Trevor's Grandpa Has Gone Home, Reunited in the Perfect World Options

[Gretta's Mom]

Hello Trevor's Grandpa.

I hope you are up there in the Perfect World being ... well... perfectly happy. I wish, though, that you could see my apartment in one of Baltimore's beautiful old red brick rowhouses. It's not an extra-beautiful one with a colored front porch with pillars and a fence around the front porch, but it is good enough for me. It's a dream I (and God) made come true. It's o n the third floor and there are 38 stairs to get here, so if I'm carrying anything I huff and puff by the time I get all the way up.

I've joined the Y which is very near my place and this girl goes there 2-3 times a week. I'm also trying to knock off a little all the weight I gained when Berta was sick and dying. Seems pretty hopeless but if you have a dream you have to work at it. At least on earth here. Have you met Wendell and Popsy yet? Just wander over to the blues-jazz-spiritual music section and listen for them and call the name Holmes Brothers. You'll love their music. We sure do miss it down here. It's another thing that helps us keep our minds on our true home where you are.

I know you can see the offal that is going on between Reen and me. We got a very nice e-mail from Stuart Klovstad telling us that all commnication should go through him. He also formed a little advisory committee to help him, people that loved you: Tom Hintgen, Chuck Brunko, George (the man who looks so nationality) and one other person whom I have forgotten now. He wants them to help him make decisions and keep objective. I think that is a very wise decision.

I'm so sorry that I am unable to communicate with MS R, but I firmly believe that she has a severe mental condition that makes he hate me because I don't just agree with everything she wants and says. I do pray for her and hope that one day she joins the rest of us in the Perfect World despite it all.

I have to go back to Olivia's storage locker and try to get two more items in my car. Then there is a huge, solid wood table that I cannot see how I am going to move - maybe Stan will have an electric drill I can use to take it apart. Wish me luck!

I love you Trevor's Grandpa, and I miss you every day, especially every time somebody calls my name.

Please put in a good word for me with the Good Shepherd and ask Him to forgive me for the bad things I do, say or think.

Love forever,

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Hello Daddy,

It's a hot summer here in Baltimore and I have been spending a lot of time inside. Since I don't have a dog, I don't go out dog walking, except with Berta's two cocker spaniels, so I don't meet any people. It's pretty lonely in here and i am seriously thinking about moving back to Minnesota. It wouldn't happen untiil next spring, when I can get two more quarters of Hindi classes under my belt.

I'm beginniing to know how you felt during all those years after mom's death. Solitude does wear on you in a very deep way. But now you are in the Eternally Perfect World where you are perfectly happy and you can be with your family and friends and all the animals who loved you here on earth - including my two. And remember little Bingo, the cocker spaniel we had as kids. NO wonder Bobbie loved cocker spaniels so much.

I have to have some major dental work done which Medicare doesn't pay for, so I've teamed up with the University of Maryland dental school. Also, I've been working on my will - nothing much - it will be only money left at the end. Also on my Five Wished, which I have in draft form and will meet with my pastor, who offered to be my Health Care Agent - he knows how to stand up to doctors. Somehow it seems that the most complicated thing is the Financial POA. I don't know how THAT can be, but even the templates in the net are horribly complicated. Stan pushed me to do that and I am glad he did.

That's all from Brick City! Later on since it's not so beastly hot today, I may drive down to the Lexington Market, which, horror of horrors, they are trying to renovate - so there goes all the local color. Probably won't be able to hear a Salvation Army Band outside the front door this winter.

I love you daddy, more every day. Please put in a good word for me with the Good Shepherd - I surely do need one.

XOXOXO

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Good morning my heavenly Dad,

You probably watched me take a train trip to North Carolina to visit the woman who was our Bobbie's best friend. And I know you don't mind that I adopted Mr B as my "papa" here on earth. He is SO gentle, handsome, loving .... just like you. AND he loves to watch westerns on TV. The wife has more stuff - and GOOD, EXPENSIVE stuff - than any three families I know. At one time they filled two huge storage lockers, plus a FULLY furnished and decorated three-bedroom home. I've helped them a lot during the past year: short sell a house, file bankruptcy, move to North Carolina. Yes, like you, I've drained the "Bank of Jeanne/Gene" but when did we ever not do that and just stand by when someone we loved was in true trouble.

Living near downtown Baltimore in a three storey red brick row house has been a dream of mine ever since I first visited Trevor's mom here many many years before she got sick the first time. I only wish she were here with me to enjoy it. Dad, I miss you every day and I am trying as hard as I can to live up to the name I carry = yours.

Please put in a good word for me to the Good Shepherd and give my beautiful dogs, Gretta and Rufus, lost of head pats, ear scratches and tummy rubs for me. Someday we will all be together - forever.

I love you more than I can ever say.

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Good morning Trevor's grandpa

You can see all the heartache that Trevor's dad is putting me through. Please put in a good word with the Good Shepherd for me AND for him that the end of his situation will not be the huge crash it has all the signs of being. And please give me the patience to wait without the fountain of tears that overtakes me every day. Trevor's Grandpa, you had so much sorrow in your life, especially after Trevor's Grandma died. All those years alone. I truly don't know how you did it. But now you are with Trevor and his mom and all your other loved ones, human and animal, and are perfectly happy. I am SO happy for you. You SO deserved it. Yet today, your friends sometimes write me to tell me how much they loved and admired you. That's a testament, Trevor's Dad.

Please let your spirit be near me as I go through what every person on earth must endure - separation, loss, horrible treatment by the ones nearest to you. You did all that with gentleness and grace and if you complained, you must have done it silently because I never saw a trace of it. Please let our shared name be the strength between us.

I love you today, tomorrow and every day and one day, if I keep trying to live on the straight path, we will all be together forever.

Gretta and Rufus's mom

[Gretta's Mom]

Happy (belated Thanksgiving). Trevor's grandpa. I love you.