This afternoon, I headed to Mom & Dad’s; Babette already having called to tell me that Monica had already taken Dad over there. I stopped at Albertsons to pick up a few groceries for Mom. It was packed and it took me a while to get back to the car. I also bought some things to make a light supper for the three of us.

When I got to Mom and Dad’s, Monica was still there. She told me right away that she and Mom had been searching the entire house and garage, looking for the box that had come in the mail from Chris and Anne for Dad. When I saw Mom, she was worn from worry. She was distraught that she could not remember where she had put the box. She continued her harried searching.

I joined the search and worked my way to Mom’s sewing room. There I found the box, in the bottom of the closet. Mom expressed immense relief, but then returned to her fretting again, repeating the question, “What am I going to do? I can’t remember anything anymore!” I turned to her and said, “That’s what we have Petra for.”

First her eyes went wide, and then she smiled from ear to ear, her face alight with delight. She took both my cheeks with her hands, brought me down to her face and kissed me.

The crisis over, Monica said her goodbyes and I put away the groceries. We went on to have a very pleasant visit. They both ate well; we had a good time and laughed.

We delighted in going over the contents of Dad’s goodie box, trying to translate ever word and identify every language on the boxes. We opened the mustard (Dad had to smell it, so I had to taste it – good!)

We identified as many photos as we could in the little digital photo displayer that Phil had sent Dad (later in the evening, after I had returned Dad to the foster home, Phil called me while I was picking up some things at Lowe’s to finish the dog house that I’m making for Aaron’s dog, Chuy. He was surprised that Dad had not waited for his birthday to open his present! {Phil, not Chuy} Phil may retire from the military, but the military will never retire from Phil! Actually, that’s probably not true either, because Dad opened his present before his birthday, didn’t he?!)

Well, so went my visit.

Patrick