Serve by Design

This is our first and hopefully, last "Pandemic Thanksgiving!" It is different and disappointing. Yet, in many ways it is also surprisingly delightful! We have some extremely gifted and creative grandchildren in our family! Remember, my weekly signature postscript declares that I am proud to be known as "a doting grandparent?!!" This suggests by definition that I am "extremely and uncritically fond and adoring" of all twelve of our grands! 😁 I have been wanting to get a writer out of this crop of kids for years now. I just may get more than one! We have a couple of teenagers who are showing some promise. I'll brag on them sometime later. However, it is the littlest of the lot that I am bragging on today. Eloise our adoring 8-year-old granddaughter from Saint Louis recently wrote a precious note to Mimi and Poppi that has our buttons popping with pride. This was a school assignment for her second grade class. Her Daddy remarked that this micro literary...

We chose to stay back at our residence in La Haye - Pesnel on the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2019. We did not want to drive north the hour and a half or so to journey on that day into congested traffic jams, struggle through thousands of visitors, or face the challenges of heightened security for a meeting of two world leaders: President Macron of France, and President Trump of America who came to lead in a globally-viewed program of remembrance. So, ten days later, our little family visited (and for some, re-visited) the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach. By this time, the crowds were manageable, the weather was sunny and dry, and our hearts were open to take in what this cemetery represents - grief, gratitude, and a growing resolve that this should never happen again! American Cemetery, Normandy, France I knew that it was going to be a difficult experience for me to handle the immensity of grief that this beautiful cemetery represents. I cry more e...