I Remember

During our working life, Randy and I always vacationed in September, usually the week after Labor Day.  All of these early fall vacations involved either a boat and a fishing pole or a boat and a crab pot.  Or a boat and fishing pole and a crab pot.

Randy never did invest in an electric crab pot puller.  He didn't see the need when he had me on the boat.

Anyway ~

2001 was no exception.  We packed up on Saturday drove the slightly over two hours to Westport, Washington.  A small community located on a peninsula at the entrance to Grays Harbor from the Pacific Ocean, Westport has always relied one way or another on fishing to support its local economy.  The public marina at Westport is one of the largest marinas in the Pacific Northwest.

Randy and I planned to fish, crab and do all the other fun things that one does when on vacation.

As the older we got, the less inclined we were to get up at o'dark thirty to get out in the boat.  We were on vacation, after all.  All the fish and crab can just wait for a more humane hour.

Over the course of our nearly twenty five years together, it was a rare occasion indeed when Randy would get out of bed at the same time that I did.  I could always count on at least an hour of morning solitude - just me and my beloved steaming hot cup of coffee.

That Tuesday was different.  Not only did Randy get up at the same time as I did, he also did something we have never done.

Speaking words I will never, ever forget, he said, "I wonder what is going on in the world today?" as he turned on the morning news.

And, so, here we are -  ten years later.  I don't buy much in to memorials and such.  I sometimes think that the more things are memorialized the better the chance they are to be trivialized and the more difficult it is to move past an event.  

Moving past, however, is not the same as forgetting.

~ Dorothy