It’s one of those slowed down beautiful Fall days. Yellow leaves fall and float against a cloudless blue sky.
It’s about room temperature. Except you get a little leftover summer breeze if you sit outside.
The day is idyllic but I can’t settle my mind. A news alert warned of a wreck that shut down two lanes of I-65. My middle daughter, Emily, went to a wedding in North Carolina over the weekend and would be driving back. Worried mind, I called her. She was fine. She’s in her early-30s for goodness sakes but worries take hold.
No matter how old, you worry.
This is all a long way of telling you I had another grand child this week. Eloise Mae Archibald, a beautiful baby girl. The sweet petite baby was 6-pounds 3-ounces, birthed by my daughter Claire. Ramsay Archibald, son of my friend and colleague John Archibald, is the father.
Her Wednesday. Oct. 28, birth, comes on the heels of Isaac Michael Turner born April 13 in Korea where mother, Hannah and father, Tom Turner live. We were blessed to have been able to see Isaac thanks to my sister, Julie, who bankrolled a surprise visit to see us and other friend and relatives.
Seeing the babies and watching them and holding them did something to me. It reinforced my commitment to fight this disease Lewy body dementia, which I have had now for six years. Life expectancy after diagnosis is on average 5 to 8 years.
The grandchildren reminded me of the fragility and perpetual nature of life’s cycle, death and rebirth. It also showed me to be wary of another cycle, the spin cycle of worry.
Everything is going to be OK.
There won’t always be blue skies, but when there are, you appreciate them with every fiber in your being.