06.S09 Chapter Six, Snippet Nine

New Prairie Woman

Susie Rosso Wolf

Chapter Six, con't

Conifer Grove on Conifer Trail, Three Forks, MT

 As weeks passed, I learned the news of my oldest brother’s illness and asked Kurt if it were possible to schedule a trip to Oregon to visit him after he was released from hospital in Newport. Kurt agreed that it was important to pay a visit to Big Mike so he made arrangements with his employers (Kurt worked as an independent contractor in the music business as a sound engineer in live music productions) to not book him for work during the week of the tenth of June, 2006. In late May my nephew, Little Mike, called to say that Big Mike was not up to company and asked if we could postpone our visit until Big Mike became more stable. This news obviously left the week of the tenth of June wide open now, as we had prearranged for Kurt to be free of any work related obligation.

Late one night in early June, Kurt returned home from the Santa Monica Airport where he had been working since eight o’ clock that morning on rehearsals for a benefit show taking place in one of the airport hangers. He was exhausted and fit to be tied after a long and grueling day. Angry at the level of disrespect from the “new breed of talent with no talent at all” that he was forced to work with these days, he was disgusted by how much the music industry had changed over the course of his twenty-five year career. Tired and frustrated by hours of gridlock on the 405 freeway, he popped the top off of a Budweiser as he plopped himself down onto the concrete and red-brick deck of the Jacuzzi. He soaked his feet, took a long pull off the beer, and then announced that we were going to drive up to Montana.

Blackie carried us across California into Nevada then on to Arizona for what seemed all of a blink of an eye. We crossed into Utah and drove through the great expanse of the entire state before heading over to Idaho. After what felt like a lifetime I-15 merged into the majestic state of Montana that I had dreamed of seeing since I was a young girl in Catholic School all those years ago. Miles of childhood dreams and fond memories of my friend Eva Yamamoto passed by as eagles perched upon fence posts that were a blur and yet all so clear and thrilling. The further into Montana we drove the more white crosses bolted to metal stakes appeared dotting the landscape as a loud and glaring warning to watch your speed while driving on ice. Towns with names like Dillon, Twin Bridges and Whitehall appeared and then quickly disappeared due to their itsy-bitsy size. Highways named MT-41, MT-287, MT-55, MT-69, I-90, MT-2 all led us to a road called Frontage that passed by the tiny historic passage named Old Town Road. As we looked over to see where we would turn, there was a silver colored GMC pick-up truck parked over to one side with Robert sitting in the driver’s seat and a Blue Heeler pup hanging out the window. Kurt pulled in behind Robert’s rig and he got out of his truck. Robert walked up to Kurt’s window with a wad of chew under his bottom lip.

“What the hell took so long?” He said in his big booming voice as he laughed and proceeded to call us a couple of old people. His face was lit up with happiness, it was more than apparent that he was pleased that we had come to see him.

“I thought we made pretty good time,” Kurt debated. “the map said seventeen and a half hours and we’re here in fewer than twenty. Considering how many times we stopped for your Aunt to use the restroom I think we did pretty well!”

“Come on ya’ll, follow me home, it’s sure good to see you here! Thanks for coming! Oh, and don’t follow too closely so the gravel doesn’t shoot up from my tires and break ya’lls windshield.” Kurt kept his distance and as we crossed a rickety old bridge over the Jefferson River I began to come to life after the long and exhausting drive with the striking view coming up into my tired eyes. The scene of gentle river rapids surrounded by lush green foliage under an enormous blue sky with the biggest puffy white clouds I have ever seen was all too amazing to ever imagine and I knew as we came around a bend in the old gravel road and could look out to the right of my window to see thick woods of forest lined by green pastures that were dotted with black and brown grazing cattle painting a picture that was so inviting and peaceful, that we had just arrived in a very special place. Then we crossed over a second bridge just as rickety as the first with the same river curving and bending then straightening out of its swamp waters and becoming the long expanse of waterway that led to the historic Headwaters State Park. As far as I could see there was glorious sky with rural splendor beneath it.

