Grow old along with me

Well marked path In the spring of 1985, Dottie Erbaugh was laying in her bed upstairs in her house in Dayton, Virginia, dying of breast cancer. She was 32 years old. Outside, her husband was playing football with the 3 kids they had adopted. Dottie was one of my friends from church and everyone who knew her had funny stories to tell about something she did. She was one of those people who was the life of the party and made a party happen if there had not been one before. I had signed up with the home health agency that was taking care of the medications and personal care Dottie needed. It made me feel useful and gave me an excuse to spend several hours a day with her. The cancer had entered her bones and she could not move by herself. That day, I think I asked Dottie something like, “Where in the world would you be if you could be anywhere right now?”   She looked longingly at the door to her room. She said,” What I want to do right no...

A rock to rest the weary travelers Acadia National Park is heaven for bikers and hikers. We are in our 2 nd week parked near Bar Harbor, Maine. Our first week we were joined by friends, Jessica and David from Richmond. The week before they had spent a lot of time in Maryland as David’s father was put in hospice. He died on August 31 and their plans to join us September 4 th were moved to the 5 th . Their first evening in the RV, Steve grilled steaks for all of us and we enjoyed a campfire. Arriving at Sandy Beach Jessica's Midwives For Haiti shirt got some attention that day. People ask about it and we are happy to tell them about our programs. Jessica is the new Executive Director.  Thursday it rained off and on so we all went in the car to Bar Harbor and followed some roads to get acquainted with the park. Friday we hiked near the ocean, enjoying beautiful views of the coast. There was talk of renting a sailboat, but we opted for going o...