A Visit With Mother

Monday May 11, 1992

I go to have my nails done at 10:45. When I get home Mother is here and Frank is making lunch. I spend the day visiting with Mom and doing the laundry. After dinner we go square dancing. I'm tired but so is Frank. He is working so hard. It's really good seeing our friends. We manage to dance all the tips. We come home at 10:00 to watch Northern Exposure.

Until the last couple years of her life, Grandma Helen lived quite independently in her mobile home in Desert Hot Springs. Typically, she would drive to Uncle Gene and Aunt Cathy's house in Pasadena for a visit, spend the night there and then travel from Pasadena to Simi Valley to visit Mom the next day. She probably spent Mother's Day with her son Gene before driving to visit Mom in the afternoon the next day. She loved the freedom of being able to drive herself around. For many years she even drove a truck and camper so she would have her own private sleeping quarters. Like Mom and like Uncle Gene, Grandma Helen always loved to travel, even if it was a shoestring budget of Social Security checks. When Grandpa Al was alive they often travelled cross country. They were members of the Alaska Camper Club.