The day started with a 7' ish roll out. Initially I was going to go to the rec for some work out but decided to skip it due to keeping my reserve built up as Nancy and all of the grand kids have a cold or the runny nose. I don't know if she is contagious but decided to skip the hard sweaty activity besides we needed to be ready to head out for the funeral service by 11. After our quiet times and a bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon and honey I headed outside to harvest lettuces, kale, spinach, beet greens and some cabbage leaves for a large garden salad. I even found a couple radishes big enough to eat as well. After cleaning the produce and breaking it up for the salad spinner to get the excess water out I headed out to hand water the gardens.
We headed to Grace Fellowship church in Largo for the funeral of our once neighbor Bonnie Sova. Bonnie suffered a horrible illness called Lou Gehrig's disease for the past couple years and this illness from what I understand is replete with severe pain and complete loss of all physical bodily functions. She was a great lady and a nurse with two daughters and two grandsons. We were the same age. She and her family moved out of the 'hood about 11 years ago after their girls married and left home. We saw several familiar faces at the service and learned that Al Ruschel from Bay News 9 is the music director at Grace. He sang a beautiful song and we spoke with him briefly after the service. I mentioned that we spend part of the year in N.C. and he mentioned he has a son who is a doctor that lives in the Morganton area of N.C. and that he was on his way there after the service.
Well the service was nearly 2 hours long and we skipped the meal on the grounds afterwards and came home to finish the pasta fagioli soup from Christmas. We settled into relaxing and of course Nancy went on Facebook only to learn the daughter of her first cousin suffered a horrific loss on Christmas Day. The daughter was to deliver her first child, a boy within the next few days when a routine ultrasound detected no heartbeat. The doctors induced her to deliver the baby and the cord was wrapped so tight around his neck that it caused him to suffocate in the womb. What a tragedy and at a time when there is usually such joy. Our hearts go out to the family as everyone is just devastated. This would have been her cousins first grand child as well.
Amy called and we decided to meet up with them at the Olive Garden for supper in Largo. They were taking a meal to their pastors daughter and husband who just delivered a baby girl on Christmas Day. We dined out with them and then they headed out with the take out meal for the new family. We settled or I settled into some football before hitting the showers and eventually watching the Lightning win in hockey over the N.C. Hurricanes 2-1. Today was a day of many highs and lows but the lows left us grasping for the answers to the why's and what for's, especially with the death of an unborn child, LATER
