Today was Saturday. No golf for Dad. He never played on the weekends.
It was not good weather here anyway. Snow showers and cold.

I would usually call over there at some point on Saturdays to see what was going on. I knew from 10-11 a.m. they would be taking their shift at the Adoration Chapel. I never talked to Dad much on the phone. If he answered the phone, it meant that Mom was either taking a nap, in the bathroom or outside. Sometimes it would be, "I'm in the basement. I don't know where your mother is." This translated to: "I'm downstairs and I'm not going upstairs to find her." I would usually just say I'd call back later! And then she would call back in a few minutes. Most of the time when he answered, he would say, "Just a minute" and hand over the phone to Mom. I could hear him say, "Betty, it's your daughter". I don't know if he just didn't want to talk on the phone or if he thought I didn't want to talk to him or what. That wasn't true. I would've gladly talked to him but he was always quick to get Mom. On occasion, we would have small talk, but not often.

Tonight I went to 5:00 Mass. A lot of times after church, I'd go by and say hello to them for a few minutes or drop off a bulletin. Or, if I had errands to run, I might stop by before I headed home to Oolitic. However, sometimes they were not home on Saturday nights, as they usually went to visit Fran Becherer, who was 91 and living in an assisted living facility here in town. They might take her a piece of pie or something. Ironically, she died the less than a week after they did. She had been ill, but I was told that the news of their death upset her.

Tonight, due to the snow, they might've made it an early night or not gone at all.

When I filled my bird feeders today, of course I thought of Mom. When I got my own house, I wanted to make sure there was a good place for feeders. Mom so loved feeding her birds. Joe passed his passion for birds onto Mom, who in turn, passed it on to me. I don't think I'll be able to fill my feeders again and not think of her. So many summer nights were spent on the patio talking and watching the birds.

I went over to the house tonight. Couldn't stay too long. Went through a few things but that was about it. It is still so hard for me to be there without them. Just too many reminders of how it was less than a month ago.

Susie