[1]At age 73 I know I’ve had several once-in- a-lifetime- experiences. Most of them occurred during my marriage to an energetic, risk-taking, curious physician with wanderlust. I refer, for example, to a 2-yr stint in Congo—then Zaire—where my husband, Art, worked for President Mobutu while I cared for our two small children and studied French at the French Embassy, 1970-72. Again I refer to my partnership with him in the llama breeding business in Rochester since 1981—I being the one who intentionally left the farm (my father’s passion) forever, upon marriage to a physician. And I’m still amazed at the births of a son and a daughter, when for eleven years it appeared our children would be adopted or “surrogates” whom I was teaching high school English.
But a trip with Mayo endocrinologist son Kurt and his 5-yr-old son, Simon, January 6-8, 2006, is in a category by itself. Explaining to all inquirers that the purpose of our trip was to celebrate my pop’s 101st birthday never failed to elicit a “Wow.”
Surprising Pop in PA with our arrival from MN was great fun. Absent were his former physical strength, appetite, good eyesight and hearing, but present were adequate sight and hearing, expressions of curiosity, warmth, delight in family, appreciation for this attention and his regular dependable care and the comfortable surroundings of his apartment in a retirement complex.
Having already outlived his five brothers and sister, Pop lost his wife of 75 years on Feb. 11, 2005. Mentally acute, as she was also at 95 years, he describes himself as happy, and life as interesting, "but now," he adds, “what’s most important to me is the spiritual.”
His four living children count themselves uncommonly blessed with his legacy.