Ellen gave me a book to read. One she just finished and thought I would like. Richard Ford's Let Me Be Frank With You. Four novellas. "Try the first one." I'm Here. It was good. Not the sort of book I usually read. Frank is a retired realtor called by an old college chum to whom he had sold his own house ten years earlier. The house is now a total wreck. Destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. The old chum - hardly a friend but someone with whom he feels some bond and toward whom he feels some sense of obligation - wants to meet him at the site of what used to be his house - a 2 million $ structure now worthless - and advise him on what to do now. A situation full of potential for comedy and rue. Ford exploits it wonderfully.
Sitting next to me are three other books. Conrad's Heart of Darkness. One of the strangest books I've read. Almost finished. Then Gilead and Home, both by Marilynne Robinson. I finished Lila. Now I want to go back and read her earlier books - all about the same characters. May not finish them before we leave - they 're library books.
This morning we learned from John that a dear friend back in Dummerston, Esther Falk, died over the weekend. She lived alone by choice. She was in her nineties. She fell outside in her driveway, it was very cold, she couldn't get herself inside and she froze to death. We were so saddened by this news. I have known Esther for almost 60 years. I performed the weddings of both her daughters. I have spent many lovely hours in her home. She was a deeply concerned person, engaged with the world, very principled, a wonderful gardener, generous with appreciation. I called Susanna Griefen, pastor of the Dummerston and learned that there were signs that she had struggled to get up, but then apparently folded her legs and crossed her arms over her chest and was at peace with death. Not a bad way to die. Maybe like going to sleep. Spared a long decline, independent to the last. But, Gosh, I'll miss seeing her in church. It is hard not to be there for her family at this moment. John will try to look in- she was special for him too.
Esther Falk (1920-2015)
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