tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18148137197684017212024-02-06T23:29:29.222-08:00Saturday's ChildSarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-25011136226282825502017-11-19T13:19:00.002-08:002017-11-19T14:56:33.150-08:00Q Beanie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today I walked a little way (not a mile, just a little way) in the shoes of my ESL students.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was on a Tri-Met train in Portland, on my way downtown. It was mid-November, with rain and temperatures in the upper 40s, so being a Florida/Arizona girl (by acclimation if not by birth) I was wearing a fleece with a raincoat over it, a woolen ski hat, and gloves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I glanced at my fellow passengers, wondering whether there would be anything similar to yesterday's drama when an inebriated woman, carrying a case of Heineken, had been removed from the train after alternately cursing at and offering beer to her fellow passengers (another story, another day, another blog post!) This morning, all appeared peaceful. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWD1kXMmquHb7Kq50fNLwtbNaFtwTblsgdYP72jv0yzbbrdvbsIzFfEoDhlehJakwMR3QZB11UMPM0yXnlSd97t93q7eZexdZlk87kg7QXqx72WFrJY4Mmj8NmlGLUsf2KvM4ndx8RmTY/s1600/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1254" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWD1kXMmquHb7Kq50fNLwtbNaFtwTblsgdYP72jv0yzbbrdvbsIzFfEoDhlehJakwMR3QZB11UMPM0yXnlSd97t93q7eZexdZlk87kg7QXqx72WFrJY4Mmj8NmlGLUsf2KvM4ndx8RmTY/s400/FullSizeRender-2.jpg" width="312" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Until the passenger sitting opposite me spoke to me. 'I like Q Beanie', she said, approvingly. It was clear from her expression that a response was expected; however, my (culturally learned, but very real) British horror of interaction with strangers on public transportation was intensified almost to the point of panic by my lack of understanding. What, or who, was Q Beanie? A movie, perhaps? A famous person I'd never heard of? Ah! Maybe it was the local nickname for the Tri-Met red line we were on? Or, maybe it referred to a re-loadable travel card, the Portland equivalent of the Oyster card?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I played it safe, offered a non-committal nod, and said 'ah, OK, that's good then.' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But this answer was not satisfactory, apparently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">'Where did you get it?' she asked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There was no escape -- I would have to admit I had no idea what she was talking about. 'I'm sorry', I said, 'I don't know what that means.' She looked at me doubtfully. 'I don't know what Q Beanie means,' I said firmly. The look she gave me reminded me of what my ESL students had often described, when, in conversations, 'we don't understand anything, and people look at us as if we are stupid.' </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">'It's a hat' she said finally. 'A beanie is a hat.' And just like that, the puzzle was solved; if a beanie was a hat, then Q was not Q at all; it was simply the sound made when linking the K (in like) to the Y (in you). And <i>you</i> was a colloquial substitute for <i>your</i>. Of course, if I'd known a beanie was a hat, I wouldn't have been misled by the Q sound, and the meaning would have been clear. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What's the point of the story? Well, just that it isn't only English Language Learners who struggle to negotiate meaning in conversations; we all do. However, whereas it was easy for me to stand my ground and ask for clarification, safe in the knowledge my 'level of English' wasn't the problem, this isn't the case for ELLs. They often give up and attribute their lack of understanding to their 'poor English', when in many cases it takes only one unknown word, or an unfamiliar pronunciation of a known word, for the meaning of a whole sentence to be lost. And then, as they are struggling to piece that sentence together, they miss the next one. And so on it goes. Just something to think about as we continue to try to improve our communication skills.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArhgjIw-Y4QWTOfwAvh14hzMT23rryVEsM-WPhKLAswndtIOrnLfOEOcRkXzpElOYrH85fTcF0ANnrA4XrCTfofWbhPZG2dVEy9EbU20JLQumP1QBEFPZQKu5542nC5k-GmMxZLXzIpA/s1600/IMG_6475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArhgjIw-Y4QWTOfwAvh14hzMT23rryVEsM-WPhKLAswndtIOrnLfOEOcRkXzpElOYrH85fTcF0ANnrA4XrCTfofWbhPZG2dVEy9EbU20JLQumP1QBEFPZQKu5542nC5k-GmMxZLXzIpA/s640/IMG_6475.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese garden, Portland, November 2017</td></tr>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-20044176143948357822015-06-09T16:17:00.001-07:002022-02-22T10:03:10.203-08:00First Day<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">It was a very important and
exciting day, the first day of my first job in my new career.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">Changing careers hadn’t been easy; in fact,
it was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">Two years earlier, I’d given up everything – my house, my income, the
middle class Florida lifestyle where my children were happy and thriving, and
moved us all to England so that I could finish my degree and find a new
career.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">Some may say this was selfish of
me, and maybe it was; there are worse things in life than not liking your job,
after all. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">And I didn’t even know what
this new career was going to look like. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">But I did know I was desperately unhappy
working long hours in a job completely wrong for my personality, and I wasn’t
getting any younger.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> Starting </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">again was scary, yes, but even scarier was the prospect that I might wake up one day
and be ten years older and find that nothing had changed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">So I’d moved to England with my
children, ages 15, 14, and 2, and started a degree in publishing and English
literature, with the idea that I might like to be a journalist. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">Gradually, and somewhat accidentally, I
happened upon English language teaching, and decided to take a course so that I
could get a summer job at one of Oxford’s many language schools.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">By the second week of the course, I knew
beyond a doubt that this was what I was always meant to be doing.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">I had found my career. </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now here I was, in the summer of
1999, about to start my first proper teaching job. The first day of my new
professional life, and I couldn't have been happier, or better prepared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although it was only a ten-minute
walk from my house to the language school, I allowed myself half an hour, in
case of unforeseen circumstances. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Passing
the Co-op, I decided to go inside to buy a bottle of water and kill a little
time looking at chocolate bars. Wispa gold, Wispa original, or Wispa mint? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could pass an agreeable ten minutes or so
contemplating that question.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPB_dc9BOQ_P6p8uy9EHSct-O_aDm0VLa_jDaSVkg_05uO36WBZl5zEsvpwIZ3pIiKDlQU2j3LEUeyYoyhtaVEaIznIFpt68Ay0VdpJ8QhBhHBK4b9njMgTrWkrCe3TGk9UEqgQ_W6Ik/s1600/wispa__20913.1405374998.1280.1280.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPB_dc9BOQ_P6p8uy9EHSct-O_aDm0VLa_jDaSVkg_05uO36WBZl5zEsvpwIZ3pIiKDlQU2j3LEUeyYoyhtaVEaIznIFpt68Ay0VdpJ8QhBhHBK4b9njMgTrWkrCe3TGk9UEqgQ_W6Ik/s400/wispa__20913.1405374998.1280.1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, when I walked into the
shop, there appeared to be an incident in progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An unhappy group of people was standing at the till (that’s cash register for my American readers), and the
cashier, a usually easy-going local girl by the name of Wendy, looked distressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she saw me, she was visibly
relieved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Oh, I’m so glad you’re here’
she said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘You teach EFL, don’t
you?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Um, yes’, I said, guardedly,
since technically, I didn’t, at least not yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Furthermore, I couldn’t imagine any predicament involving a Co-op cash
register having the potential to be resolved by a teacher of English as a foreign
language.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wendy apparently thought
otherwise. ‘They want to exchange dollars’ she explained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I’m trying to explain that we’re not a bank,
we don’t exchange money, this is a shop and we only take pounds.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I nodded, evaluating the situation and my
possible role in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, ‘they don’t
understand English,’ she added, satisfied she had successfully clarified the position. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">I surveyed the group doubtfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They appeared to be a family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man in his mid-30s, about my age, a woman I
guessed was his wife, an older woman who may have been the mother of one of
them, and a couple of children -- a young teenage boy and a toddler. They were all dirty and
disheveled, and the man had a desperate look in his eyes as he continued to
proffer the unwanted dollars, waving them around hopefully in all directions.
