cattle can - and do! - reach through the wire. Although the deer don't do the same, come winter when there is less feed for them I don't want the deer to get the idea they can reach through the fence.

While I only had to add a fence to two of the fruit trees, for the third fence I took the old one completely down and rebuilt it from the posts on up. Naturally the only time it rained Monday was during this time.

All my fruit trees now have some sort of fence protecting them from the deer. I do want to rebuilt three other fruit tree fences next year as they may not stand up to the abuse cattle put the fences through.

I also put a couple rolls of small fences over a couple of my serviceberry bushes. The bushes are near an apple tree and after eating the apples that have fallen the deer have been nibbling on the bushes. Darn deer!

I also walked the pasture. The weeds I sprayed last month are dead. For the thistle I hadn't got to spraying I chopped them down so they won't go to seed. I'll spray them next year after they regrow. With the rain last month I see new weeds coming up from roots elsewhere in the pasture. While I am making progress against the weeds, it seems at times like a never ending fight.

The river is low. The leaves are starting to turn so it looks nice along the river. Between the low water level and gravity I noticed a few parts of the bank on each side has now fallen down where the river had undercut the banks during high water.

Tomorrow I catch the train to North Dakota to work more on my mom's estate. Just when I started to get back into a rhythm here.

Limo rides

I forgot to mention that when Gary and I got lost walking around my uncle's place the night before our Alaskan cruise started we ended up walking 10.5 miles. If we hadn't gotten lost we would have only walked about 6 miles.

My Uncle Curt arranged to have Gary and I ride in a limo from his place to the cruise ship. The limo company upgraded our ride from a town car to a stretch limo. Hoo boy! Was that a long car! In order to talk with our driver, Paris, I had to scoot up to the front. I think the car could seat eight to ten people. I have photos but as I am using one of the library's computers currently I have no way to upload photos of the car.

After the cruise Paris picked me up in a town car limo. Gary went to visit his relatives. The town car was nice as I was able to chat with Paris during our 45 minute ride to Curt's house.

Coming off the cruise ship I had a bit of a mix-up. I was five minutes late because everyone's disembarkation from the cruise ship was running five to ten minutes late.

While Curt had tied large and pretty gold bows to my black and dark blue luggage bags to make my luggage stand out from all the others, the longshoreman had placed the bags in a way that I couldn't see the bows on my bags. I walked around and around the three rows where the "aqua" tagged luggage was lined up. On the third look-see I found one of my bags, then the other. I was starting to think my luggage wasn't there. We were suppose to have our luggage in the hall to be picked up by 10 pm, but that was the time I had returned to the ship. At 1 am when Gary and I went to bed our luggage was still in the hall. Our luggage was gone by 6:30 am when we awoke.

Paris had told me most likely someone else would be there to meet me. At the yellow canopy on the south side - my side - was a line of taxis and one black town car. I asked the driver, a middle eastern man with a thick accent, if he was the replacement driver for Paris and he said yes. He loaded my luggage into the car and I got in. As he started to pull out he asked if I was going to the airport.

No! I am going to Tacoma! I again asked if he was the driver for Paris and he said yes. I got out the card Paris gave me with his company name and the driver said this was not him. I got out and started to walk under the canopy when Paris came walking up. He had parked on the north side of the canopy.

When I told Paris what had happened he was not happy. The taxi and limo drivers operate under strict rules at the dock and that other limo driver violated them. Paris went over and talked with that driver and a dock official came over. As we drove off the other limo was gone.

There is no place like home

After all my traveling the past month it felt odd sleeping in my own bed. But I can sleep most anywhere and quickly got used to it and fell asleep to sleep long and hard.

The deer have been keeping my garden area grazed while I was away. They seem to be also eating all the apples that have fallen off the apple trees.

While my garden corn is not large due to my late planting, many of the ears of corn are edible and that was part of my supper last night. After being spoiled with meals by the cruise ship and my uncles and aunts, I am back to my normal diet.

