MaryAlice Musings and More

HOPE  FREEDOM  JOY WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!     It is the day after the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.   I was just miles away from the Convention Site in Chicago in 1968.  I had just graduated from college and I did not have big dreams.  My Mother's biggest stated dream for me was graduating from High School, I do believe that both my Grandmother and my Mother had bigger dreams for me, but life circumstances, the times, and their own conflicted hopes and fears could not allow them to say them out loud.  I sat in the living room of my house, watching what was happening outside of the convention.  I had friends that had gone, and in those moments something stirred deeply in me.  I had been slowly opening my eyes and heart to what was happening in my world - the conflicts within our own  country, the conflicts around the world, Vietnam, Civil Rights, who held power, who took it away.  Questioning what stories we were told and who thought they had a monoply on the truth

  It is the day after my 74th Birthday.  I am now almost one full day into my 75th year and I am still smiling, still soaking in all the good wishes, the fun emoji's, the funny cards, the sweet sweet words that were sent by phone, in person, by mail, on Facebook and in those many many texts.   I have not yet reached out to everyone to express my appreciation and joy in your care.  I feel so appreciated, so seen and so loved thank you thank you thank you. My birthday started in the dark of the morning, getting up to see if the clouds had given way to that beautiful full moon.  I could not see the clouds but the sky was lit by the glow and I felt basked in a subtle behind the veil moonlight.  I had not poured my first cup of coffee when the phone rang.  I had still not read the texts that had come in on my phone in the hours before I woke, being the "firsts" to wish me a happy birthday.  Oh my, each call shared deeply.  How amazingly wonderful to be able to receive and to g

It had been a warm night in Sackville, NB, and this was the second morning that we woke up not in Newfoundland.  Marshlands Inn had been a wonderful stop but after a cup of coffee on their beautiful wrap around porch we decided to head for home and would find a place to eat along the way.  We were less than five hours to Patten.  The pull to get home had increased and we were ready to go.  This would be the last day that bags and oxygen would be put in the car.  We would have one day in Patten, my friend Margaret, who was visiting in Brewer,  was arriving the next day with lobster rolls to welcome us back to Maine, and to take Marcia to the airport.   The drive was uneventful, and we almost laughed out loud, not quite, when we once again found ourselves hungry and needed to use a restroom, and no continue exits for either one.  Marcia for the last time on this trip tried to locate some place to eat that wasn't a fast food chain.  We got off just south of Fredrickton, having thought

     The crossing from Channel Port Aux Basque to North Sydney, Nova Scotia is approximately 7 hours.  How different it felt this time around, there was a familiarity.  I could easily navigate to the observation deck, the inside views from the bow of the ship,  the way to and from our cabin.  We both had gotten a good amount of sleep when the announcement came that we would be docking in about thirty minutes.  We knew that our motel for the remainder of the night was only about 10 minutes away.   We embarked and after some glitches with the GPS and Marcia's navigation we found ourselves in a kind of classic mid-century Canadian motel.  It had seen better days, but it was clean and quiet.  Overnight bags, oxygen and cpap machine all got carried in, we were on the first floor and close to an outdoor door.   There were no outdoor chairs or tables that I could see in the dark, so I sat on the curb and phoned the hospital.  My brother was stable, still intubated and on a ventilator, but

It was easy driving the last day of being in Newfoundland.  We had a slow, easy start, we repacked a few of our things so we were not having to bring anything extra onto the ferry or during our after the ferry rest of the night on Cape Breton.  The weather was good, we had a few remaining recommendations from our St. John's guide at the information and tourist center.  We had driven this route before, some during the day, some at 1 a.m. in the morning.  It was fun to see how we had both accommodated to the roads, not seeming nearly as daunting as those first few days that seemed so long ago.  We drove through Channel-Port Aux Basques and headed to Margaree, destination the Seashore Restaurant . Margaree is about 15 minutes from the ferry port, but it felt far far away.  This was a fishing village, it looked like everyone of the several dozen homes had all been recently resided.  This little village was right at the edge of the ocean in the very south western corner of the island.