Two miles later, Robert made a left turn onto an unmarked narrow country trail. Each side of the road was lined with thick groves of towering Colorado Blue Spruce Conifers and Russian Olive trees. His home was just up a ways on the left hand side. He pulled onto a gravel driveway and parked beside his beautiful new triple-wide log cabin style mobile home. We parked behind his truck and I sat quietly for a moment, in disbelief that I was actually there. I turned my eyes up to God with deepest gratitude and meditated for one split second until Kurt came round to my door and opened it. He helped me out of Blackie and handed me my Canada crutch. I slipped my right arm into the brace and set my feet on the ground in Montana. Montana. I was standing on Montana ground, Montana soil, Montana rock and gravel. This was where Indians fought to preserve their very lives; their history, their land and where Lewis and Clark were led by Sacajawea to eventually discover the Oregon Trail. Montana! I took in a giant gulp of the clean crisp air and began to weep. Tears fell onto my face and arms while Kurt coaxed me to walk around to stretch out and get moving again after sitting so long on our last long leg of the drive. Robert helped me up his steps and into his home. The moment I crossed the threshold he came to me and held me for a very long time. I looked up at him and mouthed the words “thank you” and his eyes too, filled with tears as he nodded his head then closed his eyes as his own tears fell onto my hair.

06.S08 Chapter Six, Snippet Eight

New Prairie Woman
Susie Rosso Wolf
Chapter 6, con't

Morning came with the rude awakening from the land line ringing off the hook. My hand fumbled behind my pillow, up and over my book cubby to find the receiver sitting in the cradle that sat on top of the headboard. “Hello,” croaked out in my best former smokers’ voice after a long night of laughing and yelling.

“Hello, where is my mother?”

“Bobby?”

“Oh God, please don’t call me that Susie, I’m not five years old anymore, just call me Rob. Can you get Mom please? I’m in a hurry to get to work.”

“Okay, Rob, hold on.” I rolled off the water bed put my feet on the ground, grabbed my robe and wrapped it around me. Padding down the hall with Cutter, Lilly, and Dinky behind me, I could smell cigarette smoke wafting in the living room window. “Brenda? Where are you?”

“I’m out here sitting on the front porch,” she said through the open window. I opened the front door next to the diamond paned windows and found her sitting on the red-brick steps under the white porch covering drinking a cup of coffee.

“Here, take this, your son is on the phone.” I handed the wireless phone to her in my most perturbed manner then walked back into the house. Man oh man did his attitude sour my mood. But a moment later I heard Brenda yelling for me so I walked back to the living room from the kitchen and opened the door again to find her waving the phone at me with one hand and her cigarette in the other. “What’s wrong with your legs old lady, can’t walk this morning to hang it up yourself?”

“Sue, take it, Rob wants a word with you before he goes to work.”

“Oh,” I grumbled. “Hello?”

“Susie, what’s your email address?”

“Um, it’s…” I gave him the address then asked why he wanted it.

“I’m sending you an email, check it out after you wake up. I gotta go, love ya.”

Amazed and confused, I walked over to the desk-top computer in my office and turned it on. Then I walked back to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee that Brenda had already made. I let the dogs back in for their breakfast once I filled up their bowls, and then sat down to get online. My inbox was full but right at the top there were three emails from Robert. Each letter had several attachments of photos. I called Brenda over to sit next to me and together we looked at pictures of his new log cabin style home in Montana, his land, his town, some bridges over a river, mountains, teepees, rustic looking structures that looked quite old and pictures of West Yellowstone. It was obvious that Robert had done well for himself by hooking up with his girlfriend, April, who could afford to buy this beautiful home and the land that it sat on. And it was also obvious that they had worked very hard to make this home a beautiful place as we scrolled through pictures of the interior of the house and the landscaping dressed with massive conifers and Russian Olives and Lilacs that Brenda herself had completely cleared from all of the years of overgrowth debris. She worked her fingers bloody each day while she manicured that land in preparation for the mobile home to be set in place on top of their newly poured concrete foundation.  His home and his town were very beautiful and suddenly I felt happy for him and relieved as well. Remembering my father’s request to “always take care of Bobby” I looked at this set up out there in Montana and knew that this was a good thing for him, that he could live a very nice life there.

I sent Robert an email back telling him how beautiful his place was and how impressed I was by what they have accomplished together to create such a lovely place to live. Brenda and I capped off the morning with a breakfast of her bacon and scrambled eggs and my Belgian waffles. We devoured the food with great enthusiasm while we tamed the growling bellies caused by the hard swim the night before. But just as we finished washing up the breakfast dishes Brenda began packing up her car to head back home to Sun City. In the driveway outside the door of her little blue car we hugged each other as if we’d never see one another again. Tears swam down our faces as the years of friendship came flooding back to both of us, as if we were watching an old flicker movie. We both felt a deep sense of loss and remorse while we wondered, clearly, if this were indeed, our last embrace.