I checked my pocket gopher traps and had caught two of them. That makes 101 pocket gophers trapped for the year. Woo hoo! Triple digits. One gopher was dead a long time and I brought the trap home to wash and clean to get rid of the smell. So far this is not working.

I also found one of my regular gopher traps had been triggered but no gopher. The trap had been set under the hay shed wall and was now outside it so I may have caught a gopher only to have him escape or get eaten. There was some grass in the trap so I suspect he was able to slip free of the trap with some effort.

We set a record high temperature yesterday when it reached 85 F. I am enjoying the weather as the forecast is for colder and wetter weather. We do need the moisture as it is brown and dry.

Last night I talked with Joyce and she said a teenager who hunts on their land saw a black bear on her property while the teenager was scouting in prep for hunting season. The bear stood up before leaving and scared the kid. The kid is tall and the bear was taller than him. A few days after that Joyce's daughter saw a mountain lion pass through her property. The daughter lives next to Joyce. Lots of wildlife out and about. Maybe my deer problem is not so bad after all.

Back in MT

With all my recent and future traveling I am going to have to come up with another title to my "back in Montana" posts.

I arrived home this morning. The train left Seattle on time and arrived in Whitefish 15 minutes early. That is a nice surprise.

My aunt Cathy made me several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my trip and gave me some yummy scones she had bought at the Puyallup Fair when we were there earlier that day. My uncle Larry and Aunt Diane drove me to the train station in Seattle. My uncle Curt waved goodbye, probably glad to be rid of me finally. While at his house I got lost, got bloody after falling on Mt. Rainer, exceeded curfew when I came home at 2:30 am, and etc.

There were more people on the train out of Seattle that I expected. By the time Gary go on board the train in Everett, Washington all the pairs of seats had at least one person in them so he had to sit by me. We caught up on what each had done since we left the cruise. Gary was busy with his relatives in hiking, sightseeing, and kayaking.

At Wenatchee, Washington, lots of people got off the train and a number of seat pairs opened up. Gary moved to the open seats so he and I each had a pair of seats to sleep in. He said he slept better on this train trip than the trip out to Seattle.

Since getting home I have unpacked and washed several loads of laundry. Surprisingly the blood washed out of my clothes. I also trimmed some tree branches for Bob and Jan and hauled a trailer and pickup load of tree branches and garden remains off to a low spot in my pasture for later tree stump burning.

While I have not burned wood in my stove since last winter, my closed up house had the smell of wood smoke. It will take me a day to get used to it and not notice it anymore.

A beautiful day today with sun, no winds, and warm temperatures. The cooler and cloudy weather I left behind in Tacoma is suppose to arrive tomorrow.

Library closing now. Talk with you later.

Back from Alaska

Guess I should let you know that I am back from Alaska. I am not back to Montana as I am still in Tacoma at my Uncle Curt and Aunt Cathy's house.

I had a great time on the cruise even though the temperature for much of the time was chilly in the low to upper 50s F and we had one day of rain. I think I'll go on another cruise someday.

Even though I ate too much I don't think I gained much weight as I walked alot. I took the stairs whenever possible and circled the ship many times. In the port calls in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway I hiked.

In a few hours I will catch the train back to Montana.

Lost in Washington

My uncle Curt met us at the train station. He took us to a seafood restaurant near Point Defiance in Tacoma where we each had an excellent bowl of Boston clam chowder soup. Curt and I also split an appetizer of raw clams.

In the evening after another great meal at one of Curt and Cathy's favorite restaurants, Gary and I decided to go for a short walk for exercise. The walk turned out to be much longer than planned. While we expected to walk a rectangle, and it was a rectangle route, Gary convinced me Curt lived on 152nd. I didn't remember his exact address but thought there was a 6 in it meaning 160-something.

It turns out that even though his address doesn't have a street name in it, he lives off a named street. The named street felt about the right distance in the rectangle shape, and the tall trees felt familiar, but after walking down the street a short distance Gary didn't think the street was the right street and claimed a fence he saw wasn't on Curt's street. He was 95% sure Curt lived on 152.

