Finally today, I have caught my breath.  From the long holiday weekend and the catch up week that followed.  I still have an overdue phone call to my advocate at Healthcare For All and another call to MassHealth.  I’m saving that which I know will be frustrating until Monday.

It was a good weekend.

Justin’s mother and I threw a baby shower for our children and their impending baby boy.  It was a bigger shower than it would have been had there been had there been the planned-for wedding. We invited more people and people from further away than we might have.  Still, there were those from too far away who were missing.  

Still, it was a good party.

A brunch.  Early in the day.  A splendid day—warm, almost too warm, but with so little humidity that sitting in the shade was glorious.  And the garden was lovely—so very nice to have an energetic gardener with a good eye for design and color in the family!  

It was planned for the day before the first week of renovation on Cheshire and Justin’s house. And although crazy for me—flying on Thursday, wedding on Friday, flying on Saturday, set up on Sunday, party on Monday—it was a party to fill up a soul.  Just enough and not too much cute baby stuff and lots of good food and splendid company.  

I am of the opinion that the pictures say it all.  Most of it.

Best of all, for me! I invited my own private posse, and I have to say, that until they all began to arrive I hardly believed that they would come.  Five friends from different corners of my life and different corners of the country.  I cannot put into words how lovely it was to have old friends around.  Some of us had dinner together on Sunday; some stayed longer and came back to my house on Monday; two stayed an extra day and we went to the Orchard House on Tuesday and then out to dinner. I did not know how lonely I have been until we sat in the back garden talking about everything and nothing.  Years and distance melted away and my soul filled up.  There will come a time when I will have a Massachusetts friend to add to this quorum.  Until that time and long after that time, I am so grateful for these sisters in this most unexpected life.

I think I said to each of them before they left:  Come often, stay longer.  And to those who could not be there, and those too far away to invite, I say the same: Come often, stay longer!

And, true to their word, the contractors came on Wednesday and ripped the dining room ceiling down.