92 years
I hadn’t realized it had been quite so long since I posted until today.
There are 2 main things that have happened this month.
1) I put in my application for a tenure-track position at school.
This actually took a lot of time. But, I think that my final application was really good.
2) My Grandma died a week and a half ago on Veteran’s day. She had just turned 92.
It was expected, in that she had a form of dementia and a movement disorder and has been progressively getting worse. But at the same time, it is sad to know that her life on this earth is over and she cannot be with us, physically, anymore.
I flew back to Indiana last weekend to be with everyone. It was for me, as well as for them. I needed that time to experience the formalities of the visitation, funeral, and burial ceremonies. And I needed the joy of seeing family members whom I haven’t seen since some of them showed up in TX for Texas seestor’s wedding (4? years ago) and more like 5 for others who didn’t fly down for the wedding.
I also used the time to catch up on some geneology. No one has any family tree info. But I was able to get some based on headstones, old copies of obituaries, and the recollections of some of my older and more distant relatives. I took a bunch of photos of gorgeous black and white photos of family members (great grandparents). We even have some wedding photos from Germany (late 1800’s), but some are unmarked, so we don’t know the identities of the people.
I hope to communicate with a couple of other people in the family who have evidently spent some time collecting information.
One other thing that was fun was that my mom and two of her sisters shared stories about life on the farm. Some of the stories were even surprises to them!
Well, I guess that is all for now. We have a couple of weeks and then we have finals. So, this is sort of a crazy time of the academic year!
One final note: Texas Seestor will be giving birth within the next ____ weeks. (4?) She is on bed rest right now, so keep her in your thoughts and prayers! And keep trainwreck in your prayers too!
Jenski says:
Sounds like life is a bit crazy for you right now. I am very sorry to hear of your loss.
I’ll cross my fingers for a speedy X weeks for Texas Seestor and for you application! Good luck with the rest of the semester.
Squirl says:
Sorry to hear about your grandmother, but I’m glad you had that chance to visit with the family. All the stories seem to come out at funerals. We seem to be even more aware of life in the face of death.
Sending good thoughts to your Seestor! Good luck with the tenure app!