Author, animal lover, polio survivor
My friend, Heidi, brought me this “no reason” gift last week. I love it, and have it in front of my house near the door to the foster cat room.
Heidi is trained as an animal control officer and serves on the Washington State Emergency Response Team that helps animals in emergencies. I named the animal control officer in Ghost Dog Secrets Heidi, in her honor.
Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. I met my friend, Mark Smithberg, for breakfast at Lil’ Jon’s, where we get the best cinnamon rolls in the world.
Carl and I used to go to Lil’ Jon’s often and Mark (our unofficial son) went with us many times, so it was a fitting place to start the day. We met yesterday because Mark had made a baby gift for my granddaughter’s upcoming baby shower and he needed to get it to me to take to the shower.
While we waited for our cinnamon rolls, Mark said, “Today is your wedding anniversary, isn’t it?” I was amazed that he would remember. When I said, “Yes,” he said, “Happy anniversary!” and handed me a gift.
Not just any old gift. It was a vintage player piano roll of a song that I did not even know existed: “The Franklin D. Roosevelt March.” Because FDR was a polio survivor, I’ve always had a special interest in him and, of course, I love to pump my old player piano.
This gift was a complete surprise, and it was perfect. A loving friend’s thoughtfulness made me smile the entire day.
When Carl and I got married, in 1955, friends of my parents who lived in New Orleans sent us six beautiful plates, each with a different New Orleans scene. I loved those plates when we opened the gift, and I still love them.
On one of our New Orleans trips, we took along a list of the six scenes, and set out to find them. It was a fun quest, and we found all six of them.
I’m having dinner guests tonight. You can probably guess which plates I’ll be using.
My neighbor, Chris, brought her baby goat to visit me today. He is small, but he has a loud “Baa! Baaah!”