Later that evening after reading my email, Robert called again, this time merely to chat and so we spent over an hour on the phone together. Soon after that day I received many calls from Robert and it was over the telephone that I met the girl he was living with, Miss April. They described their daily lives and sounded so happy and eventually I was speaking to Brenda too, from Montana. After a long but uneventful drive she successfully delivered herself there, to her new life, with her son, future daughter in-law and grandchildren. Whether it would be the improved life that she hoped for remained to be seen.

06.S07 Chapter Six, Snippet Seven

New Prairie Woman
Susie Rosso Wolf
Chapter Six, con't

It was good to end the conversation that was beginning to tear me down. I didn’t like the thought of losing her again; I could only take so much of this talk. I wanted to swim hard laps and let my mind clear out for a while. The moment my suit was on I walked out the sliding glass door from our bedroom and dove straight into the deep end. The feeling of plunging into water was always one of my favorite sensations. My love for that splash and sting against my body must have come from all my years of body surfing in the Pacific Ocean. Being slammed into the sandy floor of the ocean then up again into the hard breakers was an addiction I could never deny. I loved the water and couldn’t imagine ever living away from it. As nice as her description of the big star-filled sky and surrounding area was, I knew I’d never be able to leave my ocean.

I swam for a few minutes without coming up for conversation, aggressively attacking the water to vent and release. I splashed like a fish, or a whale depending on who you were and what your opinion was of my massive weight gain since I blew my knee out in 2004. Nevertheless, swimming was what I needed to let go of the stress I felt after realizing that every one of my family members, other than my sister, was soon to be living out of state because from what I heard from Sister, Robert’s father had plans of relocating out of state himself. It was a strange feeling to know that Sister and I would be alone in California.

“Hey pee-ant, knock it off with the splashing and get your butt over here I’m lonely.” She grabbed onto my foot after catching it and pulled me right up and onto my butt. I sputtered and flailed my arms trying not to laugh but managed to swallow a mouthful of water anyway. “T-he heee, see what you get for ignoring me!” Once I regained my balance I stood up and rounded my shoulders like a bull ready for the big fight. I began to huff and snort through my nose, putting my head down and making an awful noise.

“Oh! You are so going to die for that! Are you ready for your punishment lady?”

“Bring it on little mama!”

“Okay, you asked for it! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” And then I jumped up with both my hands cupped to move the water in her direction and into her eyes as I slapped the surface as hard as I could, then I leaped toward her and jumped on top of her pushing her down into the water while she wrapped her arm around my neck pulling me down with her, and thus, the war began! We played for over an hour cursing at each other like old fish wives or truck drivers and laughing so hard our sides were splitting. Kurt watched our insanity from the Jacuzzi refusing to get involved in our warfare. Before I knew it the sky was fully dark and the few stars that were shining glittered alongside the waxing gibbous moon. I pointed up to the stars and said, “See Brenda, we have stars here too, you don’t need to move away to find them!”

“You don’t have ‘em like they do up there little sister, trust me on that one, okay?”

“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” I said quietly. No one said another word for a while as we soaked in the hot water and looked at the moon as it cast its radiant light across the entire back yard and created a reflection of our enormous date palm tree at the far end of the pool over the water causing the image to dance in its beauteous light as the Jacuzzi flow spilled into the water making ripples across the thirty-five foot long drink. We were all mesmerized by the dancing palm but finally, I was the first to get up and walk into the house for a quick shower, and then both Brenda and Kurt followed my lead to put an end to the night of hilarity and dampened moods. She watched television with me until the wee hours while we talked and giggled and snacked on anything we could get our hands on out of the fridge. Sleep was inevitable though, so after one in the morning I crept down the hall to our bedroom while she found a comfortable position on the sofa under a lightweight blanket. My lungs hurt a little from being exposed to all of the outdoor cigarette smoke blowing in my direction from the two of them puffing all night, so I wheezed as I tried to fall asleep, thinking about the new life that awaited her in Montana.

06.S06 Chapter Six, Snippet Six

The Jefferson River at Headwaters State Park, Three Forks, MT

“You guys would love it. I’m telling ya’ll, it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life and Rob’s house is so perfect and his town is just like being in the old west with hitching posts outside the stores and everybody wears cowboy clothes and rides horses, you got to see it. And the stars at night are incredible they’re so bright and there’s so many you want to stay up all night looking up. I can’t go to sleep out there it’s so beautiful I walk around outside all night long talking to all the Indian spirits, Sue, you can feel them everywhere!”

