TETHERED NOMAD

 

In a couple of days, I turn 77…..how the hell did that happen!!

This journey of aging is very interesting.  It seems like yesterday that I was playing in the backyard of 237 North Broadway in Lebanon.  It was a neighborhood of kids my age that played together every day and had wonderful adventures of our own imagining.  I remember clearly the day in August 1957 when our family car was packed and ready to move to Florida.  I still remember looking out the back window of our Studebaker station wagon waving goodbye to those friends.  Never to see any of them again.

From there it was the wonderful adventure of moving to Florida, starting 4^th grade at Pinellas Park Elementary, then 5^th grade moving to Cross Bayou Elementary.  My closest neighbor was also named Sue Ellen, weird coincidence and making new friends through the Pinellas Park Presbyterian Church, some of whom to this day I still have a close friendship (Rik McNeill). 

Jr. high and high school was great fun and the whole ordeal of that first date that continued all the way through the beginning of my senior year still brings a grin to my face.  Also meeting my first really close friend, Nancy, with whom we were like sisters until her passing in April 2020.

I didn’t have plans to go to college or to get married, instead, on my own I returned to Ohio and began that independent life I always craved.  Five years in Cincinnati, then two in Fairbanks, AK and 10 months on Guam….I loved being an independent woman seeking out any adventure that came my way. Eventually I returned to Cincinnati, but always wandering one way or the other.  I think of myself as a Tethered Nomad. 

The wandering has taken me to all 50 states, and France, Scotland, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada. Since I lost my wandering buddy, Karen, to ALS in 2023, my wandering has definitely slowed down.  Also, aging is taking its toll slowly but surely.

However, this summer seems ripe for more travel.  2 trips to Florida for weddings, a week in Tennessee for our annual golf outing, 4 days in Bellingham, WA for a wonderful wedding celebration, and then hopefully in August to Bar Harbor, ME for a long over due visit with dear friends. 

So, looking at it as objectively as possible, I guess this aging thing isn’t so bad…..at least so far.  I’ll let you know how it goes!!!!

Saddness

 

I’ve had something on my mind all week, that has really been bugging me and I just have to write about it to get it off my mind.

Here in Cincinnati last week, we had a very sad event take place that I just can’t shake.  Last Thursday the police chased 4 young black men in a stolen car.  The event ended when an 18-year-old was shot 6 times and killed. The next day a retired policeman was volunteering to direct traffic at the Univ of Cincinnati (UC) Commencement ceremony when he was deliberately hit and killed in the street.  The driver of the car was the father of the boy killed on Thursday.  The father had just viewed the police bodycam footage of the killing of his son, left the station distraught and happened upon the traffic management at UC.

Obviously, the father was detained and is now facing murder charges.  There are many more details, but here is what caught my attention.  First, there have been hours and hours of local media coverage regarding the retired police officer.  He was obviously highly regarded and the city has been flooded with support for him from all over the country.

There has been some coverage regarding the son and father, but not much.  I’ve researched a little and cannot find any reporting that neither the son nor the Dad had any prior record.  The father is facing multiple murder charges and either a life sentence or death sentence.

I totally get it.  What he did was completely wrong and must be punished.  What I don’t get is how no one, no where, any where has made any comment in any media about the effect of being told your son has been killed and then watch the same on video.

I’ve never been a biological parent.  But I do consider myself to be a person of compassion and empathy, and I cannot image, in any way, how it would affect me to learn that my child was killed and then watch as my child is shot to death.  What my emotional response would be, regardless of the situation.

I doubt that we’ll ever hear or see much regarding him, certainly not coverage like the police officer received.  But my heart goes out to him.  I grieve for him, his son and his entire family.