In his other hand was a piece of paper with a London phone number written on
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that hand he was pointing
animatedly to the phone box just outside the door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘They want change for the phone’ said Wendy,
unnecessarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘They’re refugees’ she
added.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">We’d been hearing a lot in the
news about Kosovan refugees smuggled into the UK in the back of lorries and
then either taken to the detention center in North Oxford or dropped off on the
A-40 somewhere between London and Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were in a small village just outside Oxford, right off the A-40.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wendy must be right; these people were refugees
from Kosovo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had nothing except
each other and two small plastic carrier bags of clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And … a big fat wad of 100-dollar bills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">‘Can you explain it to them?’
asked Wendy again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For her, the problem
was straightforward; the solution simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All she needed was someone to explain to the Kosovans that the Co-op
didn’t do currency exchange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how did
she think I could help?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did she believe
that teachers of English automatically know all other languages?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps she imagined I might conduct an
impromptu lesson right there in the Co-op, teaching them just enough English in
the next ten minutes to enable them to grasp this crucial point?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">All I could think of was to try
some other languages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I tried French
and German, the only other two I had some ability to communicate in at that
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I addressed myself to the
teenager, thinking he might have studied a foreign language at school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he shook his head solemnly to everything
I said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to remember where Kosovo
was – <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wasn’t it somewhere near
Italy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe they learned Italian at
school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Italiano?’ I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as I said it I realized it was pointless;
I didn’t speak Italian, so what good would it do to know that he did?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I could have phoned my mother for help
in that case, I suppose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She spoke
fluent Italian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the enquiry about
Italian met with the same negative response, so I was now all out of languages
and ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wendy and the Kosovans were looking
at me eagerly, hopefully, having apparently concluded, despite
clear evidence to the contrary, that I was capable of sorting everything
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the baby was watching me, expectantly.
Their faith in me was genuine and affecting, but it was unsolicited,
undeserved, and, if I’m to be completely honest, annoying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What could I do? I had to be somewhere
important!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the first day of my
new life! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d earned this; I deserved
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything I’d given up was finally
going to be worth it; all my hard work was finally going to pay off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted nothing more than to shrug my
shoulders, say ‘sorry, I can’t help you’, and walk out of the Co-op. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The door was open and the way out was clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that just wasn't going to cut it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone had to help them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t want the job, but I was all they had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I</span>t had to be me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The universe had spoken, and you don’t argue
with the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I pointed to
myself, and said ‘Sarah.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man
pointed to himself, and said ‘Ditmer.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were in business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">I beckoned them out to the phone
box and took the piece of paper with the phone number, feeling in my pockets
for change. I didn’t have any.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I rang
the operator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d heard that operators
would allow you to make a free phone call in cases of emergency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Hello there’ I said, in what I hoped was an
authoritative voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I’m here at a
phone box with a family of Kosovan refugees who just got dumped off the back of
a lorry on the A-40.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need to make
an emergency phone call to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can
you help us, please?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The universe must
have spoken to her as well because she put the call through. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man answered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I handed the phone to Ditmer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was enthusiastic, emotional conversation
in a language I didn’t recognize, but which I now know was Albanian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ditmer handed the phone back to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man on the other end spoke English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Please help my people’ he pleaded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘They need go London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Victoria station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I meet there them.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘But what can I do?’ I started to
protest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m on my way to work...’ This
feeble attempt to extricate myself was completely ignored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Please, help my people’ he repeated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘OK’, I said, ‘OK’, and put down the
phone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ditmer and his family were
looking at me trustingly, waiting to see what was going to happen next. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">‘Right then’, I said. ‘Come on.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A plan was forming in my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I needed to get them to the bus stop for the
Oxford Tube – a bus that ran from Oxford to London every 10-12 minutes and went
all the way through to Victoria Station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it didn’t go through the village, so I’d have to drive them to the
park and ride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, they needed money
for bus fare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only had 10 pounds on
me, which wasn't going to be enough to buy five tickets to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went back into the Co-op.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘We need some pounds’, I told Wendy. ‘If I
buy a bottle of water with my bank card’ (I’d forgotten about the Wispas) ‘how
much cash back can I get?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘50 pounds’,
she said. ‘That’s so nice of you’ she added, gratefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took the 50, added my 10, and showed it to
Ditmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Bus’, I said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He eagerly offered his wad of dollars to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘No, no’, I said, ‘just give me one
100 dollar bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a fair exchange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep the rest’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took one of the bills and gestured at him
to put the rest away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Now, come on’, I
said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Come with me’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned around and headed for home, in the
opposite direction from the language school, but I tried not to think about
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">My car was parked in the driveway
and I knew that to fit five passengers inside, I’d need to take out the car
seat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I took the car seat into the
kitchen, they all followed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must
be starving, I thought, frantically looking around the kitchen to see what I
might have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A half empty box of
biscuits, a loaf of sliced bread, and a jar of peanut butter were all I
could come up with, but they devoured these humble offerings gratefully. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">But enough was enough!</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">I needed to get them out of the house!</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> My new life was being sabotaged! </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">And their friend was waiting for them at
Victoria station.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">How to get them all
into the car was the next dilemma.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">There
weren’t enough seat belts for everyone, there were people on laps, a baby
without a car seat – who knows how many laws we were breaking, but what could I
do?</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">It wasn’t far, and surely if we were
stopped by the police, the officer would be sympathetic if I explained the
situation?</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">But we weren’t stopped.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">We made it safely to the bus stop.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">The bus arrived.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">I gestured them to go in, paid their fares
out of the 60 pounds, gave them their change, and then, because the driver
looked kind, took him into my confidence.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">‘They’re refugees’ I told him.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">‘Please make sure they stay on until Victoria station; they’re being
