They have arrived, took sister Mary, and left!

Here are the culprits! This is Dorothy and Mike Flory. They live in Shawnee, Kansas. They both work and have strange hobbies. They have cows for pets and a farm for a hobby. It is calving time on the farm and with this weather, they keep pretty busy overseeing the birthing process as well as having full time jobs! Then to take time out to run out here and pick up Mary, my hat is off to them!

They arrived Saturday night, ate supper, slept, ate breakfast, loaded Sister Mary in the car and away they went! Now I am alone. Well, not really alone since I do have Bret, Daisy, Elvira, 10 geese, and 23 ducks, but I have nonetheless, lost my buddy.

And here is Sister Mary, all ready to go. She even has her purse hooked on her arm. Maybe they are going to stop and do some shopping! I do not like to shop, so we did not do that while she was here, except when we did it for survival.

Having Mary here was a definite treat, and a diversion to say the very least. You have to look back on our childhood to realize what a learning experience this really was. Mary was always the "pretty one". Dorothy was the baby, Donna was there, Jake was the boy, and Josephine was the oldest. I came in between Donna and Jake, so that made me the "middle child" and you know what the middle child was good for--nothing.

Middle Child Syndrome is what it is called. I am not a leader and not a follower, just kind of there. Or at least that is how it should have worked. But in our family, Josephine married and left very early, Jake attached himself to a farmer and then forged a new birth certificate and joined the Army when he was barely 16 and was never there. So, I then became the leader. Then I left.

But back to the relevant part. Mary and I were never very close. She was closer to Donna. Then she married Tommy when she was 13(?) and he was 15(?). Think that is right. They remained together and lived happily ever after until he passed at the early age of 52. So when the opportunity arose for her to come spend time with me we jumped on that. You really get to know someone when you set and talk for hours. We have a lot in common. We both lost our mother, both lost our husbands, both have grandkids, went to the same grade school. And on and on. Lot more than I thought. Might have to do this again someday!

But for now, I will savor the weeks we spent together, knowing she is safe at home with her family checking up on her. Guess I will plan a trip to Wichita, Kansas as soon as the snow melts!!