Nelson and Elizabeth at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

 

As we say, "when it rains it pours!"  And then I add, "this is for the record, lest we forget!"

On the heels of sister Susan's funeral in Chicago, IL, on March 26 (midway through our week with sister, Ruth and Don in Lansing, MI, arriving back home on March 31), the following week, Tuesday, we met up with brother, Nelson and Elizabeth, April 8 (yes, last week!), before they headed off on their week's Viking River Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel.

The crazy thing is that this had been in the works for a year, but little did anyone know we'd meet up with them first at Susan's funeral 2 weeks earlier:

As a reminder, Nelson, at age 83, is the oldest of us sibs, standing at the far right with Elizabeth.

Nelson's wife Peggy (married 54 years) gave her Final Goodbye in 2018, after which Nelson

moved to Maine, where he eventually met Elizabeth and moved in with her.

He lovingly refers to themselves as Lord Nelson and Queen Elizabeth!

It was only about 5 hours together at Schiphol (from 8am-12:45pm) but with full concentration on just each other:

Elizabeth's gall-stone surgery just before Susan's funeral still left her a bit wobbly,

but Nelson is a care-giver and she's a fighter, so all went as well as could be expected.

Besides, Schiphol is one of the most fabulous airports in the world, so we were all having fun.

[photo credit:  Astrid]

Can you tell?!

They had never had a latte macchiato, so, to kill time, and rest, we all had one.

[photo credit:  Astrid]

And because we wanted them to have a good breakfast/brunch to start their day, we treated

them to a Sheraton meal, accessed through inside the airport, after which we relaxed

in the lounge another hour till their taxi arrived for their Airbnb.

Short and Sweet.  Many shared stories, some with tears.  And lots of laughs and smiles.  

Speaking of "when it rains it pours," and believe it or not, daughter Amy arrives on Thursday (YES, 2 days from now!) for her now annual week with us...the 3rd year in a row.  We had just seen her, too, at Susan's funeral!  

As Astrid often says, "how did we get so lucky!"

Michigan 2018, Again...but with a Tear and a Smile

You may remember that Astrid and I were in Michigan 5 months ago for my 55th high school reunion.  If you had told us then that we would be back again in 2018 (let alone 5 months later), I would have wondered who had died!

It was SIL Peggy, of course, married 54 years to Nelson, the elder of our remaining Tribe.

We never feel good about the circumstance of such a trip but we really did make the most of it, which you will see by these collages both Astrid and I posted on Facebook throughout the week, Wednesday to Wednesday.  We actually returned home this morning.

We stayed with sister Ruth and BIL Don again in a wee town near Detroit.

Arriving at night that first day was so soulful.  We LOVE their farm house.

It feels like coming home for us every time we're there.

Our first full day was filling ourselves up, while walking The Farm.

[Astrid's collage]

Even on a grey, misty day, there are gifts everywhere to be found.

We already love Bishop, the outdoor cat who basks in attention.

But this time we both fell in love with her in a deeper way.

How can you not love a cat who follows you around like a dog!

One day, when we were out-n-about, Astrid snapped this deliciousness from the car.

She received 85 reactions on Facebook!

Pure Michigan.

Midway through our week, on Saturday, was Peggy's memorial service, November 3.

Her last breath on earth was November 17th.

My nephew, Paul, took all these photos at the celebration "parties" following the service.

That's Don and Ruth (top-left) and Ruth and Nelson (bottom-right).

Nelson and Susan are #1 and #2 (bottom-left).  I'm #3 in the sibling lineup.  Ruth is #8 (of 8).

Nelson's son David is the monk.

You can see Peggy's obituary here.

The next day, I posted my Watercolor Sunday image with this quote:

"Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live,

as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men."

--Quintus Ennius (239BC - 169BC, considered the father of Latin literature)

Then it was back to the farm again, with Astrid helping Don out with some of his chores.

[Astrid's collage]

Early on in our visit Don and Ruth told us they were making a Thanksgiving meal for us on Monday.

We found that out in the same moment, I think, when we saw this flock of wild turkeys strutting about.

OMG!  Almost everything of the meal was made from scratch!

