Changes

Tomorrow is the funeral. According to Shirley's instructions it was to be a very small funeral, with the short service at the cemetery, so the obituary said it would be private. She must have had more friends than she knew because Gary has been fielding calls for days from relatives who want to come to the service, some from as far as Madison, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota. Neighbors, too, want to pay their final respects.

Shirley was the last of her generation and the holder of photographs going back generations. Some of the people arriving tomorrow will want to come back to the farm house to look at the memorabilia and make plans to have copies made. Neighbors will share their memories of an old woman who lived alone for so, so long.

This evening, Gary and his sister Kathe had a small family gathering at a restaurant to discuss how to settle the estate. Will the farm eventually be sold? What about the farmhouse?

And what about Mama and Lily, the two cats? A neighbor down the road volunteered to take them in. She apparently has rescued other animals. Two sway backed old horses and a llama have found a home in the farmyard there. I hope Lily and Mama find happiness there, too. We'll keep in touch to make sure that is so.

My plan is to go to the funeral then return home to Seymour tomorrow afternoon, but I know how sad Gary can become. If he needs me, I am willing to stay longer.

We talk about the future but the truth is nothing much changes until the estate is probated and that could take a year. In the meantime, we continue as always with a sturgeon guard at the beginning of May and then camping for the summer.  The calendar fills up with events and life goes on.