The End of an Era
This month marked a milestone in the Miller family – my mother, Eunice Christine Jensen Miller died on December 7th at the age of 93, just six weeks before her 94th birthday. Mom had 93 really good years, and a few difficult months here at the end. She was ready to “go home,” as she put it, and although all of us knew this, it was still hard to see her slip away. Mom and I said our good-byes in September when I was last in Nebraska; we knew it would be the last time we would see each other.
I flew back to Nebraska on the 9th; Doug came shortly after. He and Lily were traveling in Spain, so he took the fast train to Paris and caught a flight to Omaha. I’m sure Mom was amazed (and pleased) that two of her children flew from Europe to be with our family. It was good to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors that I hadn’t seen in years, all gathering to pay homage to a wonderful woman.
The day of her funeral was cold and blustery, but sunny. My older sister Kay came by the house to pick Dad and me up for the service. As I took Dad’s arm to walk down the drive, he said: “Where’s Mom?…Oh, yes.” And, I think that’s how we all feel now – how could she be gone? We four Miller kids have been so lucky to have two healthy parents that lived into their 90s, it’s hard to imagine life without them both.
I call Dad frequently, but neither of us does so well on the phone; we talk of the weather. I know he’s lonely – one thing about being a 91-year-old man of his generation is that all his friends died years ago. But, he’s active, drives around doing the “farm tour,” has coffee at the Highway Cafe, and falls asleep in front of the television most every night. Here’s to you, Dad.
Mallorca
I left Omaha on the 16th, arriving in Gatwick the next day, took the train to Bedford, and got back to the flat around 2:00pm, unpacked and re-packed for a planned trip to meet Doug and Lily in Mallorca. Den & I had a quiet dinner, catching up on the last week. Then, the next morning, I took a taxi to the train station in time to catch the 6:00am flight from Luton, arriving a couple of hours before Doug and Lily. We met at the car rental, stowed our stuff, and headed off to the Northwest side of the island, stopping for our first (and one of many) delicious lunches.
The house we stayed in was on a bluff overlooking the Mediterranean – absolutely a beautiful spot, we could see both the sunrise and the sunset, could it be much better? Lily’s sister, Nancy, arrived the next day, and Den arrived on Saturday. It was a wonderful two weeks of eating, drinking lots of local wine, and touring around the island.
I’m not sure what I thought, but I had anticipated being warm (well, hot actually – I even brought a swimsuit!), but the Mediterranean isn’t always hot and sunny. I knew this, we had gotten weather updates off the Internet, and even with messing-up the conversion to Celsius, I knew it wasn’t going to be HOT, but hope springs eternal. We had enough days of stormy rain to know it was Christmas, and although mostly the days were sunny, it was coat and scarf weather. We managed to spend a few lunches basking on the sunny side of a patio.
There are some good things about going off-season, and certainly that is having the island to yourself. It must be a zoo in the summer – there were rows of Miami-Beach hotels lining the beaches (evidently half of the hotels in Spain are on Mallorca), all standing empty – closed up completely! It was surreal to drive through these tourist areas. But, then we’d find a village with some fabulous little restaurant, with wonderful wine. As Lily says, if you’re in the middle of a vineyard, you drink the house wine! We got really good at the 2-hour lunch!
Some remembrances: sheep grazing in a field with bells around their necks that made a wonderful song, a few early buds on the almond trees – the fragrance was incredible, the lovely seaside town of Portocolom, Roman ruins in Alcudia, a family church just off the road near Son Servera, challenging jigsaw puzzles, the caves at Arta, Rodin statues in Palma, shopping for pearls in Manacor, boarded-up empty hotels almost everywhere, a Christmas goose dinner, bottles of red wine for lunch and dinner and whenever, delightful 2-hour lunches. (See kerlee.com | pictures for details!)
It was good to be with family. It was good to be together. Thanks to Doug and Lily for arranging it to be so.