Thursday, April 27, 2006

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

Spring time in Ohio. The dogwood is in bloom -- white, pink and fuchsia -- as are the red bud (much more purple than red) and lilac. The lilac was in trees, shrubs, hedges, and in several shades of purple and blue. I have never been there at this time of year, only in the fall. The rolling hills of southern Ohio are so green it hurts to look. The trees are getting new leaves and the woodlands are a shade of chartreuse green with bright white splashes of dogwood. My sister-in-law's garden was filled with red and yellow tulips. Such an abundance of new life, and we were there to bury Jim's brother. It was so incongruous, this joyous bursting forth of blossoms heralding new life and the grief and sadness of mourning of a life ended.

Getting there did not go as smoothly as we had planned. The travel agent gave us the wrong information about catching the bus to the Guadalajara airport, so we went many miles and almost two hours out of our way before we finally got to the right place. We had a 4-hour bus ride to the airport, then a flight from Guadalajara to Atlanta to Columbus, picked up our car, and went to Jane's where we ate dinner, and fell into bed after having been up for 36 hours. The next morning we drove down to Pomroy to the funeral, stayed a couple of days, then went back to Columbus to visit my sisters-in-law until early Tuesday morning (6 AM) when we got back on the plane to retrace our steps. From the Guadalajara airport we took a taxi to the central bus station, caught a bus to Colima, and Fernando came and picked us up at about 5:30. For dinner, we had splendid fish soup made by him to welcome us back. We finally got to bed about 9 PM after another 18 hour day. And now we have to pack up the house and get ready to leave here in a week.

Our little village has been restored to its usual calm and quiet after the frenzy of the Easter holidays. Weather here very warm, but as usual, the terrazzo is cool and lovely. But it is time to get back to "real life" in Davis.

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