Margie and her offspring

I joined Margie, her daughter, and one of her sons for breakfast this morning. It was my first time to meet her son, who is visiting for a few days, and we had such an animated conversation that I completely forgot my camera in the bag beside me. After the "kids" left, I remembered the camera and pulled it out in time to catch some of Margie's enjoyment of their company. That beautiful scarf she's wearing was knitted for her by her daughter.

We fear for California, on fire as we speak. Margie's kids were born in Ohio but grew up in San Francisco after she and their father were divorced and Margie was hired to administer a program for disabled people. Many of the places that are burning are forests where she hiked, where they all went camping together, where they made vivid memories. 

"We thought we'd arrived in paradise," she recollected, as we put on our coats. "It was the time of Hippies, of the whole 'back to the earth' movement, a time of flowers and peace signs, the Age of Aquarius. We didn't know we were on the cusp of climate change and the nightmare that is California right now."