Adrienne married and fear of old age for Veda

I can remember when 1986 seemed so far away. 1986 because we owned a convertible bond that was due then. Now look.....2008.
I write this thinking of Adrienne and Scott starting out with that idea that they have so much time to make so much happen. And they do. relatively speaking.
I think of old age because I have thought while things were so slow at the gallery that I would reach out and befriend people I knew here in town who were lonely. My aunt Shirley Tebbs Henrie, Uncle Carvel's wife and a cousin on the Tebbs side. She is in her late 80's and as frail as parchment paper. But her mind is good. She offers consolation to others in the care center and worries about her health. Her kids try to be good to her, but she is determined not to curtail their lives. Her life looks bleak to me. I tried to encourage her to let me get some books on tape. Not much interest.
Then there is my first cousin, Neucile Tebbs Yardley. She has had an interesting life being the wife of Jim Yardley after his first wife died. He died last year and she is so lonely. The doctor told her she has alhimers. She was angry and disbelieving. At first I couldn't see it, but today I was much alarmed. I had thought I could interest her in painting with me some of the old red brick houses in Panguitch. She can't seem to remember or tune in to what I have in mind. She is fixated on painting on this sandstone rock she can get in Kanab and goes down there about every day. Her ex husband is in Fredona and I think she wishes he would need her and ask her to marry him again. Today, she couldn't remember what had happened this morning when she came to see me. I know her family is concerned. She is only a year older than I am.
I went to see her yesterday and we looked through her mother's old photograph album. There was a picture of her brother at the ranch in front of the old house that burned down. The first and only picture I have ever seen of it. A log cabin with an old trailer pulled up to the back. It reminded me of just how poor I lived as a child and I related to the book I just finished, The painted House by John Grishum. I saw the pictures of when Uncle Ray and Aunt Verda went to California during the war to work in the ship yard. Aunt Verda wanted to stay, but Uncle Ray was afraid he'd miss something of the assets Grandpa had and came back. I suspect Dad had had a hard time keeping things afloat while he was away making big money, but he moved over. I thought how their life could have been different if they had left Panguitch. Danny came and we tried to see if there was one family who stayed here ever made it on farms or ranches with cattle after the war. Dad and Uncle Ray did. Dad did have the Dairy Queen that mother ran. Aunt Verda worked there, too, But they mostly made it with sheep. But we could only think of very few, if any others. A few of the other Tebbs's who had that rich father who set them up. Most still here had wives that taught school or something else. Is Panguitch a dead end? The looks of main street makes me wonder. Why have I been so tied here? I wonder and wonder. I'm painting old houses now. Each has a story of a family and the drama of leaving or staying. Lots of Panguitch folks who left I know have done very well financially and other ways.

I'm grateful I've still got my husband. loneliness has got to be one of the worst things to face. I'm planning for that possible time by encouraging my family to make blogs and make them available to me. I am also struggling to make my art worth doing. I'm thinking, too, I better make friends who might be here later. But I'm also giving to others in case there is truth in that thing about casting your bread on the waters.

Glen and I give the lesson in SS and priesthood May 18. Lesson 9 on Gifts of the Spirit. Any input would be appreciated