We have gone from 80 degrees last week to snow last night, and cold temps tonight. It's a bit too extreme, for sure, and my neighbor's crocuses were peaking out midweek. It makes it hard to decide how to dress and what clothes to take on an overnight trip to Kansas.
Yes, we tested the new car and drove it to Wichita on Saturday. I'm sure I haven't been there since Jon lived there in his first job out of college. Or, maybe it was a quick trip there when Sue applied for therapy school at Wichita State, I don't recall.
Sally Donnelly worked at Lutheran Hospital back in the day; I'm actually not sure when she started there. But she was eventually a head nurse in OB, and we did a few shifts together. She had seven kids, and they liked to visit the farm; what kid doesn't like to do that? Plus, we hired a couple of those kids at times when the cooking for hired men got to be a bit much. Her daughter, Sue, told me last Saturday she had never worked so hard in her life as when she stayed with us for a couple of weeks one summer; to quote, “we would just get done feeding the men once, and they were no sooner out the door, than we would start the next meal! Every day was like that, and then, finally, we went to church and rested!” As you can imagine, I had to laugh at that.
Anyway, Sally and her brood eventually moved to Hill City, Kansas, to work in a hospital there, but we always stayed in touch. She enjoyed the Mitford books so much, she borrowed them for a second time, and returned them by USPS.
And last Saturday, those kids honored Sally with a 90th birthday celebration. I really wanted to be there, and Sue and Kay made it possible. We took the new Escape (new to me) and drove south of Lincoln through Beatrice. We were on two lane paved roads much of the way, and had to stop twice for trains we thought would never end, but we made it, eventually. (Yes, I know it would have been four lane all the way from York, but Kay researched it and found this was 35 miles shorter, in the same time.)
We saw old pictures, ate delicious wraps, and hugged and laughed and reminisced. I met Esther, who owned a farm near Hill City, so those kids had another place to tear around in, and ate chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. And we marveled at how our kids have all grown up and become adults, and we lied to each other about how great we all looked, and wondered where all the years have gone. And then, we found a barbecue place, and ate some more, and slept, and went on to Kansas City, where we delivered birthday presents to Mac and Laney. But that's another story, and we made it back home in one piece. It's taken me all day on Monday to recuperate, and I can't speak for Kay and Sue. But it was great fun, and I'm glad we did it.