“Indian spirits? Come on, now you’re going over board,” I said.

“No Sue, I’m serious. A lot of Indians died there right on our land and you can feel their spirits out there Sue I’m not kidding so I walk around at night while Rob and April are asleep and I talk to their spirits. The whole place is filled with spirits and history. There is this place close by our house called the Headwaters State Park where they have a memorial site set up and the graves of small children who died on the prairie during Indian attacks. It’s an amazing place, you would love it and oh, Sue I forgot to tell you, the whole place is called the Valley of The Flowers! During the spring and summer wild flowers grow all over the place and it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen you’ve got to come to see it I’m telling ya’ll!”

“But what about the winters there, aren’t you going to get sick of being cold?” Kurt asked.

“I’ve already lived through most of one winter there and it wasn’t bad at all. It’s a lot warmer in Three Forks than a lot of places in Montana cause Three Forks is what they call a banana belt; it’s got a tropical warm air flow going thru it. We actually get more rain there in the winter, not very much snow so it’s not that cold.”

“What about wind? Do they get much wind out there?” He inquired.

“No way, not like these Santa Anna winds ya’ll get out here. It’s so peaceful and quiet not even your Oregon can compare to this kind of life and I’ve just got to go live it. Sue! You’ve got to see this store they have on Main Street! This gal who owns it has all kinds of really cool women’s western clothes and boots, oooh girl, I’m telling ya, you’d go crazy over her stuff in there! And she is so nice too, all the people who own the stores there are nice and so friendly. Everybody says hello to you and smiles at you and when you’re driving everybody waves at you! Can you imagine that? You go from getting the finger or getting shot at to getting waved at with a smile!”

“I for one can’t believe you’re moving again, will you ever settle down?” I asked her.

“This is it for me you guys, I don’t have another move in me after this one, I’m getting too old for this stuff. Besides, I’ve finally found where I want to live for the rest of my life and so has Rob. We’re never gonna leave Montana”

“Tell us what your plans are, when you will be leaving, Brenda?” I asked

“As soon as I can sell off some of my furniture and other stuff, I’m having a garage sale next weekend. The minute I have gas money I’m hitting the road.”

“You’re driving alone?” Kurt asked.

“Yeah, so, what’s your point?”

“My point is it’s a long drive for a woman traveling alone.”

“Ah come on Kurt, you know me, I can handle it I’ve driven all over this dang country by myself, piece of cake my brother, piece of cake.”

“Kurt, not to change the subject, but, is the pool warm yet?” I asked him.

“Should be, want me to check?”

“No, that’s okay, I’m going to get ready, how about you Brenda?  Are you ready to get wet and relax?”

“Yes'em, I’ll get my suit and meet you outside.”

06.S05 Chapter Six, Snippet Five

New Prairie Woman
Susie Rosso Wolf
Chapter Six, con't

“No, Sue, you were right on the ground with the rest of us being blessed by Jesus himself receiving His holy grace and glory. Glory halleluiah and I say amen, sister! Praise Jesus Sue, for this miracle! Praise Jesus,” she yelled. And then she would lunge into another prayer of thanks as I held onto the phone with my head bent down while she prayed another prayer of gratitude. For several days the prayers of thanks and praise were persistent until finally she called me with an announcement about her future. “Sue, I’m gonna go move to Montana. I’m gonna live with Robert and April. Rob wants me to help them when the baby comes.”

Although initially stunned by this news, I wasn’t surprised to hear it, given her history of living with her son.“What happens to Mr. White and your life here? You’re finally settled in a nice place with your husband, and you like it out there.”

“April works full time now at the post office and Rob’s working full time too. He finally got hired on at the sheriff’s department in Bozeman and he won’t have much time to help with the baby once it arrives. I’ve got to go help my son and Mr. White does not want to move so I’m going alone.”

“Brenda, are you serious?”

“Yes I’m serious! Sue, my son needs me. You know better than anybody that Rob has wanted to be a cop his whole life and now he’s made his dream come true and I’ve got to help him. And I’ll have my own room and I’ll be able to be with my new grandbaby full time and with Snowflake and Cricket whenever they come for a visit. We’ll be a complete family.”

“Brenda, you’re actually leaving California? Again? I just can’t believe it.”

“Why not Sue? You know my son and grandchildren are the most important things in my life. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t have anything else. He’s my life, Sue.”