met.’ ‘Don’t worry, love’, he replied.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">‘I’ll take care of them.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">Everything will be all right.’</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">Sometimes
in life, you run across people who, when they tell you everything is going to be all
right, you know you can believe them.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;">The universe
had sent one of those people to drive the bus that took the Kosovans away to their
new life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1999, only a few people had mobile
phones, and I wasn’t one of them. So I had no way to contact the language school to let them know I was going
to be late, and in any case, what could I have said?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran into some Kosovans at the Co-op?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, I arrived twenty minutes late, having
surrendered my fate to the wisdom of the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The director looked at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Oh good’, he said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘There you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just finished the placement tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They went on a bit longer than expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re getting ready to start the classes
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yours are the upper intermediates,
room 5-A, upstairs and turn right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">I went upstairs, turned right,
and walked into the room marked 5-A.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">A room
full of smiling, expectant faces were looking at me. I took a deep
breath. ‘Hello everyone’, I said.</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;">‘My
name is Sarah, and I’m your teacher.’</span><span style="color: #10131a; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-58357152520588955872015-03-22T13:53:00.000-07:002015-07-26T23:17:24.736-07:00Iceland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>For Corin</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7Yt4UKhgGm-gYNOyQKZHBQh4sAvYGCSPBZk3vkqpcqZNEf6y39WGwdLsbaGw3qiHg7jfJm_9c1D8_VwGMgwgw6v8JwUMAyw6MN_RkZtD424ysl0QW2gvAyuBltwAkmnZQQZUd6QKiG4/s1600/Iceland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7Yt4UKhgGm-gYNOyQKZHBQh4sAvYGCSPBZk3vkqpcqZNEf6y39WGwdLsbaGw3qiHg7jfJm_9c1D8_VwGMgwgw6v8JwUMAyw6MN_RkZtD424ysl0QW2gvAyuBltwAkmnZQQZUd6QKiG4/s1600/Iceland.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Almost 20 years after I left England, I moved back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d changed a lot, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d left as an 18 year old in search of
adventure, and returned as a single parent of three, approaching middle age
(some might say, already well into middle age, but it didn’t feel that way to
me).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">England had changed as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having spent more than half my life outside
the UK, it didn’t feel like ‘my’ country any more, even though it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I was in the curious situation of being a foreigner in my own land. </span>There were a lot of things I didn’t know
about, because they hadn’t existed in the 1970s, and there were a lot of things
I didn’t know how to do in England, because I’d only ever done them in the
USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like renting an apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like buying a car, furniture, even food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What an exciting new world was waiting to be discovered at Tesco! Driving was difficult, but n</span>avigating the bus system was
familiar; growing up, I'd been a frequent bus rider. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Cao1mO-i709HByyLTc4-Qs8EysWwbSkTlPoOhs7JOzl_8y5CTIZRWxaQYs2F6TNgZo1kkKJzTv4fZCKlwCwKaMuGX0-elNMGBA2NldooVZpZMoZWX9bxzn2JlTMvD-uGuUKBBW2TGxY/s1600/wheatley+bus+stop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Cao1mO-i709HByyLTc4-Qs8EysWwbSkTlPoOhs7JOzl_8y5CTIZRWxaQYs2F6TNgZo1kkKJzTv4fZCKlwCwKaMuGX0-elNMGBA2NldooVZpZMoZWX9bxzn2JlTMvD-uGuUKBBW2TGxY/s1600/wheatley+bus+stop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bus stop at Church Road, Wheatley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">One day I was on the bus to Oxford with my two year old and
his buggy (that’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stroller</i> for my
American readers).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my neighbors
had got on at the same stop, also with a two year old and a buggy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bus was almost full, but there were two free
aisle seats opposite each other, where we gratefully sat down, holding our toddlers securely on our laps with one arm and the collapsed buggies in the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a hot summer day and there was no air
conditioning on the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a
couple of small windows open, but they didn’t help much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I smiled at my neighbor and she smiled
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t know each other well;
I’d only moved into the neighborhood a week or so previously, but now, on the crowded bus, in the uncomfortable heat, each with a small child and buggy in tow, we were instantly comrades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VjGFqW1N7MhTs_cqvOxV44NJ5nt4pcpLM4hE49lg3DeXkF9n9-7RskPLYMB81UqLWY-WlXSPKUyI_I6EJRASvgt0LFGSxq6GLumjcmNe3pC3xe-PcF2exy6XPmZUn3DonHYZ5r0fEsQ/s1600/280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VjGFqW1N7MhTs_cqvOxV44NJ5nt4pcpLM4hE49lg3DeXkF9n9-7RskPLYMB81UqLWY-WlXSPKUyI_I6EJRASvgt0LFGSxq6GLumjcmNe3pC3xe-PcF2exy6XPmZUn3DonHYZ5r0fEsQ/s1600/280.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bus approaching Oxford from Wheatley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Where are you going?’ she asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘To the university’ I replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘How about you?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Iceland’, she said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iceland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There was nothing in her face or tone of voice to suggest she wasn't serious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Iceland?’ I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Yep’, she confirmed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was pretty funny, after all, given the weather. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stared at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Why are you laughing?’ she asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Oh, sorry’ I said, puzzled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I thought it was funny.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Why?’ she asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Oh, sorry’, I said, ‘really, I thought you
were joking and I thought it was funny.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘But why did you think it was a joke?’ she asked again, looking as confused as I felt. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Well ….’ I began, not
sure how to explain. ‘I mean…… well, you don’t have a suitcase, for one
thing.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now my neighbor and all the bus
passengers within earshot were laughing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Apparently the joke was on me, although I still had no idea what it
was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">At the next stop, a large, noisy group of children in school
uniform got on and crowded into the aisle space between us, preventing
further conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of stops
later, my neighbor got off the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Through the window, </span>I
watched her as she fastened her baby in the buggy, and then, as the bus drove away,
I saw it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A frozen food store. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its name was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iceland</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Note: This week I'm co-facilitating a faculty development workshop at Valencia College called <i>Perspectives: Cross-cultural awareness in the classroom. </i>While reviewing the workshop materials, and thinking about the assumption of shared knowledge, I was reminded of this story, set in 1997 on the 280 bus from Wheatley to Oxford. <br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-16865923284019363772014-11-23T15:18:00.000-08:002015-03-23T04:15:31.286-07:00Admitting Office (2014)<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Jimmie and Bertie</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The young
woman stepped into my office. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was
nothing particularly remarkable about her with the exception of her eyes, which
expressed sadness and confusion, as if she didn’t quite understand, or want to
acknowledge, where she was or why she was there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I invited her to have a seat and waited for
her to tell me who she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was
the summer of 1983, and I was working the 3.30 to midnight shift in the
admitting office of a Boston area hospital. My job title was ‘admitting
officer’, which sounds much more prestigious than it was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">During my
shift, most admissions came through the emergency room, and usually a family
member would be sent to my office to complete the necessary paperwork. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If no family member was available, I would walk
down the corridor to the ER to interview the patient and get a signature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the patient was unconscious, I would write
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">patient unable to sign</i>. Once, the
nurse sent me into a room to get a signature, but the man on the table was dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’d never actually seen a dead person, but
despite my lack of experience, I was pretty confident in my assessment of his
condition). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I think Mr. ______ is dead’,
I confided solemnly to the nurses. They all went running, but as it turned out,
they already knew that patient was dead; they'd given me the wrong room
number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The young
woman in my office looked like she might be about to cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I waited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was used to people crying in my office; I usually just made
sympathetic faces and waited for them to collect themselves so that we could take
care of the business at hand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