During a lull in the day's activities, Don and Ruth power-walked their property 4 times in a row.

Astrid and I had fun doing our casual walking, snapping photos at every whip-stitch.

Astrid and Don even had time to do more outdoor chores that day.  She was in heaven.

And yes, that's moonshine from Don's relatives in Tennessee (top-left).

"Try anything once" is a good motto, right?!

[Astrid's collage]

That evening was the real Thanksgiving feast!

I was the one in heaven this time.  It had been 9 years since I celebrated it last.

Some of you understand why it's my hardest American holiday to miss!

Our last full day was Tuesday, when Astrid and I walked the nearby country roads.

Within the first 5 minutes she spotted what the Dutch call a Witches Circle (aka Fairy Ring).

It was a first for me.

It happened to be on the property of a Vietnam vet, whose son died in the Afghan war (2006),

earning the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.  

 I think we all made each other's day!

We continued our walk and grabbed the photo ops as they emerged.

[Astrid's collage]

Whenever I tell Ruth this area is so soulful to me,

she says she thinks all of us carry farm DNA inside of us!

Tuesday night we spent the evening watching the midterm-election incoming results,

going to bed that night wondering what the scene would look like in the morning, Wednesday...

while flying out of Detroit to Newark to Amsterdam.

The DEMS took the House!!!!  Need I say more?

We flew through the night and arrived home this morning by 9:30,

with farm memories still filling us...and thus this above post on FB once home.

I had to share this week, of course...the Tear and the Smile.

You don't forget these milestones...let alone all the euchre games we played!

Condolences for Nelson, Elder of the Tribe

This is not the post anyone ever wants to write, nor would the recipient of it ever wish to be called the Elder of the Tribe.

But this is for Nelson, my brother, who IS the elder of those of us who remain...the very one you have already met here from this past January when he visited us here in the Netherlands for a week.

Nelson's wife Peggy, of 53 years, "passed over the bridge" last evening.

Four days earlier, last Saturday, she suffered a bleeding stroke from which she never recovered.

It was sudden and, one could say, a blessing that it all came and went so quickly.

[recent image from sister, Ruth]

One of my favorite memories of Peggy is how relational she was with all generations.

She would always seek you out to find out how YOU were doing.
This was her gift which she gave freely, seeking nothing in return.

In 2006 she was as physically well as I've ever seen her.

But over the last years her health deteriorated.

Now we all deal with the emotional shock, of course.

Our brother, Bennett, died in 1996 (age 47), 22 years ago...our generational level.

We knew, with 8 kids, plus spouses, this time would come.

Within the next 22 years I'm guessing most of us will be gone,
so this is hitting hard.

Little did we know you would go before us, Nelson, after the untimely death of Bennett.

You didn't intend to lead us but it has fallen to you...and now we follow.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Astrid and I had not originally planned to fly back to Michigan for the memorial service,

but we will do just that as we find out the details.  We want to be together as sibs.

I'll keep you informed...

Brother Nelson in the Netherlands

You already know I took last week off because of Brother Nelson's visit with us for a week.  The most important thing to say from the get-go is that this is a post about NELSON and not so much about what we did or where we went.  It is NELSON I want to remember here....EVERYTHING about him that I can have and hold for the days I will not have him....

To start with, I discovered, as we talked about it, that the reason why this was like meeting him for the first time was because when he was 16 (and I was 13), he started working at the local grocery store after school.  That means he wasn't at home.  And once he graduated from high school, he was off to university, graduated, and got married.

So THAT'S why this is important to me.

To give more scale, Nelson is the oldest of us 8 kids (I'm #3 at 3.5 years his junior) and he lives in Holland, Michigan, where there is a huge Dutch community.  It was time for him to see the real Holland!

SUNDAY, 14 January:

We picked Nelson up at Amsterdam's airport on his 76th birthday!

[He came alone because his wife doesn't fly.]

From there it was fun and games in Amsterdam.

Mid-morning we had a latte macchiato break in the Rijksmusem café.

It was the closest thing to actually being IN the museum.

And then we did the touristy thing, taking a canal-boat ride around the city.

It's what you do when you have time only for the fast-track of the city.