“But what about Mr. White? Where does he fit into the picture?”

“He does NOT want to leave California, he says he’s too old to keep following me around chasing Robert but I told him I’m not gonna live without my son.”

 I felt so sad for Mr. White. I knew the depth of his love for Brenda and could only imagine how upsetting this decision of hers must have been. And he had done so much for her for all of the many years they had been together. I could only listen to her plans and try to support her decision. The last thing I wanted to do was cause tension by disagreeing with her or getting in the middle of their personal chaos, which I knew was inevitable because Mr. White always resented Brenda’s devotion to Robert and her incessant need to shadow him around the country while he spent years chasing down the perfect place to live. I knew Mr. White wasn’t going to take this lying down and the days to come would be strained.

“Brenda, would you like to come for a visit over the weekend? We can heat the pool and swim or we can take a drive up the coast and hang out at Leo Carrillo. What say you?”

“Hey, that sounds purty good, maybe I’ll have to think about that,” she said in her sly little country drawl voice as if she was up to something sneaky.

“Don’t think about it, just do it. Pack a bag, get in the car and drive over here."


"But I have so much to do to get ready to move, I don’t want to interrupt my packing plans and trying to sell some of my stuff cause Rob really needs me.” Her accent was coming out now and I knew she was laying it on thick so I would take no for an answer. She used her accent to get what she wanted and so many times it worked on me but I refused to fall for her ploy of sounding cute and oh so southern. I insisted that she come and offered to pay for her gas and cigarettes. Considering she just announced that she was leaving the state, I wanted to spend time with her. So I managed to persuade her to drop everything and just drive over to Northridge from Sun City and I gladly opened the gate that evening to allow her little navy blue car to pull into the driveway and park. Cutter, Lilly and Dinky knew her Chevy Malibu by now and immediately ran and barked to greet her. She opened the car door stood up then stretched down to pet all three dogs and to get them riled up with funny noises and happy baby talk. After sufficient attention paid to her quadrupeds fan club, she lifted at her waist and yelled out in her thickest southern accent, “Well what do you want, woman? I’m here now, lay it on me mama!”

“It’s about time you got here you old worn out southern belle! What took you so long?”

“You’re always complaining, you just can’t be happy, can you? Come here you crotchety old Italian witch so I can beat you!”

“Yeah, right! That’ll be the day!” My verbal challenge prompted her to chase me around her car while we both laughed so hard we couldn't talk. I screamed when I put too much pressure on my bad knee but she just kept on coming after me. The dogs continued barking as we horsed around and insulted each other then we finally settled down, walked arm and arm into the house to put on a pot of coffee. We sat and talked for an hour finally ending up at Tommy’s Burgers for some take-out of her favorite local junk food. Back at the house Kurt joined us for dinner in the kitchen, glad to share chili burgers and fries and a chocolate shake while we listened to her intently as she described the unique beauty of Montana and her justification for abandoning her husband.

06.S04 Chapter Six, Snippet Four

New Prairie Woman
Susie Rosso Wolf
Chapter Six, con't

The days that followed our reunion at the Ontario Airport were filled with phone conversations with my closest friends and confidants about the tailgate party. I felt so blessed during that time, realizing how many dear friends I actually had. Lois was my darling friend from work who was first a customer of mine in the flower shop but quickly lost her title as customer and earned my friendship because of her sweet, kind and endearing ways. Linda and Diane of course were my lifelong friends from my childhood days growing up on Bray Street, original members of the Sunshine Club; they were the two I could pour my heart out to in ways no others could understand. The sunshine club knew me inside and out. Naturally my sister was someone who listened intently and who had a way of shining light on aspects of my situation that only a family member could relate to. Sister was always so compassionate and caring. And then, there was my baby cousin, Tam, who was my girlfriend rock, my heart, my soul’s twin, my conscience, and fundamentally my alternative perspective when needed. Of course there was G, but G and I had slightly drifted apart due to a misunderstanding that happened between us while G was recovering from a terrible accident she had that resulted in a broken arm. While attending a Chargers Vs Bears game in San Diego during the holidays, she was walking through the parking lot of the hotel she was a guest at and talking on her cell phone when she missed a slight curbing that lead up to her room. She landed on her left elbow and severed the humerus bone. She was taken to the emergency room and then later she endured a very rough surgery. The surgeon inserted a titanium rod into the arm, connecting the rod to the shoulder socket then to the elbow and that had to be stabilized for seven weeks while she convalesced at home and was dealing with serious pain issues. So G was not exactly herself and I had disappointed her by not driving out to her home in Valencia to visit her. There was tension between us on the telephone, which was unnecessary and unfortunate, because of a miscommunication. I had called her a week or so after her surgery asking if I could come by to bring her anything she may have needed and to pay a visit and she said no. To this day she doesn’t remember saying no because she did want company, but she needed the support of her friends and I should have known that her saying no to my visit was the pain medication talking. Perhaps, in retrospect, at the time she may have felt too tired for company or unkempt or her house may not have been in order so she was unable to receive guests at the moment I had asked her, but I realize now, all too late, that I should have just driven out there anyway, should have been a better friend, but I wasn’t. And then there was the fact that she most likely would have hit the roof if I had confessed to her that I was getting back with “those evil selfish user people who are so jealous of you.” So I resisted my desire to tell her the great news about Robert and Brenda and did not call her to tell her one word about it.