young; in fact, I estimated that she was probably about my age, which at the
time was 23. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reminded me of myself in
other ways; the clothes she was wearing were clothes I might have chosen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was twisting her hair in the way I used
to do when I was a teenager, and still did in moments of extreme stress. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I waited, I ran through my mental map of
available hospital beds, considering options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In
addition to completing the admitting paperwork, my job entailed assigning patients
a bed on the appropriate ward, depending on the diagnosis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I quickly learned the acronyms that
represented the various diagnoses patients were admitted with: MVA, CVA, chest
pain rule out MI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some nights we had
non-stop admissions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The nursing
supervisor blamed those nights on the full moon. I was skeptical, but ‘so
was I before I worked here’ she said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
decided to keep an open mind). If I sent too many admissions to any one ward, the
nurses would call me, telling me to start assigning beds in M3, the ‘private
room’ ward, using ‘code three.’ There were three admission codes for M3:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One, patient request; two, patient is a
doctor or hospital employee (or immediate family member of a doctor or employee);
and three, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no other bed available</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hospital could only bill the private rate
for code one, and I soon learned that the use of code three was fraught with
political implications because it was interpreted very differently by nurses
and administrators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Administrators were
interested in the availability of the physical bed, whereas nurses were more
concerned with the availability of nursing personnel to attend to the bed’s
occupant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As admitting officers, we were
expected to follow the administration’s interpretation of code 3, but I never
said no to the nurses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew some of
them well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they said they were
overwhelmed, they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We
weren’t always busy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes there
were quiet nights; then, we would play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Monopoly</i>
or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trivial Pursuit</i> in the break room
-- <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>me, my co-worker Diane, and Roger the
IT guy. (We didn't call him the IT guy because in those days the IT department
was called Data Processing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roger’s job
was to run all the reports at midnight, so Diane and I had to be sure to input
all the patient data by 11:59 p.m. If a patient was admitted before
midnight, but we didn't get the information into the computer in time, the name
wouldn’t appear on that night’s census, the hospital couldn't bill for that
day, and we would be sure to hear about it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My
visitor had now collected herself enough to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'It's my grandfather', she said, the
desperation in her voice evident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘I
think he’s dying.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her lip started to
tremble and her eyes filled with tears again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I felt a familiar stab to my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I tried not to think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We travel
in time and space every time we think, but we don’t always like where we end
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Impossible to control, our thoughts
break loose and take us where they will. Just like small children -- take your
attention off them for a moment and they’ll be off somewhere getting in
trouble. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I knew exactly where mine were
going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p><i>Grandad has cancer, and he's dying</i> read the short letter from my
mother. My mother never was one for
trying to put a positive spin on things, not that there was much of a positive
spin that could have been put on this particular thing. I was 17, had left school, left home, and moved to Bournemouth, a popular seaside town on the
south coast of England. Having had some
local success as a springboard and platform diver, with a respectable
collection of silver cups and gold medals, my objective was to be hired as a show diver in the Bournemouth Aqua Circus. I needed to perfect a couple of complicated dives
before they would take me on, so I spent every day at the pool practicing. I was there from opening to closing,
supported in this endeavor by the benevolent British taxpayers via a program
known as ‘the dole' (which has since been re-named the more politically correct
'job seeker's allowance.') The only condition for receiving my weekly stipend
was that I present to the Job Center once a fortnight to ‘sign on’; i.e. sign a
declaration that I was actively looking for a job. Despite dutifully ‘signing
on’ as required, I was in fact not looking for a job at all. I was in training for a job, which I thought
was a fair substitute, but I suspected it would be wiser not to mention this to
the nice lady at the Job Center, who always looked at me with such sympathetic
eyes as I explained sadly that I had still not been successful in my quest for
employment.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqUsfGfkEwavscXIr6Hf0RGAR6jD9GsCc-sW608tRonbbJfz97uXYoZ6OqM0vufbTCHwz1JZ_VpHfyKXhzkjb0___ugw9PVNmggqjnOM-JuBuJUkP_7od_xEBCp_uvEW-bj1vSDIRirE/s1600/Aqua+Circus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqUsfGfkEwavscXIr6Hf0RGAR6jD9GsCc-sW608tRonbbJfz97uXYoZ6OqM0vufbTCHwz1JZ_VpHfyKXhzkjb0___ugw9PVNmggqjnOM-JuBuJUkP_7od_xEBCp_uvEW-bj1vSDIRirE/s1600/Aqua+Circus.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bournemouth Aqua Circus, 1970s</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p>But as
soon as I got my mother’s letter, all thoughts of the Aqua Circus disappeared,
never to return. I took the next train
home. I was in shock. How could
this be? Grandad couldn't die! Of
course, on some level I’d always known that this would happen one day. He had told me so himself on several
occasions. He didn’t make it sound too
bad, though. Unlike my mother, he liked to
look on the bright side. 'A person isn’t
<i>really</i> dead as long as someone who
remembers them is still alive', he used to assure me, and I found this vaguely
comforting without really understanding why.
He never minded talking about death, but then again, he’d had a lot of
experience with it. He’d been in the
trenches in France in the First World War.
He had lost his whole family of origin -- both parents and a brother -- before
the role of grandparent was bestowed on him by my arrival in the world. But I had no experience of losing loved ones to death -- and didn't want to start. Not now. Not him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I went to
my grandparents’ house as soon as I got home, having learned two things:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, he had incurable stomach cancer, and
second, he didn't know he was dying. It had been decided not to tell him,
which was something people did in those days when there was no hope, and I was
expected to put on a happy face and encourage him to believe that he would soon
be better. I found him much the same as usual although his skin had taken
on a slightly yellow color. He was delighted to see me, asked how the
diving was going, and whether he could make plans to come and see me the following
summer in the Aqua Circus. Knowing as I did that he was not expected to live
until Christmas, I just stared at him. What was I supposed to say to
that? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was going to be completely
hopeless at keeping up this pretense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
loved him so much, and he knew me so well. He then brought up the topic
of my 18th birthday, which was coming up in February. I couldn’t speak, but 'don’t
worry, I'll be well by then' he reassured me. ‘I’m not going to miss
that.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sounded so sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started to have hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe there could be a miracle?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I visited him every day for the next few
days, but then he became worse and was confined to bed. A home nurse was hired,
my uncle arrived, and I was no longer allowed to see him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLNMfdHCc4zudJJpLpWZNHGOhEWzH3D3GuwIQedYNrHo5XhF-bZa_W_KhUfSw-WdbhGU1zV6w7J9iCBqpowzfKD6qC_xF1FNx274jbXfxMm3bxAu8Jr_xa4rd1hxyyAUph1nn0gI0o90/s1600/grandad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbLNMfdHCc4zudJJpLpWZNHGOhEWzH3D3GuwIQedYNrHo5XhF-bZa_W_KhUfSw-WdbhGU1zV6w7J9iCBqpowzfKD6qC_xF1FNx274jbXfxMm3bxAu8Jr_xa4rd1hxyyAUph1nn0gI0o90/s1600/grandad.jpg" height="320" width="280" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Herbert Edward Walmisley, 1895-1977</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My
Grandad died a few days later, on Christmas Eve, and I never got to say
goodbye. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At 17, I was
still young enough to believe that when something went wrong, it could be fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nobody was fixing this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With typical teenage self-centeredness, I
could neither imagine nor feel the despair or grief of my mother and
grandmother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, it was ‘all about
me’ and what I felt, which I assumed nobody else could understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t understand it myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What did I feel? I felt the world changing around
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt reality shift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had moved into a parallel universe, a world
in which Grandad was gone, and where the very word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gone</i>, normally easy enough to understand, suddenly made no
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if by some magician’s sleight
of hand, everything else appeared exactly the same -- but I knew it wasn’t. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could it be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was always there, always happy to see me; no,
not just happy, overjoyed – he always made me feel that just by turning up, I
had made his day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what was I supposed
to do now? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How was I supposed to bear it?
