vividreports: TWTWTW

Where did this past week go? Well, it was a very full week, for one thing. Not a lot of opportunity for blogging - I apologize to my faithful followers !

Last Tuesday, April 24, we sang in the choir for a memorial service for our friend, Judith Kinley. I had known Judith, who was a nurse, for decades. I had worked with her in Hospice, served on the Hospital Ethics Committee with her, teamed up with her to guide scores of people through the process of preparing Advanced Directives, and most importantly, in my role as Moderator of the Windham-Union Association, walked with her through her journey toward ordination as a UCC minister in 2004. In recent years she had retired and was a member of the Guilford Church, along with her husband, Don, who was an orthopedic surgeon. I grew in my affection and respect for her all through the years, to the end. At her funeral, her granddaughters were particularly emotional in expressing their love for their grandmother. It was a very touching service.

Judith Kinley

Just before Judith's service, I learned of the death of another friend, Barbara Baker-Bury. Judith had died after a very long period of illness and dementia. She was 75. Barbara was 73, but as her obituary put it, she had died of cancer "which had evolved with shocking suddenness." We had sung together for decades in the Blanche Moyse Chorale, and she was just a very lovely person who had combined art and psychotherapy in her career. I'm afraid losing friends is going to become an increasingly common occurance.

Barbara Baker-Bury

Tuesday evening, we had our usual River Singers rehearsal, which this season is featuring Québécois music, so we're doing a lot of French that is a little different from the Parisian French we're more familiar with. We have a concert coming up this coming weekend. Barbara Baker-Bury 's service, where I will join with others in singing Bach Chorales, falls on the afternoon of our evening River Singers concert. So I will miss all the pre-concert rehearsals. Fortunately, I feel I know the music well!

River Singers Concert Poster

This past week also contained a Concert Choir rehearsal, a Hallowell book reading and sing at the Putney Public Library, a trip with Katie and Savanna to Hyde Park, NY, to the Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, a trip to N. Hartland, Vt., to have body work done on our car, lunch with John and Cynthia at Cafe 7 in Bellows Falls, processing books from my library for a Guilford Church book sale, a trip to Leverett, MA, to hear Savanna singing in the Leverett Chorus, an Osher lecture on the story of Moses and Pharaoh in the Qur'an, and a bass-alto sectional rehearsal for the Brattleboro Concert Choir, which has a concert coming up in two weeks. That's a lot for one week! And in the midst of all that, spring has really arrived! It was in the 80's yesterday. Tuesday, Eliza came over with little Phoebe, and Robin Davis came too, and we all had lunch on the deck. It was wonderful!

Phoebe enjoying a basket of pine cones on our deck in the warm spring sunshine

Here are some before and after shots of our car. We feel like we have a new car, but it has 190,000 miles on it! Rob managed to find a door in a junk yard that fit perfectly and was the same color. The bumper is new and had to be painted. It looks great!