As the southern side of the rectangle had been 176nd street I doubted we had walked 2.4 miles, but as the named street didn't seem right, I was convinced to go further.

162 was a dead end street. Then we crossed another named street that didn't fit in with what we knew about streets. We went to 152. This was not right. After a half mile it curved right. There was no curve in Curt's street near where he lives. Gary convinced me to go further even though I felt this was leading us away from Curt's house.

Eventually I decided we had to turn around. I was certain now that Curt lived on the first named street we had quickly checked out. On the way back we stopped at a gas station to look up Curt's address and phone number in the phone book. It is not in the phone book. I tried calling another uncle and got no answer so I called my cousin Martin. He told me Curt lived off of the first named street we had checked out.

We walked back and found that Curt lived just beyond the fence that Gary didn't recognize. As we walked up Curt's driveway he was coming out to drive around to search for us. It was 10 pm and long after dark. We had been out wandering around for well over several hours. No harm was done other than we walked much more than planned. I didn't have my hiking shoes so I am wondering if I will get a blister on my left foot. I'll see later today. Not much walking planned Sunday as we catch the cruise ship. The drive to the ship will be an adventure as Curt arranged for a limousine to pick us up and take us to the ship in Seattle. I am not used to such luxury.

Train to Washington

So busy I haven't kept up on my blogging. I am in Tacoma, Washington now as I arrived here this morning. I took a train from Whitefish last night.

The train was over an hour late arriving in Whitefish. The train car attendant was in a bad mood. He told us waiting to get on to wait until the people from the train disembarked before we got on. I did so then got on the train. A half dozen of us were on the train when he yelled for us to get off the train. Huh? We did so. I asked why and he said not everyone was off the train.

But everyone who wanted to get off did so.

Off the train and wait until I say you can board!

As I got off I told Gary who was waiting outside, "This guy is different than the other train car attendants I've had."

The attendant was right behind me and sterned asked, "What did you say?!"

So I repeated my comment directly to him to which he replied, "I guess I am."

After a few minutes he then allowed people to board and asked for couples to board first. Once all the couple boarded he then allowed others to board and Gary and I did so.

A lot of people were on the train and many seats were filled with passengers. The attendant hadn't taken the city destination tags off from above the seats so we couldn't tell which seats were empty until I realized all the tags were still up. Gary and I each found a pair of empty seats. A few minutes later the attendant came and directed a few people to empty seats. He saw me and Gary, and since I had ticked him off, directed the person to the seat next to me.

A short time later a couple came and he had Gary move to a single seat and gave the pair of seats to the couple. Later when he came to write a tag for their destination he learned they were going to Portland and not Seattle. The train would be split in Spokane with different cars going to Portland and Seattle and the couple were in the wrong car. The woman was argumentative and did not believe the attendant they were in the wrong car and they got into an argument. After five minutes the couple finally agreed to move to the Portland car. Gary must have had his headphone on as he did not hear the disagreement and did not move to reclaim his seat. Another woman moved to claim the two seats and stretched out to sleep in them. When the attendant returned he was upset she was in the seats but relented to let her sleep in them until someone would board the train who needed one of the seats.

The next morning the attendant apologized for yelling at me the night before. His excuse was that he had worked 20 hours straight and was experiencing a mood swing. Uh, huh. He also said he wasn't clear in his instructions the night before as I explained I followed what he had said, and that was the same as what other attendants wanted in the past.

Even though the train was an hour late leaving Whitefish we were a half hour early to Seattle. I don't know how we made up that much time overnight.

Spooky email

An odd thing happened to me. A relative sent me the following email yesterday:

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Forward this message the same day you received it.
It may sound ridiculous, but it is right on time. We believe that something is about to happen. Angels exist, only sometimes they haven't got wings and we call them friends; you are one of them.
Something wonderful is about to happen to you and your friends.
Tomorrow at 6:32 pm somebody will address you and tell you something you have been waiting to hear.
Please send it to at least 7 of your friends

The odd thing is that precisely at 6:32 pm Gary called me back after I left a message on his answering machine around 5 pm asking about our train trip. This is spooky! Very spooky!

