Rest in Peace Dear Barbara

 May 4 1927--May 28 2017   90 Good Years and a Good Woman's Legacy

It's funny how dates like the above seem so cut and dry...but when do we really begin our journeys....and do they ever really end...at least those I've loved and lost live on forever in my heart and with others as well...so to say born one day...died another just seems so inadequate.  Yesterday Barb departed her earthly journey around 4pm in hospice care at the hospital.  We saw her for a couple hours in the morning...she wasn't "awake" but I talked with her and sat with her and stroked her forehead and held her hand.  Earlier she'd been taken to the ER from her group home.  More pneumonia which really had never been cleared up from the rehad center she'd recently been at.  What a tumultuous time between the hospitals and rehab  and group home these past few weeks culminating again in the hospital.  She suffered way too much these past weeks and the one bright light for her was making it to her 90th birthday party a couple weeks ago.  
     Barb was my friend for 41years....her and her husband Rich were the first friends we made in Washington after moving from Detroit where Big R went to law school.  They took us under their wings and we became fast friends....through thick and thin times for all of us.  We were an "odd couples" friendship so to say....we were their kid's ages...but we became their good friends dispite the big age difference...we were closing in on 30 and them on 50.  We bonded through travels  and trips, through laughter and songs and family gatherings.   They were surrogate grandparents for our son Martin when he was born in 1983...after Rich's death in 1989 Barb and Martin and I took a couple week long trips that were very memorable.  We drove to Glacier Nat. Park in Montana---with Martin in the backseat with his broken leg and Barb riding shot gun for me the driver.  We traveled well, stopping for picnics and staying at motels with a pool for me and my son and a queen size bed for Barb.  We listened to books on tape as we journeyed and shared many silly experiences as  one tends to do on a road trip.  My son and I also took Barb on her first and only airplane ride to Arizona staying with my older brother who lived in Mesa at the time and where my folkd wintered.  Barb got along very well with my folks who were close in age to her.  She got to savor the Desert Botanical garden in Phoenix and the wonders of Sedona while there.  Barb shared Christmas Day with us each year after Rich passed.
It will be strange this Christmas without her at our table.  
     Over the years there were numerous ocean and clamming trips, overnights in Victoria BC, the Olympic Peninnsula  and sooo many family picnics , birthdays, holidays....so much love...so much laughter....disagreements on religion and politics at times never diminished out love for each other.  The kind of friendship where you just bury your differences and celebrate each others uniqueness and the simple joys you share in living life.  We took the journey with Barb when she lost her only daughter to Pancreatic cancer six years ago.  We helped her move numerous times.  Barb was my biggest supporter of my photography always delighting in images I shared with her...she was always so appreciative of anything you did with and for her and such a pleasant person to be with.  '
    Barb had one job with western union that she actually used roller skates to get around with.  She also worked 30 years as an administrative assistant at the University of Washinton.  She was a classy lady loving her jewery and nice clothes.  We were such opposites in those aspecs ha ha.  
       I'll miss her enthusiasm for holidays and gardens and picnics and "prettys" and pie and goodies and clam chowder.   What a ride it has been to have known such a lover of life as Barbara Jean Brower Jaeger.