Lately I have been sleeping on the floor in the living room. For some reason the couch is more comfortable for JoLynne than the bed with her injured legs, so I try to sleep close to her so I can help her in the night. (By the way, her sleeping on the couch does not denote any strife in our marriage for those of you who may be wondering.) Anyway, this morning I woke up looking at a picture painted by my Grandma Vogel. It hangs on the wall in our living room. It hung on the wall in my parents house as well all the years I was growing up. I have been looking at that picture for about 50 years. I was wrapped up in a quilt made by Grandma Vogel as well. She made it for us, 29 years ago as a wedding present. The colors and the pattern are bold and wild, it reminds me of her. I remember when she gave it to us. She told me at the time that she had counted how many stitches she placed while hand quilting it. She told me that she quit counting stitches at 10,000. It was early morning and I had this overwhelming feeling of being wrapped in my Grandmother's love much like I was wrapped in her quilt. It's hard to describe but it was very real. Later when I had JoLynne up I told her of the feeling I had, she started to cry and told me that she had the exact same impression earlier in the night when she awoken and had looked over at me wrapped in Grandma's quilt. I don't know what the relationship is between our world and that of our family who have passed on but I believe that they are not as far apart as we think.
JoLynne is doing better. The pain is diminishing. She quit taking percocet today and that has helped. She still can't stand on her own but we have high hopes that she may be able to do that with crutches within a few days. She is so sweet and pleasant even when she is hurting. I need to be more like her.
Today is our 29th anniversary. JoLynne was apologetic this morning about the situation being less than ideal for our anniversary. I told her, "Hey, we're together, taking care of each other and still very much in love. That seems pretty good to me" Some day we will look back at this anniversary and shake our heads and laugh. We both have a vision of some day being old and sitting on the front porch rocking together. I look forward to that day.