Busy to the end

It is 1:30 am here in Minot and I need to get to bed. I have 11 plus hours of driving tomorrow.

Today, I:

• opened mom's probate and filed papers for me to be her personal representative for her estate.

The Probate clerk at the Ward County courthouse was not helpful. All she wanted to do was give me the booklet the state of North Dakota published to help people through probate. I had a few other simple questions and she said she couldn't answer any because she cannot give legal advice. My questions were not of a legal nature but of procedure and forms. Eventually I got out of her that I had to file three forms including one that the Court issues naming a person an estate's personal representative. It makes no sense for the applicant to file that form as it is one that the Court issues, but that is the way they do it.

I pointed out to the Clerk that the booklet she gave me is old and out of date and she claimed it is current. I noted that one of the monetary values in the booklet was $15,000 while the state of North Dakota's web site with the booklet and forms has the amount as $50,000. I pointed out to her that the publish date listed in the booklet was 2003. She seemed annoyed by my pointing this out.

When I finished all three forms I got a different clerk who was slightly more helpful. While she also told me she could not give legal advice she at least seemed willing to listen to me to see if my question was procedural or legal in nature. All I wanted was for her to look the form over to see if I missed a field that I, and not the Court, was to fill in. She kind of did so, but told me that she could not tell me if I filled the blanks in correctly.

These Clerks are useless. The state of North Dakota should just automate these forms for submission. At least that way their software could flag fields that are required to be filled in by the applicant and prevent the applicant from filling in fields that the Court fills in.

Now to wait to see if I filled in the fields correctly and am approved.


• tried to get my train ticket to Seattle

I had gotten the ticket only to Seattle and not Tacoma when I bought it. It would be easier on my uncle to get me in Tacoma. I found the train agent could not alter my ticket and I had to call the 1-800 Amtrak number to do so.

I called and altering the ticket would not work as they would have to cancel the ticket and issue me a new one. The problem is I had gotten the ticket on sale, and the sale is over. I can't get the ticket I got.

I decided to keep my reservation the same. By the time I returned to the train station it was closed. I could see the ticket agent sitting inside the building and knocked on the door's window. She said the station was closed and she would not issue me the ticket. I plan to go there in the morning before I leave town.


• baked a batch of pumpkin muffins for my brother to eat after I leave


• made supper for me and my brother


• wrote out thank you notes for people for mom's funeral


• briefly visited with a neighbor


• packed

Memories, rain, and delay

I'm tired. Stuff to do and stuff to go through. It is dull but also draining to go through legal and other documents when they are mileposts or interests in a loved one's life as they bring up memories and emotions.

On top of that I found a stack of my old Bicycling magazines from when I first got interested in bicycling 30 years ago. I didn't realize I still had them here. I am tossing half of the magazines out. I am keeping the very first few years of the magazines as I can't bring to toss them all out at this time. I still remember the cover photos from the first couple years of the magazine.


Rain. It rained today. Sunday we tied a record high temperature of 96 F. Last night a cold front came through and the temperature today only reached 56 F. Mom's neighborhood is slowly turning over from longtime older couples and widows to younger couples and families. Several of the younger families planned a neighborhood block party for this afternoon for neighbors to meet and get to know one another. Due to the cold and rain it was canceled.


I am still in North Dakota. I had planned on returning to Montana today but late Friday afternoon I learned I could get info and forms for mom's probate from the Clerk of Court and do some of it myself. After all, during my father's probate I found many probate forms were simple forms anyone could do and not need a $170/hour lawyer to fill out.

I arrived at the courthouse at 4:45 pm Friday and found it had closed at 4:30 pm. So I will wait till Tuesday morning. Today I found some probate info and forms online for the state of North Dakota and it seems as if I can fill out a form and start the probate process without a lawyer.

That means I won't drive back to Montana until Wednesday. This then will give me Thursday and part of Friday to discover what I forgot to do there in my rush to get to Minot before mom died, and to prepare for my cruise before I catch the train to Washington State Friday night.

