It doesn't seem possible that it's actually a week and a half since I got back from the cruise! The Wednesday after that, I started feeling a little queasy - thought it was just car sickness as we went shopping in the park van - but the next day and the following two days, I was down with a stomach bug - surfaced Sunday afternoon, after Dora fed me her chicken soup on Saturday - definitely has some magic properties, that soup! A day or so more of recovery and I'm back to normal again. This Wednesday was great fun - we shopped in Galveston this time - had lunch at Fuddruckers, and after some sporadic morning texting, Donna and Luanne joined us for lunch and a bit of the afternoon. Donna had to go back to work, but Luanne stayed to wander around the Strand for a few hours. It does seem kind of amazing to me that I have made such good friends here, from such different walks of life: Donna I met in the Moody choir; Luanne was in the rv park last year, then bought a house in Galveston. Donna and her husband were living on the Bolivar Peninsula when Hurricane Ike struck in 2008 - actually, they were on a cruise when Ike started to become a potential threat, and when they landed at Galveston, they were not allowed to go back to their house, it being too dangerous. They and Donna's mother fled to Louisianna, where they stayed in a church for a week or two until they were allowed back into their neighbourhood. All Donna ever found of her house were two claw feet of her bathtub; the entire house was demolished by Ike! So now she and her husband have had to start over: from being mortgage-free, they've had to go into debt to buy another house - this time in La Marque, in a neighbourhood which is on ground high enough not to have been affected by the floods caused by Ike. All her paintings - Donna is an artist - also went with the flood. Can you imagine, losing everything except the things they packed for the cruise, and a few things left at her mother's hoiuse in Galveston - what incredible devastation! Ike took a crazy toll on this area of the world!
Luanne's life story is equally incredible: she retired from Microsoft at the age of 38 after being diagnosed with epilipsy, then bought an old rv, which she renovated a la 60's/70's and named The Pink Palace (for obvious reasons, once you see the inside), then spent about seven years helping out with disaster relief in various places. She spent a few years in Mississippi, then Louisiana - Katrina left a wake of broken homes and lives which she helped rebuild - and then decided to buy a house in Galveston, in the historic district. The window over her kitchen sink looks out to the Bishop's Palace - quite the view to see as you're washing the dinner dishes!
I do feel quite blessed to be able to call these two courageous women my friends.
The past week has been quite busy - I've started going for morning walks around the park, with Dora - and now a group of women is going walking on the beach every morning at 8:30. We've gone for two mornings so far and plan to continue every week (not including the weekend, when I get to sleep in on Saturday, then go to church on Sunday. Today, I'll be joining Susan and Joan and Joan's niece for whatever activities they've planned - should be fun. Valentine's Day dinner is coming up, and I|'m hosting the pre-dinner entertainment, including at least one solo by me, trumpet solos by Susan, a duet by Susan on trumpet and Ashton (Dora and Ron's grandson) on flute, and a singalong of golden oldies. Joan has already written the script for the evening (she was the manager, as Susan was the Principal Trumpet, of the St. Louis Symphany Orchestra for forty years - both incredible professionals!) and we'll be finalizing details next week. After that, it's the Dinner Theatre sponsored by the Moody choir - Donna and I and a few others are singing Abba's "I Have a Dream" for that occasion - so we'll be spending a bit of time rehearsing. A week from Monday, Julia arrives for a whirlwind visit on her way to her cruise, which leaves from Fort Lauderdale that Thursday. I'm very excited about this - finally I get to show her off here and get her to see my life in Texas!!
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