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father did his best to comfort me,
but there was nothing he could say, and he knew it. I clung to Grandad’s belief that a person isn't <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
dead until the last person who knew them is dead. You are going to live
for a long, long, time, I promised him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Those sad
events replayed in my mind as I looked at the young woman who was now watching me,
expectantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know what to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What could I tell her? That five years
from now you’ll still feel the pain of missing him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That sometimes you’ll dream about him, that
he’s there, in your life, just like he always was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll be so happy to see him, and you’ll
tell him ‘I can’t believe it’s you, I thought you were dead!’ and he’ll say
‘no, no, remember what I told you, I’m not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
dead as long as anyone who remembers me is still alive.’ You’ll start to
suspect you are dreaming and fight against waking, trying to prolong the time
together, but eventually you’ll wake up and feel your heart break all over
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I didn’t want to say any of
that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t do anything or say
anything to make it better for her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
felt that asking for her grandfather's insurance information would be
cold-hearted, but after all that's why she had come to my office. But she
wasn’t talking, and I decided it wasn’t my place to talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was my place to respect the silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the
silence was short lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly, there
was a quick knock, the door opened, and my husband’s head, with his black and
white Jack Daniels baseball cap on it, popped into my office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Where's the car?' he asked, beaming at my visitor
with his characteristically cheerful grin. Pulled back to reality, from
remembering the dead to considering the practical concerns of the living, I
wondered what on earth he was doing there. Why couldn’t he find the car?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I remembered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had been a busy evening at work, and I’d
forgotten to call him with the message that I'd parked in a different lot.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My
husband worked just down the street from the hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He worked the day shift, and I worked
evenings. We had two babies and one car, so we’d devised an ingenious system to
share work, childcare, and the car. At 6 a.m., we’d bundle the babies into the
car, and I’d drive him to work, then come home again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 3 p.m. the babysitter (an upstairs
neighbor) came down, and I'd drive to work for my shift. At 5 p.m. he'd
walk to the hospital, pick up the car, drive home, and send the babysitter home.
At midnight he’d then load the babies back into the car and come pick me
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life sometimes felt very difficult,
especially getting the babies in and out of the car at midnight and 6 a.m.,
especially when there were blizzards, which there often were, but they didn’t
seem to mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact they soon learned
to sleep blissfully through the routine of zipping snowsuits over pajamas and the
buckling/unbuckling of car seats. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY59vQ9-XC7O1AOdT9l-KM1IwlLyvoQS3XuJjq1jiiasFQ1z8sDauWRG2o44G6hKv1R1Y-egzmz8NydO2emmwWbM4VQOhCDMLSaTfmN_6troXI53_3QEblOKvsAgrJFjSLQq1XcRkdehA/s1600/boston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY59vQ9-XC7O1AOdT9l-KM1IwlLyvoQS3XuJjq1jiiasFQ1z8sDauWRG2o44G6hKv1R1Y-egzmz8NydO2emmwWbM4VQOhCDMLSaTfmN_6troXI53_3QEblOKvsAgrJFjSLQq1XcRkdehA/s1600/boston.jpg" height="233" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Boston, 1983, Sarah, Art, Michael and Christine</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On that
particular day, the parking lot I usually used was closed because the lines
were being repainted, so I had parked on the other side of the hospital.
When he hadn’t found the car in its usual place, he had come looking for
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Oh, sorry', I said, quickly
remembering. ‘It's in the Ibsen parking lot.' I felt embarrassed
that my personal life had invaded my work environment, especially at such a
delicate moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But after
my husband’s head popped out again, my visitor seemed to relax a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She handed me her grandfather’s documents,
and even managed a half-smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
she’d decided that a person who couldn’t remember where she’d parked the car, and
who had a husband with a Jack Daniels baseball cap and a big smile, was human
after all. I suddenly realized two things:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, I didn't have to choose between being
businesslike and sympathetic; I could be both. Second, I couldn’t always
help the people who came to my office; some problems have no solution, at least
not in this world. Sometimes all you can do is empathize and connect with
someone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly this was one of those
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I took
a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I know exactly how you feel</i>.’ Now,
there are not many times in life you can say those words and really mean them, and
have them be completely true, but this was one of those times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she knew it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The connection was made. ‘Why don't we walk
back down to the ER?’ I suggested. ‘That way you can be with him and I
can get the information I need there. There’s no reason you have to stay here.’
If her grandfather was really going to die, I wanted her to have the
chance to say goodbye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was pleased
at this suggestion and we walked in silent camaraderie down the hall to the ER,
where I briefly met her parents, expressed my sympathies, and collected the
necessary information. Then I went back to my office, completed the
admission process, the night went on with more patients and more admissions,
and I didn’t think about the family again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A few weeks
later, I decided I wanted to sign up for classes at North Shore Community
College. As much as I loved my job in the admitting office, it was on the
low end of the hospital pay scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew
that to move into a better paying job at the hospital, or anywhere else, I would
need a college degree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People I knew
were taking classes at the community college, and the hospital had a tuition
reimbursement program, so I went over there one morning to register. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there were multiple difficulties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I couldn't produce a high school diploma
because I hadn't gone to high school in the US. Instead, I had 'O' levels
from England, but the people in the college Admissions department had never
heard of ‘O’ levels (I wasn’t convinced they had heard of England, either) and
said I might have to take something called a 'GED.' I was getting nowhere
fast; it was all looking quite hopeless. It would take me weeks to get my
‘O’ level certificates from England, and classes were starting in a few days.
The suggestion was made that I might like to wait for the next semester,
but I'm not the kind of person who likes to wait, once I've made up my mind to
do something. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I dug my heels in and pushed a little, but 'I'm sorry, I can't help you' announced the clerk firmly, looking past me to the next person in line. Just then, a
middle-aged woman walked out of a back office and stopped when she saw me. ‘Oh,’
she said, with a friendly smile, ‘it’s you!’ I had no idea who she was, but she
clearly recognized me. I smiled back and waited for her to explain.