So much to do, so little time. It will be nice when life gets back to normal.

Camera works

What a surprise... my Panasonic Lumix FZ8 camera now works. If you remember it had fallen into the river and quit working - even after I took it apart and dried it out for a week. Even though my camera didn't work (no image) I tossed it into the suitcase and brought it with me to North Dakota.

This morning while I was doing something I noticed my camera and decided to turn it on to test it. Wow! It works again. And here I had recently researched cameras and decided on a new model to buy once I got back to Montana. I'm glad my old camera works as I have little time after getting back to Montana and before my cruise to go shopping for cameras.

The camera fell into the river August 6. I guess it needed three weeks to completely dry out.

Here are a couple photos I took with my camera this morning.

Maybe my camera now working is a sign things are going to get better.

Neighbor's birthday

Saturday my mom's neighbor had a birthday celebration that my brother and I attended. Bob, the man who had a stroke and was in Manor Care last winter the same time as my mother, had his 81st birthday today.

His wife had friends and family over for some food and cake and ice cream. The birthday party was held on their driveway. The temperature was 96 F today but in the shade it didn't feel too bad. I can't complain about the heat as the forecast high temperatures Monday and Tuesday are predicted only to be in the upper 50s.

Even though mom lived here for almost 30 years and I stayed here off and on, for some of the long time neighbors, this was the first time I met their now adult - but younger than me - children.

Bob's presents included toys and games to help him exercise his weak arm. One gift was a toy that one would give their three or four year old to play with. One neighbor family also gave him a homemade certificate promising him a "desert of the week" for the next three months.

Earlier, while looking for photos of my mom, I found photos from my brother's high school graduation party that the neighbors had attended. I brought the photos to the party and we all marveled on how we looked 25 years ago.

Bob had gotten tuckered out by the end and went inside for a nap. A stroke is a rough thing on a person and their loved ones as it can not only affect their strength ands mobility, but also their mind and cause them to easily get confused. Bob enjoyed his celebration even if sometimes he seemed a little lost.

Other than when singing "Happy Birthday" the party seemed to have people in separate groups. I noticed that the party guests had different approaches to mingling. Many people stayed in one area and mainly spoke with people nearby. Others, like me, occasionally moved around and chatted with a number of people. I'm not sure which way was better as some people never seemed to interact with some, while my interactions may not have been all that deep with a number of people. When many people left the party, if they were not nearby, I did not notice till after they had gone as they just seemed to slip away.

One man, who liked to talk and was jovial, had the irritating habit of occasionally taking a dig at his wife. He tried to be humorous about it, and maybe it was true, but it seemed inappropriate. I'm sure it had to hurt a little for her to hear it even though she 'grinned and bared' it. I've never been married and in a real long relationship, so maybe after a while it is hard not to make a comment about one of one's partner's weaknesses. I just don't care to hear it. For me, what I remember is his attitude and not her failings.

Cemetery visit

My brother and I also visited mom's grave at the cemetery on Thursday and Friday. Her brothers' flowers were still on the grave on Thursday.

Pruning trees

In keeping with the theme of green... late Thursday afternoon and evening my brother and I pruned tree branches in mom's yard. Some trimming was to prune branches that were growing towards power lines. Some pruning was of a hedge. Some pruning was of dead branches in the big trees in front of the house. We quit when it was dusk and getting harder to see.

Then early Friday afternoon I cut dead branches off more trees along the boulevard. One fell on me as it came down and I have some scratches on my head, face, and arm. I also picked a piece of wood out of my neck. Ouch.

My brother was not too happy with my tree trimming as he ends up picking up the branches and raking the yard to clean it up.

Here is a photo from my mom's backyard. Ignore the fence. Just as the fences at the ranch need painting, so too does mom's fence. I must have gotten this 'fence and paint attitude' from my mom as my father took pride in keeping his fences painted and looking nice.

