Today my wife and I made a three hour trip down I-5 to Redding California for a memorial service for a relative on my wives side. The service was at a veterans cemetery near Redding and was a military ceremony with a gun salute and the playing of taps. The deceased was a veteran of both the Navy and Air Force and had been in the military most of his adult life. I didn't know him but there is something about the playing of taps that is so sad. After interment we went to the decedent's sons home and had a chance to spend some time with my wives older brother and his wife. It was her father who had died. They live in Maryland and so we don't get to see them very often and that was at least one of the reasons we attended. Their teenage son also came out. We spent some time talking to the wife of the deceased who told us of their life of together.. They met in England in the early 1950's and lived all over the world. Before they met she had lived as a young girl in Africa with her parents. She had gone there to avoid the blitz in England during World War II. In my profession I talk to many older folks and am always amazed at the interesting lives many people have led. Almost everybody has an interesting story and you just have to get them to tell it. I told her she needed to write a book about her life and then she told me she was writing a novel. She was a sweet lady.
On the way home we stopped at a lodge on top of Siskyou Pass, called Calihans and had a nice dinner by the fireplace and listened to a folk singer who was perfoming live at the lodge. A sad but sweet trip.
