Category — family

We recently took Matthew on his first overnight train trip; regular viewers of the Matthew Picture of the Day can expect a couple of shots from on board. We took the Capitol Limited all the way to and from Chicago, in a bedroom in a sleeping car. As national network trains go, this is quite a convenient one–although it takes 17 hours to travel the 780 rail miles, via Pittsburgh and Cleveland, most of that is at night, and once you factor in time to eat dinner and breakfast and time to get ready for bed and to get dressed, there’s not that much idle time left. Matthew did well, and the train again proved to be a civilized and relaxing way to travel. He’s old enough to get some fascination from looking out the train window, which is quite an improvement from his previous trip, when he was one, when we went to New York to buy my Brompton. So all total, Matthew now has 2012 Amtrak miles.

Matthew, though, has logged more mileage in the air than by any other means: to date, 29063 miles in 26 segments. Most of this has gone well. We’ve always bought him a seat, even when he was young enough to travel as a “lap child.” In the past, it was common to travel with a young child as a “lap child” and then use an empty seat for him while aboard the airplane, but in recent years, there is no such thing as an empty seat, and lap children must almost always actually be carried on a grown-up’s lap for the whole flight. My advice, then, is not to count on there being an empty seat, but rather, to count on there not being an empty seat, and if you can at all afford it, buy the seat for the child.

[Read more →]

My Aunt Kathy–my mom’s sister, my son’s great aunt–died today, not quite eight months after the discovery of an inoperable tumor in her brain. Kathy made it to her sixty-ninth birthday, two and a half weeks ago: needless to say, this was far too young.

Update: Kathy’s obituary has been published (scroll to end of page).

Update 2: The La Crosse Tribune published a separate appreciation of Kathy.

I last saw Aunt Kathy over Mothers’ Day weekend, when my wife and I took Matthew to visit Kathy in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, meeting up also with my mother and my cousins. Kathy and my mom traveled together frequently, visiting us in DC perhaps a half a dozen times. Kathy most recently made the trip in early November, a month an a half before her disease would be noticed, and at the time, there was no sign of it. Kathy was truly excited to meet Matthew then, and she loved him as enthusiastically as she loved her grandchildren, and I am sad that Matthew will not grow up with her as a part of his life.

Kathy was at peace when she died; she was at home, with her family. 

Kathy’s husband Terry kept an online journal throughout the course of the disease. Reading the entries, one can see that Kathy’s friends and family did much to bring comfort, and to provide joy, to Kathy in her final months. It is clear that Terry cared deeply for Kathy; the writing spells out in detail what it means to comfort and care for someone. Terry provides us with an impeccable example of what you do for someone you love who is in the deepest need. We can all take inspiration from him; I certainly do.