Minot green

It has been many years since I have been back to Minot in the summertime. It is green in the summer. This is especially noticeable when I come from Montana in August when it is brown there.

While the grass is green it is the trees that catch my eye. Usually I just see the barren leafless trees in the winter. Minot looks so much nicer and inviting when seen with the trees and the greenery.

While the photos don't do justice to Minot's green look, here are a few photos I had taken last April and this August of roughly the same area. The photos were taken from the north hill and show the valley and south hill where much of Minot is located.

Stair lift removal

My brother and I removed the stair lift we had installed for mom this past Spring. It is nice to have use of the full width of the stairs again. We had gotten the stair lift from the North Dakota Association for the Disabled. They weren't too enthused to get the stair lift back as it had taken them a long time to get rid of it. They asked me if I knew of anyone who would want it. No. So they reluctantly took it back.

The stair lift is very heavy due to the beam on which the chair travels. My brother and I were careful in un-attaching the lift from the stairs and moving into his pickup for transport to the Association's building. We made it before they closed for the day and did not smash our fingers or feet.

The problem is there are now three 5" by 3" rectangles where the carpet was cut out to attach the mounting brackets to the stair steps. Those carpet patches were used to add to the carpet to cover the area where the bathroom door was widened. My brother and I stopped at a couple carpet stores and asked if they has some small odd small pieces they were planning to toss. They only had large sample squares for $1 each. The carpet we needed to match was lime green 1970s shag carpet. I know... near impossible to match. But I was interested in something I could use temporarily. Nope, they had nothing close to matching.

Eventually I would like to remove the carpeting and just have the wood steps as the wood appears to be nice - at least on the steps. I don't know about the landing's wood. But that project is further down the list of things to do.

Funeral service

Monday morning was mom's funeral. My brother and I got to the funeral home almost a half hour before the viewing and spent that time in a small room off to the side of the viewing room with mom. She looked nice.

Several dozen friends and family attended the service and it was an emotional time talking with them before the service. Mayre and her daughter drove up from Bismarck. Many neighbors came. Also Jeanne, a representative from the Minot Library, a few people from the genealogy society, and a classmate from mom's 1956 nursing school graduating class.

The service lasted twenty minutes or so. The pastor read from the history I had put together for the folder/brochure. It makes sense as he never knew mom, but something I did not anticipate.

The music my brother selected were:

1. Abide With Me
2. How Great Thou Art
3. Jesus Loves Me
4. Amazing Grace

The music was from CDs. Since they are religious songs I expected something more ... religious ... and serious from the singers. A few songs seemed to be "pop-lite", or I guess "religious-lite" in their presentation. The last song, "Amazing Grace", was sung by Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson? It wasn't a bad interpretation, but not a singer I would have chosen for this service. While my brother chose the songs, Mark the funeral director chose the songs on CD.

"Amazing Grace" is a favorite of my mother and brother and my brother sang along during the service.

During the drive to the cemetery the procession drove by a garage sale. As Mayre and a few others noted, "How appropriate!"

Mom had five groups of flowers from her brothers, neighbors, Mayre and her daughter, Jackie a friend of Devan and I, and some of my hiking friends. The flowers from mom's brothers were on an easel and the funeral director brought them to the graveside where we left them with mom as they were so nice.

Many of mom's remaining friends are older women and we barely had enough men, along with the funeral home director, my brother and I, to bear the casket from the SUV hearse to the grave.

I wasn't thinking when I parked behind the SUV hearse. I had parked immediately behind the hearse. The SUV didn't look like a hearse and I wasn't thinking. The funeral home director drove ahead a little more and we had a few more steps to carry mom's casket. I wouldn't think that I was the first person to be brainless at that moment so in hindsight I would have thought he would have stopped a few feet before he wanted to, and once the vehicles came to a stop, move forward a few feet. By the time I realized my error a vehicle was behind me preventing me from backing up.

My brother and I remained after the service while the cemetery worker lowered the casket into the grave. Either not many people remain for this, or the director wasn't thinking, as he had to go find the cemetery person to lower the casket while my brother and I were there.