MONDAY, 15 January:

Because Nelson had minimal sleep while flying over The Pond, we took Monday to get settled in.

He stayed in one of our community guest rooms at night and spent the days with us.

Eating.  Drinking.  Watching the news.  Talking.

We even walked to Aldi together that day.

Each day he caught up on his family and politics...at my laptop or his iPad.

That's when I really started LOOKING at him.

And started recognizing ME in him...or him in me?!

TUESDAY, 16 January:

After the day of rest, we took our long-distance drive to the Zeeland province in the west of Holland.

Our final destination was Oosterscheldekering, 117 km away.

But our first stop was the Basilica of St. Agatha and Barbara in Oudenbosch, 64 km. away.

[Did I mention that our mom's name is Barbara?]

Astrid and I had visited the basilica in 2010 and knew Nelson would love it.  He did!

We ate an uitsmijter lunch in the quaint small city of Zierikzee, 62 km. from the basilica.

Afterwards we stopped to see the Zeeland Bridge, the longest bridge in the Netherlands (top-right).

It's actually the longest bridge in Europe, spanning 5,022 meters (16,476 ft.).

It was then another 20 km. to the Oosterscheldekering storm surge barrier (bottom-center).

It's the largest of the 13 Delta Works, protecting the flooding of the Netherlands from the North Sea.

It's 9 km. long and was built after the North Sea flood of 1953 when 2100+ lives were lost.

The Dutch said..."never again!"

WEDNESDAY, 17 January:

By now, understand how fun it was for me to watch Nelson, seeing what intrigued him most.

Astrid was well prepared to stop on a dime after all my weathervanes.  HA!

That day our favorite Loevestein castle wasn't open, so we went to Doorwerth, 70 km. from home.

We wanted Nelson to see a real castle.

We got there in time to first eat lunch.

Notice how much fun we had over our meals!

I could show you more of the castle but, remember, this is more about NELSON.

And ME in relation to him, my big brother.

From the castle, across the Rhine river, we spied the Driel locks 

and decided to go see them before heading home.

These locks are normally closed but if high water is coming in from Germany,

they'll be raised to prevent flooding.

Have you noticed that the Dutch think ahead in relation to catastrophes??

The world has much to learn from this country that is 26% below sea level.

THURSDAY, 18 January:

You know what they say about the plans of mice and men!

Suddenly, out of the blue, the Netherlands issued a CODE RED wind advisory.

It was actually Code Orange when we drove along the dijk to Brakel to check out the river level.

By the afternoon, 66 semi-trucks had flipped over and all train/plane transportation was cancelled.

The Merwede river reminded Nelson of Lake Michigan during a storm.

Astrid and I had never seen it so tempestuous!

Needless to say, we went back home and decided to change the schedule up,

to walk our Gorinchem city citadel wall that afternoon instead of the next day.

It ended up being a good plan.

And that evening we walked over to our favorite Malle Molen restaurant for supper.

FRIDAY, 19 January:

Our last full day together began with Kinderdijk...the magical UNESCO village of 19 windmills.

We had some of the best light of any time Astrid and I have ever been there.

It's only 29 km from home.

The mechanical screws were working overtime, pumping out the water.

I was glad Nelson got to see them operational.

From Kinderdijk we drove to Fort Altena in Werkendam, 34 km from Kinderdijk.

Our favorite Fort Vuren was closed because of a bat population they are protecting right now.

But Nelson still got the general idea from this 19th century fort about the Dutch line of defense,

going all the way back to before WWI.

That day we had lunch at the fort (top row).

Back home we went to our 3:30 Happy Hour, here where we live, to eat advocaatjes (middle).

And then for supper we ate Dutch pancakes at our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant,

out in the polder (bottom row).

SATURDAY, 20 January:

With a tear and a smile, and breakfast under our belts, we drove to Amsterdam in time for Nelson's noon flight back to America.  

I really do mean with a tear and a smile.  I know that this is probably the only time, first and last, that I will ever have like this with Nelson, the Elder of our Hart tribe.  I have a catch in my throat as I say it.  Trust me when I say I will have and hold it for the rest of my life.

THANK YOU, Nelson.  THANK YOU for choosing us.

We'll never forget it.