While my blogging has been haphazard for months due to my father’s declining health, I wanted to share a post about the recent visit of our daughter E, her spouse L, and their daughters, four-year-old ABC and one-year-old JG. As people who check in here at TJCM periodically may recall, they live in London UK and the pandemic left us unable to visit each other. This meant that when they arrived in the US, it was our first chance to meet JG in person.
All the adults are fully vaccinated, but the children are too young to qualify. While our area of upstate New York is not a COVID hot zone, the transmission rate is still high enough due to the delta variant that we were very cautious about taking the girls to indoor public spaces. While I had scaled back my expectations for the visit a lot, I hadn’t scaled them back quite as much as I should have. For example, I had hoped to see a few more friends than we were able to. Unfortunately, Paco, my 96-year-old father, had more health challenges appear and his unit at the nursing home had to go into lockdown due to a couple of COVID cases among vaccinated staff.
In a way, though, it was nice to have them in our home, doing normal, everyday things like we had when E and ABC lived with us for over two years while waiting for E’s spousal visa to be accomplished.
B, with an assist from ABC, got to bake yummy treats for breakfast.

Everyone enjoyed watching the birds at the birdfeeders. ABC especially liked the tufted titmouse and goldfinches, while others were partial to the cardinals.

We enjoyed watching other wildlife, too. ABC even spotted some deer near the back fence. We also spent a lot of time watching the bunnies eating various leaves and flowers in the lawn.

One thing that they don’t have at home in London is rocking chairs. JG especially loved the one that was her size!

JG was an early walker so we missed her being a babe-in-arms, but Auntie T did get a taste of what that phase was like when JG got so tired she actually fell asleep in her arms.

L took the girls on walks. Here is ABC at the 1 mile – or is it 1 smile? – mark on the Rail Trail. Our area, like many others in the US, has re-purposed places where there used to be railroad tracks into recreational trails.

We also got to visit the parks and carousels. Broome County has six vintage carousels and it was very nostalgic to revisit them with ABC and introduce them to JG. ABC made friends everywhere she went.



We got to enjoy a lot of playtime with the girls. ABC, at four, has a great imagination and enjoys making elaborate scenarios. She is also quite operatic! Besides singing songs that she knows, often from Frozen I and II, she likes to make up songs while she is playing. With both her parents being accomplished singers and instrumentalists, she appears to come by music naturally. She is learning to play the piano, so we got to experience her lessons with her daddy.
ABC is also a beginning reader, so sometimes she would read to us and other times we would read to her. It was an honor to be chosen as the final bedtime story reader. Of course, she also requested a bedtime song before going to sleep.
The most important event of the trip, though, was the one visit we were able to make with Paco in the outdoor courtyard of the nursing home. ABC was being her charming self, singing and dancing and clapping for Paco.

The most precious photo is this one of the four generations.

Paco’s health has declined so much in the weeks since we had this visit that he has now been admitted to hospice care. I will be forever grateful that Paco had the opportunity to meet his second great-granddaughter who won’t remember that day and to see his first granddaughter E and first great-granddaughter ABC who certainly will.
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Such nice pictures Joanne! So glad you are having such a nice visit with your daughter and family.
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, Sue!
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Treasured times and memories made. So glad you got to see family. ❤
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We never thought we would have to wait so long to be together in person. Those two weeks were a rare treasure. We hope it won’t be another 19 months before we see each other again.
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Such a wonderful visit filled with so many memories. Your multi-generational photo is a treasure. I am so happy you had this time together. ❤️
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❤ So true, Maggie. Thank you for reading and commenting.
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It was an uplifting post to read.
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Thank you, Maggie. I am glad you found it so. I was afraid that the end would make it too sad but I wanted to be true to our situation.
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We cannot move forward without first acknowledging the truth.
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I know the visit brightened up everyone’s day, especially for Paco. The look on his face with ABC is full of joy, and the generational one is a treasure of happy memories for all. So glad they got to visit.
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It was a blessing that the visit happened – and a blessing in disguise that it took me as long as it did to put the post together. The positive comments are helping me to cope with some difficult times now.
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trust the timing. Hugs coming your way on angel wings.
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Oh, my goodness–these are wonderful photos! So full of love. I’m so glad y’all got to get together, plus with Paco. Those memories will live forever. ❤️
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The photos were taken by daughter E and her spouse L. I will be forever grateful for their visit. Given how dire the situation with Paco has become, I’m clinging to some of these memories to try to stay grounded.
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Life can really whipsaw–so sorry
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Thank you, Ellen.
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