Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  Last week our family experienced a great loss when Jan's mom passed away. Her health had been on a down hill slide since last October when she'd had a heart attack. Unlike some fellows I know, I had been blessed with a mother-in-law that who couldn't have been better if I'd ordered her from a catalog. In the almost fifty two years that I knew her, I can't recall ever having harsh words with her.I'm not even sure we ever had an argument. She always treated me with respect and kindness, even as a sixteen year old punk hanging around her daughter. When Jan and I got married in 1972, I was at a loss of what to call her. I already had a lady I called mom, so we settled on Helen, her first name, and yet in every way she was a mother to me. When Jan and I left the farm and decided to settle in Hoonah, she helped put together the down payment for the house. Her life was one of sacrifice and service. After her husband died she made semi-annual trips to Al...

   I received a call from my older brother, Mark on Monday night. Our mother, Barbara Jean Botts succumbed to the disease that had been plaguing her for several years. It was a call that I both dreaded and almost welcomed. She's spent the last two and a half years in the memory care unit at the Kingston assisted living facility in Marion Ohio suffering with Alzheimer's Disease. I think most people are familiar with the disease and how it robs those afflicted with it of their minds and bodies over time. Towards the end she was sleeping 20-22 hours a day so that even the possibility of calling and carrying on a conversation was almost impossible. I don't want to dwell on her last days though.   For the past few days I've gone over memories from my past. The struggle to get us kids zipped up in our snow suits, and searching for gloves and hats in an overstuffed closet so we could go out in the snow and play, and ten minutes later having to deal with the wh...