Later I realized I would have liked to toss some dirt on the casket after it was lowered. Maybe this is a movie cliche, but a ceremony I would have liked to have done. Otherwise all my actions at the service - other than standing up to say a few words about mom - were passive and ultimately unfulfilling - or incomplete - to me. There was no dirt piled nearby to give me the idea at the time.

As we drove out of the cemetery after 11 am a large deer ran across the grass nearby and eventually jumped the fence and ran among the houses on the other side of the street. The cemetery is in the city, and combined with the time, it was surprising to see a deer. Most of you know my thoughts on deer, but my brother, mother and others like them, so it was nice to see the deer in the cemetery.

After the graveside service thirteen of us gathered at a local restaurant - the last one mom visited - to have lunch and a remembrance. It was a nice time.


I took the rest of the flowers home, and here are their pictures. I forgot to get a closeup photo of my uncles' flowers at the cemetery.

Remembering Mom

Mom was born in Benson County, North Dakota in 1935 to Harold and Edith.

As a child mom was a bit of a tomboy and got into many adventures with her older brother, Harold Lloyd, which sometimes resulted into his getting into trouble even though she was the instigator.

After her mother and father divorced in 1939, mom lived with her father until he died in 1948. She lived with a family in Leeds, ND until she graduated from the Leeds High School in 1953.

Then mom was off to Minot to realize her dream of becoming a nurse. She attended the Trinity School of Nursing from 1953 until she graduated in September 1956. She worked as a RN at Trinity Hospital eventually becoming the head nurse on the surgical floor.

Mom ‘retired’ from nursing around the time of the birth of her second son, Devan, in 1964. One of her classmates from the nursing school attended mom's funeral service and told me afterwards that she, and most nurses at the time, quit nursing after having children. A different world back then.

Mom met my dad, a farmer at the time, when he was a patient at Trinity Hospital. She married him in October 1956. They were married until 1991. From my dad's mother, mom learned to make veranicky, which she and her sons loved to eat.


In 1959 dad and mom built a small trailer park in Minot. They owned and operated the trailer park until they sold it in 1979.

After the sale of the trailer park mom then truly retired. She realized her dream of owning a house when she bought and moved to a house on the north hill of Minot. She lived there until her death.


Among her new neighbors she became a very good friend with Faye and Dick. They had many memorable times together, especially during many New Years Eve celebrations when they would play card games late into the night and early morning.

Mom liked the card game SkipBo and played with anyone who would play with her: her sons, her mother, Faye and Dick, and her good friend Wanda H.

Mom enjoyed genealogy and researching her family tree and found some branches of her family that went back many hundreds of years in England. She was a member of the Souris River Genealogy Society for many years and served in many of their offices including as President of the Society for several years.

With her good friend Mayre, who was also greatly interested in genealogy, they enjoyed attending garage sales for many years in the 1970s until Mayre and her husband moved to Bismarck in the early 1980s. They have remained very good friends to this day.

Starting in the 1960s, and over the years, mom grew closer to her mother and family in Washington State and looked forward to the many visits from her mother and stepfather or going there to visit them.

Mom is survived by me and my brother, and by four brothers who live in Washington State: Curt, Gary, Larry, and Rick.

Mom was preceded in death by her parents and stepfather, and her older brother Harold Lloyd.


Mom was nice. She was sweet and gentle and seldom got mad. People remember her smile and her youthful voice. She is missed by all who knew her.

She is Gone

She is Gone


You can shed tears that she is gone

Or you can smile because she has lived


You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back

Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left


Your heart can be empty because you can't see her

Or you can be full of the love that you shared


You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday

Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday


You can remember her and only that she is gone

Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on


You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back

Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

written 1981

David Harkins 1959 -

Silloth, Cumbria, UK

I'm Free

I'm Free

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free,
I'm following the path God has laid you see.
I took His hand when I heard Him call,
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work, to play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way,
I found that peace at the close of day.

If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Oh, yes, these things I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I've savored much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief,
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and peace to thee,
God wanted me now, He set me free.