'You work at the hospital, don't you?' I nodded. ‘You were so
helpful to us when my father died' she said, her voice faltering just a little as
she remembered that day. ‘My daughter went to your office and you walked
back with her to the ER, do you remember?' I did. ‘We were so grateful
to you,’ she went on. ‘You were so kind.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kind, I considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People don’t
usually say that about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People used
to say that about Grandad, that he was kind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was always kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the
very embodiment of kindness, in fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
had never known anyone kinder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I
really kind too? I wondered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">‘What are
you doing here?' she asked. 'Registering for classes?' Well, I'm
trying, I said, and explained the difficulties. It turned out she was the
manager of the college admissions department and she took me into her office
and sorted out my registration in less than two minutes. She said, ‘get
your 'O' level certificates to me when you can, but in the meantime I'll put in
a system over-ride so that you can start next week.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtiZMzomPB89154uyG3xQ4l15UODbW6DnCHAE8Jdo_8FQmU6ZrWzw_Go3oa8WtbGMm6fCgiCJIFWyC3EeUPnpwZwLojLoFplJK8ZBnIHxQP12vjOmspavUrEu3eepvDVlWyCxDVgPkdg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-11-23+at+5.59.27+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtiZMzomPB89154uyG3xQ4l15UODbW6DnCHAE8Jdo_8FQmU6ZrWzw_Go3oa8WtbGMm6fCgiCJIFWyC3EeUPnpwZwLojLoFplJK8ZBnIHxQP12vjOmspavUrEu3eepvDVlWyCxDVgPkdg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-11-23+at+5.59.27+PM.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After
everything was arranged, I walked outside and headed to my car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was ecstatic!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, at 23 years old, I was on my way to
a college degree!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a beautiful
September day, the heat of the summer had given way to a cooling breeze, and there
were large red/orange leaves fluttering gently to the ground. The parking
lot looked just as it had when I arrived, but I knew that everything was
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reality had shifted, and in
this new version of reality, all the opportunities in the world were suddenly within
reach. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realized that I was no longer
walking; I was skipping! Who cares if anyone’s watching, I thought, and started
turning, dancing, jumping, pretending to ice skate, spinning, the leaves
crunching deliciously underfoot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Humming a
happy tune, I found the car, opened the door, and got in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked over at the man in the passenger
seat, a contented smile on his kind, familiar face. Not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> dead, but still with me, just as
he had always promised. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">___________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Click <a href="http://hinterlandblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/so-many-different-lengths-of-time/" target="_blank">here</a> for a poem by Brian
Patten, <a href="http://hinterlandblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/so-many-different-lengths-of-time/" target="_blank">‘So Many Different Lengths of Time,’ </a>which so beautifully expresses
what my grandfather believed, and which comforts me now, many years later, as I
mourn the recent loss of my beloved father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hold onto the belief that ‘a man lives for as long as we carry him
inside us …<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as long as we ourselves
live, holding memories in common, a man lives.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wait patiently for the day that ‘he will not have ceased, but will
have ceased to be separated by death.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AmQnXdMHjskCPzS5ZnHrBkUpStOW1iXAB_3yC0vxfRtNL6eOUbRff4kVFNphGne1Crztv44t7n9Pl_UtcIwty7cv-1-xoDYK0VmXjhssdvh6pgFcdPt2SoI48FxwS1mG5LU5DnDqsdw/s1600/dads+flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AmQnXdMHjskCPzS5ZnHrBkUpStOW1iXAB_3yC0vxfRtNL6eOUbRff4kVFNphGne1Crztv44t7n9Pl_UtcIwty7cv-1-xoDYK0VmXjhssdvh6pgFcdPt2SoI48FxwS1mG5LU5DnDqsdw/s1600/dads+flowers.jpg" height="358" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Funeral flowers for James Tomlinson, 1926-2014, from his garden</span></td></tr>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-12032204365369250232014-07-25T11:38:00.001-07:002014-07-25T11:43:53.076-07:00Dad's animals<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjVt2ngF42YsZTYj8QE-ulB6uMUZ_O7ttj3eEiguLBDB86yCLi0QxTcEfSYPSd_9AGngs1tI9sX-EK0nfbQqz3nH58I2-0JDqM8gTUiFOvC2SSVtwkZQ-v30aVys8oZosgPLC1l1n-EOc/s1600/IMG_5070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjVt2ngF42YsZTYj8QE-ulB6uMUZ_O7ttj3eEiguLBDB86yCLi0QxTcEfSYPSd_9AGngs1tI9sX-EK0nfbQqz3nH58I2-0JDqM8gTUiFOvC2SSVtwkZQ-v30aVys8oZosgPLC1l1n-EOc/s1600/IMG_5070.JPG" height="187" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Animals designed by Jim Tomlinson (1926-2014)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Introduction: </i></b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes we forget how quickly the world can turn upside down. Having set up this blog as a medium for my short stories, I've written several of them over the past couple of months, intending to edit and publish them over the summer break. Then, last week, my Dad died. The last time I was with my Dad, in June of 2013, right after my sabbatical, I told him about my sabbatical blog, in which he had made a <a href="http://sarahonsabbatical.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/a-horse-for-sarah-story-of-robin-sombra.html" target="_blank">guest appearance</a>. 'But who reads it?' he asked, a bit skeptical. I explained how the internet allows you to search for information on any topic, and how sometimes, people searching for something I have written about on my blog, might arrive at my blog. He was delighted with this idea, and asked me if I could publish the information about his animals on a blog. As you can see in the picture above, these are wooden animals that he designed for children (age 4-5) to make with minimal supervision. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was delighted with the idea that people searching for children's arts and crafts projects would be able to find his instructions. