Saturday Slight

This is definitely a "Carpe Diem" Saturday, and we're going to follow instructions. Bill's headed off to Spokane in a while to attend the outdoor fishing show, and I'll be driving across the lake to take some photos of another Bill---and his horse. I'll stop off and visit with Willie, if he's home, and then pop in on my sister-in-law Mary who's here for a Thompson family sisters gathering.

When I return home, the horse trailer will be hooked up, and I'll haul Lily over to Barbara and Laurie's. We'll probably do some riding in their indoor arena and maybe down the road a ways. I enjoyed a wonderful quick ride with my neighbor Roxane Conrad late yesterday afternoon.

As I've mentioned before, Roxane is a retired Marine who competed in the Barcelona Olympics as a sharpshooter. She has been back in Sandpoint for the past two years and, along with her husband, has converted the family farm into a beautiful horse facility. Roxane was also one of my English students back in the early 1980s. We have had a great time reconnecting.

When Bill and I return home this evening, we'll be going through some correspondence, which is being sent to us over the Internet. As I type, he is talking to his nephew Huck from Oklahoma. Turns out Huck called us Thursday night out of the blue. I thought he was a telemarketer, so I quizzed him a bit before handing the phone over to Bill.

Bill and Huck have met maybe once in their lives, but Huck called to connect with Bill and his twin sister Margaret. Very tragic circumstances (the death of Huck and his sister Sandy's mother who was Bill's older half sister) separated the family from the early 1950s on. They knew very sketchy details about each other but no more.

Huck and his wife got on the Internet Thursday, went to the white pages, made three calls looking for the right William Edgar Love (one didn't answer because that number once belonged to William Edgar Love III who lived in Boise until a few months ago aka Willie).

Since Thursday, photos, Bible entries and marriage documents have been exchanged between the Idaho family and the Oklahoma family. This morning Huck called to say that he and his wife had opened the "Sad Box" yesterday for the first time. In it they found letters written by Bill's mother (she died when Bill and Margaret were 7).

Huck says the letters are filled with love and with details of great interest to our family. What a gift this experience is for both sides of the family! As Bill and Margaret turn 60 in just a few weeks, it's all the more poignant. We're definitely looking forward to this new chapter in everyone's lives.

There is nothing more exciting than family discoveries, and it seems over the past several years our family has enjoyed a generous sampling of wonderful pieces of the expansive puzzle that unites us all. By the way, Huck tells us that, as of today, the "Sad Box" that went unopened for half a century has been renamed the "Glad Box."

Time is a wasting on this gorgilious Saturday, so I'm headed out to seize it all. Happy Saturday.