Goodbye, 2025: I am still enjoying cards and emails from many of you, amazed to see how everyone is growing and changing. I am so glad to be able to tell you that my daughter’s chemotherapy for breast cancer is over, and she is doing well. I am loving my (finally!) renovated living space. Had a great trip to the Netherlands in May to see an Anselm Kiefer exhibit in Amsterdam, then on to Paris for 4 days by Eurostar with my sister. Many Saturdays digging up invasives in Ft. Tryon Park with the volunteer gardening team and quite a few donations of blood at the NY Blood Center.
Hello, 2026: A trip to Rome and Florence in February (brushing up on my pitiful Italian these days). Volunteer gardening starts up again in March. Grandson Kieran’s wedding to Mary will be in October. And who knows what else the next 12 months have in store? Here’s hoping for all the best as we make another trip around the sun!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! As I look back on 2024, I am grateful as always to those of you who have reached out to me over the last 12 months, with emails or holiday cards. Personally, it was a year of good, and some not-so-good, as it may have seemed to others. My granddaughter’s wedding was awesome, and now my grandson Kieran is engaged! The renovation that was meant to allow me to “age in place” in my beloved home of 43 years has taken a lot longer and cost a lot more than expected. One daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. My sister and I had a wonderful vacation in Italy in the fall. Hoping that all turns out well in 2025, with so many changes on the horizon. Best wishes to all of you!
Another year gone by! All our babies are growing up – my oldest granddaughter, Kendall, is engaged to be married in September ’24. My whole family will be celebrating with a party on December 23rd, so we’ll get to spend Christmas together. This will be the first one without my father, who passed away in March at 98. He had a good long life, but we miss him. Happy New Year to all of you, and best wishes for 2024!!
My daughter’s book! It will be published soon and you can pre-order it now on Amazon, Bookshop.org, etc. Really thoughtful insights from my kid who was Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the Obama Administration, and founder of Code for America, a non-profit that continues to help cities with tech solutions to civic problems. Am I proud? You bet.
A wonderful trip to Paris and Rome with my friend Ellen!
Best wishes for a bright and happy New Year to all!
So exciting to be able to use my passport once more! I switched from studying French to working on my very basic Italian for a couple of months, and went to Sicily and Lake Como with my younger daughter and her husband for 2 weeks. Here’s me and a gelato in Ortigia, the old part of the Sicilian city of Siracusa, where we stayed before heading off to Bellagio. Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Best wishes for 2022. I hope you are all still safe and sane. I loved your holiday cards and the photos of you and your kids – they cheered me when I had to cancel my trip
with my daughters to visit my Dad. That was a hard call, head over heart for sure. My father is 97 and immunocompromised, so we just couldn’t take the chance we’d bring Covid
from our various home towns to Tulsa, OK. We’ll re-schedule as soon as it seems safe. Meantime, we keep on keeping on!
Over 2,000 miles on the exercise bike I got when I became clear I would not be going back to the gym for a while.
Somewhat improved French, thanks to Rosetta Stone.
A completely refinished doorway and surround (33 windows = 132 corners!) and renovated foyer. (See previous blog post for “before” photo.)
A well-tended garden.
Soon after my second shot of the Moderna vaccine, my Dad fell and broke his hip. I flew down and spent a few days with him while he was still in the hospital in Tulsa, when the crowds at the airports were sparse and there were no lines at the TSA. Over Mother’s Day weekend, my daughters joined me in an Airbnb not far from Dad’s, and we all got to see how much his mobility had improved and enjoy his still-sharp wit. On that trip, there were more people flying but still few airport shops and restaurants open. To celebrate Dad’s 97th birthday recently, I made the trip once more. Great to see my father doing so well, but travel is no fun now – overcrowding and understaffing everywhere. Still, I am grateful to be able to GO again!
I hope you are all enjoying the summer, and staying healthy.
Clockwise from top: The Patriarch (my Dad); my sister Daphne; her grandson, Fox; Daphne’s daughter/Fox’s mother, Emily; my daughter Jennifer; my daughter Amy; and me.
Wishing you all good things in this New Year – Love, Barbara