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7zNsOMK8stoN8vdXVhUgOADsfIOaVu4z2wfxMH3eGr2tmizNgi4htOSSjJi6Hp6aDrA9vtj3U1CMjj-wtXLdz64qW0H0570ip6a1tMOcGY1OJCfb1zXdbVz31ZKxrHcVXrKFsAaEUoc/s1600/IMG_5103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7zNsOMK8stoN8vdXVhUgOADsfIOaVu4z2wfxMH3eGr2tmizNgi4htOSSjJi6Hp6aDrA9vtj3U1CMjj-wtXLdz64qW0H0570ip6a1tMOcGY1OJCfb1zXdbVz31ZKxrHcVXrKFsAaEUoc/s1600/IMG_5103.JPG" height="200" width="164" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dad, June 2013</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy to do as he asked, I took pictures, wrote up my report, and promised him that it would all go on my next blog. But then I didn't do another blog, so I just put all the information about the animals away in the 'sort it out later' folder on my computer. (Anyone who knows Dad will of course confirm that he would have approved wholeheartedly of this strategy). When I created <i>Saturday's Child </i>earlier this year, I wasn't thinking about the animals, but rather about stories connected to jobs I've had over the past four decades. However. As fate would have it, Dad's animals are going to be the first post. It's a perfect way to begin a blog about job-related stories, because Dad designed the animals as part of a volunteer job he had after he retired. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How it all started:</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjqYw61Xz-ZOQY3sWPvEEuQ8vBypb5hLz_Qh4X4uRzIVzQNe8uHn6tBLZz4eNSQP2pk_9Tohf5WuBPuaKWURas1mj8ILpL8QDlx3zJlTk1gF9zGrRtdqAlVVAY1Y4fNQ9ENC0yB5xRjQ/s1600/IMG_5078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVjqYw61Xz-ZOQY3sWPvEEuQ8vBypb5hLz_Qh4X4uRzIVzQNe8uHn6tBLZz4eNSQP2pk_9Tohf5WuBPuaKWURas1mj8ILpL8QDlx3zJlTk1gF9zGrRtdqAlVVAY1Y4fNQ9ENC0yB5xRjQ/s1600/IMG_5078.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1990, after my Dad retired from his 30+ year career at EMI, he went to live in Awre, Gloucestershire, with his new wife, Margaret. Also retired, Margaret sometimes volunteered in the nursery in the village hall. She helped the children with arts and crafts, and on one occasion when they were making wooden Christmas stockings out of balsa wood, they realized they had no way to drill holes. So she brought the stockings home and asked Dad to drill the holes. From then on, Dad was known in the village as a person who could 'do things.' One day Margaret came home with a box of balsa wood and announced that the nursery manager had asked if Dad could use it to make toys with the children. Dad always liked making toys <i>for</i> us when we were children (farmyards and dolls' cots come immediately to mind). But, with one notable exception (my Japanese dolls house), he hadn't made toys <i>with</i> us. Nevertheless, he decided to take up the challenge by designing wooden animals that the nursery children (4-5 years old) could assemble and paint with minimal supervision. </span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The animals: </span></b></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qIT9sp2wsMG9G27Catj1HHSLVXaKxbdTL9VleFSNhQ2is0kiarROLIGQjueSK8HlLNINfq7eH8yW0N-iokhuva-dKuj4YRRHEfypkSqHzdOzbpzhYJpiVwQ7IvAEncIuJScVHlxMhcw/s1600/IMG_5071.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qIT9sp2wsMG9G27Catj1HHSLVXaKxbdTL9VleFSNhQ2is0kiarROLIGQjueSK8HlLNINfq7eH8yW0N-iokhuva-dKuj4YRRHEfypkSqHzdOzbpzhYJpiVwQ7IvAEncIuJScVHlxMhcw/s1600/IMG_5071.jpg" height="151" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first animal was a rocking horse. Dad drew up the design</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, cut up the wood with a fret saw, then brought it all to the nursery with some glue. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a lot of trial and error. The challenge, he explained, was to create designs that were simple enough for the children to put the pieces together themselves. His guiding principle for each step of the process was that 'if I had to do it for them, it was too difficult. The design was wrong.' After the first couple of animals, he realized he had been aiming at '7 year olds instead of 4 year olds,' so he modified the design accordingly. Another lesson he quickly learned was that because of the small size of the children's hands, tasks he had thought would be too difficult, too 'finicky', were actually quite easy for them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He drew the designs on cardboard, cut out the cardboard, placed the cut-outs on bolsa wood, drew around them, then cut the wood. At first he used his fret saw, but later, once demand increased, he invested in an electric saw. For each project</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, he went to the nursery once a week for three weeks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNUFQjYOyScP6cnVD4IMSBIhc0U7k9k47c5zXwMy3NT9Ov63yVxRZW5-sSH-H-KZZtlHMw-b5FAcduDkii5A-U5YFTB9koCj90X7CUikEbMGJRNJ3du79-vyj42VlG3RTn9HTATKxOfc/s1600/IMG_5075.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqNUFQjYOyScP6cnVD4IMSBIhc0U7k9k47c5zXwMy3NT9Ov63yVxRZW5-sSH-H-KZZtlHMw-b5FAcduDkii5A-U5YFTB9koCj90X7CUikEbMGJRNJ3du79-vyj42VlG3RTn9HTATKxOfc/s1600/IMG_5075.jpg" height="200" width="120" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Week one:</i> Assembling the animals using glue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Week two</i>: Painting the animals</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Week three</i>: Finishing touches including eyes and ears and others, different for each animal, such as a tail for the pig and patches for the giraffe. (The day they painted the patches on the giraffe was known as 'dotty day.') </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The giraffe and owl, he said, were the most successful from a design standpoint, being 'just the right level of difficulty.' He talked about the giraffe's neck. He hadn't wanted to sandpaper the wood down to make the neck rounded, so the children painted the patches (or 'blobs', as Dad called them) to go 'around the corner', thus giving a rounded effect. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Dad and the children: </i></b> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzGk9lI73ug5-NbKTXBbPLuHiPtvgTVjEJXji_UwWR3VcMcSPzYskFEAIgEapNDNLqEg53ECjeXn2BXBaBG3l6HIYn2PRapT1dpAuiyLGX11G3qbpy2PBffz_vd5J2emLL4Z1lYqqUBA/s1600/IMG_5106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzGk9lI73ug5-NbKTXBbPLuHiPtvgTVjEJXji_UwWR3VcMcSPzYskFEAIgEapNDNLqEg53ECjeXn2BXBaBG3l6HIYn2PRapT1dpAuiyLGX11G3qbpy2PBffz_vd5J2emLL4Z1lYqqUBA/s1600/IMG_5106.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I asked Dad what he found most rewarding in this work, and he answered 'watching the children's faces.' He loved the expression of complete absorption as they concentrated on a task. He described the legs of the elephant. He had made the holes a bit too big to allow for manipulation of the leg positions so that the elephant would stand on all four legs. He loved watching the children dedicate themselves to this task, maneuvering and adjusting, figuring out the 'trick' to getting it just right. Watching them learn. He loved the expression of happiness and satisfaction when they got it. And he loved the expression of pride on the children's faces as they showed their parents the animals they had made themselves. </span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Materials needed:</span></i></b><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bolsa wood.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Water-based paint and paintbrushes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saw</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spring loaded curtain rails (the thin white ones) for