Sister was nurturing and supportive and very happy that “peace and harmony” had prevailed in my life. Lois was also very pleased to hear the news, in a hopeful yet reserved kind of way. Linda was cheering for me and felt that God and the Virgin Mary had healed us from our pain and difficulties. Diane wasn’t as thrilled as the others; her protective instincts indicated that she was very skeptical and warned me to watch out for signs of them trying to use us for selfish purposes, a common theme of thinking that ran deep within many of my friends. But Tam had the most interesting reaction; she was overjoyed with news of the reunion and was very happy for me. Tam knew how much I had been hurt by Robert cutting me out of his life and she felt that I needed to mend those fences.

Once exhausting the list of numbers to call in my phone book and fulfilling my dutiful obligation to report all interesting and relevant changes in my life to my group of women supporters, Brenda and I burned up the land line wires from Northridge to Sun City replaying every moment from that night out in the parking lot of an airport I had never been to in my entire life. How strange it felt, to be there with them in the night air, having a party at the tailgate of our truck, serving manicotti and garlic bread onto paper plates while listening to stories about Montana while Snowflake and Cricket were hanging onto every word and their father’s legs and arms as Brenda watched all of us interacting with each other for the first time since Cricket was a tiny baby. “The entire night was surreal to me and I felt as though I was having an outer body experience. I was simply in the astral world and not in a parking lot in Ontario.” 

06.S03 Chapter Six, Snippet Three

New Prairie Woman
Susie Rosso Wolf
Chapter Six, con't

I began to describe the mood, and was just about to tell her about the food and the joy we all felt when suddenly Jo interrupted me.

“What was he wearing?”

“That’s what you want to know? You crack me up, Jo!”

“I’m just curious!”

“He was wearing jeans, a western dress shirt with a rugged looking vest over the shirt, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He has a goatee now and his head is shaved. He looked very handsome.”

“Did he ever once attempt to talk about it?”

“Talk about what Jo? About IT, it?”

“Yes, about IT, it.”

“Oh no, he stayed far away from that topic. None of us went anywhere near that issue and I think it’s for the best. We didn’t need to go there last night. I don’t know if we ever need to go there at all. The only thing I care about is putting the last three years behind us and becoming a family again. You made that point to me Jo, remember?”

“Yes, I remember. Do you think you will hear from him again?”

“I don’t know, perhaps. When we left them at the airport we told Robert not to be a stranger and he said he would call us so time will tell, won’t it?”

“Yes Susie, time will tell and now you can get back to living again. I’m really proud of you for having the courage to be the bigger man, so to speak, and to take the initiative to make the first move. It isn’t easy doing what you did but you did it in such a loving way, it was really remarkable.”

“I didn’t know what else to do, Jo, and the opportunity simply presented itself.”

“The opportunity presented itself because of the love you have for your family, unconditionally.”

“Thanks for seeing that, I appreciate you saying so.”

We walked and talked for nearly two hours enjoying our morning together and before I knew it my knee was begging me to take a rest so I said good-bye to Jo and went home to relax for a while. During the course of the following week I kept myself busy preparing my garden soil for replanting and tending to the roses and all the rest of my daily chores. I noticed while I was watering my purple Lantana that was growing up and over our brick walls on either side of the electric gate entrance to our driveway that my step was lighter, my heart was no longer heavy and that I could not help but smile from ear to ear. I was singing again and wasn’t so serious about everything. Seeing Robert again was good medicine for me.