legs. Cut with wire cutters.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wood Glue.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cardboard for templates</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scissors.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Drill.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Model eyes (available in craft store).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dowels</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instructions for the elephant:</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2SsLZ7MZrt3QGjqSaiChJBsppo9Gajkst35AZJoAfXY6jNUB_nPkkyklNg_aBJfs8W41EZUfidSNn8qird5Tte0mLMimGV6oSxFCn4XzQwrEKy0Y04NZ39fD5sMFUTsHz25GxQX_mjs/s1600/IMG_5092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2SsLZ7MZrt3QGjqSaiChJBsppo9Gajkst35AZJoAfXY6jNUB_nPkkyklNg_aBJfs8W41EZUfidSNn8qird5Tte0mLMimGV6oSxFCn4XzQwrEKy0Y04NZ39fD5sMFUTsHz25GxQX_mjs/s1600/IMG_5092.jpg" height="221" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMJzPyvgbJ4PTgmHM2BQbksFfLEWtPknUkIGzLQ1Iiti95_t9Ix69xwBJbtJiRLcBdrkxYuWov4jbhCa_NtlvdYqRg-AHT1cGtN4ScN6P-VTVYGoFtjvV2yP1B5KkHWk9el2K5WbMkmM/s1600/IMG_5094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMJzPyvgbJ4PTgmHM2BQbksFfLEWtPknUkIGzLQ1Iiti95_t9Ix69xwBJbtJiRLcBdrkxYuWov4jbhCa_NtlvdYqRg-AHT1cGtN4ScN6P-VTVYGoFtjvV2yP1B5KkHWk9el2K5WbMkmM/s1600/IMG_5094.jpg" height="320" width="285" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The elephant came after lots of trial and error and
was one of the ones that worked the best. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The design worked, but it wasn’t too easy; the children still needed to
apply focused concentration and some skill in order to make sure it stood on
all four legs, thus giving them a sense of achievement (as above). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Use the templates in the green picture to cut the bolsa wood and drill holes as
shown.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assemble the elephant as in the pink picture using
glue. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note: The holes are bigger than the dowel; they are more or
less the right size but allow room to maneuver in order that the elephant stands
squarely on all four legs, and maneuvering this requires the children to apply
concentration (possibly first time in their life they’ve had to focus all their
attention on an unusual, even slightly tricky, task). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Glue the pieces on one at a time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SESSION ONE: Assembly
with glue.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SESSION TWO:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Painting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SESSION THREE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> W</span>hite detail paint added and eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a picture of Dad outside his house on our last day together. June 2013</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhSDvRERhYv1NrCqpBAtB1fIKDwGuw1S7gyrYAC_gkL2ArO1XFPVoN_Bqp5ThE6AjiklnBUDhWzbBpDNy8kUVyiNbZ59ajRPBYdnwik0VmtRjDLqvyqjXp1bXgLLLS9E3WnkR9HiIfu4/s1600/IMG_5107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhSDvRERhYv1NrCqpBAtB1fIKDwGuw1S7gyrYAC_gkL2ArO1XFPVoN_Bqp5ThE6AjiklnBUDhWzbBpDNy8kUVyiNbZ59ajRPBYdnwik0VmtRjDLqvyqjXp1bXgLLLS9E3WnkR9HiIfu4/s1600/IMG_5107.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Goodbye, dear, sweet, Dad. 4/15/26 - 7/17/14</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jim Tomlinson, 1958 and 2013</span></td></tr>
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<b><i><br /></i></b>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1814813719768401721.post-45518757354698512142014-06-08T07:37:00.005-07:002014-06-08T08:41:53.034-07:00Work in progress<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No stories ready to post yet, and in the meantime, I don't like the look of an empty blog! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, here are a couple of pictures to fill up the space. My family and my garden, my two favorite subjects for photos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">First, my three children (left to right, Corin, Christine, and Mike) on the occasion of Christine and Robin's wedding, April 16, 2011:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Tccq4hxZVz2JGZYeFLTC_sKlPDQk8ZOktxX5BDiphc5DdY5pS0RzbXOIqvIu11BnONBtp2h_vWgTNJK-XTgehyphenhyphendn-q2G0tHCiw6MtCb1TqyBqn-PfSAlBSCzf9dZQjyq87y0Dla7BAQ/s1600/CR-1265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Tccq4hxZVz2JGZYeFLTC_sKlPDQk8ZOktxX5BDiphc5DdY5pS0RzbXOIqvIu11BnONBtp2h_vWgTNJK-XTgehyphenhyphendn-q2G0tHCiw6MtCb1TqyBqn-PfSAlBSCzf9dZQjyq87y0Dla7BAQ/s1600/CR-1265.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And here we all are in London on the occasion of Corin's 18th birthday, December 27, 2012:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioH20qtRXDUhQFvudYm1ZqgKpFM2HFkZCDT0DyWUH-vI7muSEN3ql5tg8CJCHLEEPcHwaxJQ5l0PWq2AFkv81wzeKxU59o2w38JxzjyLrNPY67s9uz9pcrwQ1u9qn8XXxR9BPtYTPBiSs/s1600/IMG_3117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioH20qtRXDUhQFvudYm1ZqgKpFM2HFkZCDT0DyWUH-vI7muSEN3ql5tg8CJCHLEEPcHwaxJQ5l0PWq2AFkv81wzeKxU59o2w38JxzjyLrNPY67s9uz9pcrwQ1u9qn8XXxR9BPtYTPBiSs/s1600/IMG_3117.JPG" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Restaurant picture above: Left to right, Robin, Christine, Corin, Kristie, Mike, Sarah (me)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My Dad, Jim, January 2013:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUdWgtbKC2v1kFtRnhAeVVpzrLBU7wJfCfvCUJynnYmif6xh2qVUvHee-Ohfg532PNtQt7Ftz6RFwxbjSNV2Kx6jBZERMGyta0OHLO2WExivZ8yGvU_addIc-Mnhg22-dmaMSZP-4epFg/s1600/IMG_3072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUdWgtbKC2v1kFtRnhAeVVpzrLBU7wJfCfvCUJynnYmif6xh2qVUvHee-Ohfg532PNtQt7Ftz6RFwxbjSNV2Kx6jBZERMGyta0OHLO2WExivZ8yGvU_addIc-Mnhg22-dmaMSZP-4epFg/s1600/IMG_3072.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Next, a couple of pictures of my Florida garden:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihbNSKCOhOnunfQBAP7MBN2ldIz3ozkp-O3hias6PWwzIPPB1cwH34AMK8NYl3cAP2JEbTMgB3fQAu7mSy75gdIqYQ9-y5V5X4Qgouh23SJQ-Gw1yx_ft4grohxECgjlC8Z-_t_lK9aLo/s1600/IMG_5545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihbNSKCOhOnunfQBAP7MBN2ldIz3ozkp-O3hias6PWwzIPPB1cwH34AMK8NYl3cAP2JEbTMgB3fQAu7mSy75gdIqYQ9-y5V5X4Qgouh23SJQ-Gw1yx_ft4grohxECgjlC8Z-_t_lK9aLo/s1600/IMG_5545.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After the rain come the rain lilies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7K8r6HTFIlUud7OhjeY5TGR7pUlGypSBZ2xa4Wbp3EcyQ0Qkmy_Xpx4a6X3hs7_x1rTukqcitbYuFAsfWxSUZqRNpBxshekGtm4SjU9rRaGnbJfZTgDF4FEthYrPAiia8NslC_H2t7s/s1600/IMG_2683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7K8r6HTFIlUud7OhjeY5TGR7pUlGypSBZ2xa4Wbp3EcyQ0Qkmy_Xpx4a6X3hs7_x1rTukqcitbYuFAsfWxSUZqRNpBxshekGtm4SjU9rRaGnbJfZTgDF4FEthYrPAiia8NslC_H2t7s/s1600/IMG_2683.JPG" height="242" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tropical wisteria</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally, a picture of me in December 2012 outside the church in Norbury, Southwest London, where my grandparents got married in 1923. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782956906433080103noreply@blogger.com0