1. Sue Dahlberg's immediate family moved to Kellogg when we were in the eighth grade. 1967. We have been friends ever since. This past week, her 34-year-old nephew, Matthew, died from a cardiac event. He lived in the Dahlberg family home. He had taken care of Sue's dad and mom right up until they died. He also worked locally as a CNA.
His selflessness, his devotion to serving others, was at the heart of the memorial that Stu, Ed, and I attended today in the church across the street from our house. Not one of us knew Matthew, but we all have been Sue's lifelong friends and Ed, in particular, has great friendships with Sue's daughters.
The solemnness of this memorial service was deepened by the news that Matthew's two-year younger brother, Joshua, had been life flighted out of Kellogg (Friday night? Saturday morning? I didn't get that fact clear). He also has a heart condition. The demands of traveling from Miami, FL to Kellogg to mourn his brother was too much for his ailing heart. I'd have to think his broken heart as well.
As I write this blog post at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 12th, I haven't heard any updates on Joshua's condition.
I learned a lot about Matthew at the service. He was energetic and intellectual, an avid video game player, a veteran of the Singapore Armed Forces (he was born in Singapore and had dual citizenship), and a gentle soul who helped comfort those in medical need both in his grandparents' home and in the Silver Valley community.
Grief combined with deep love and respect for Matthew made this a moving gathering of Matthew's family and friends and members of the local community.
I'm really happy that Ed, Stu, and I could attend together.
2. I returned home worn out with sweet fatigue.
Having had reunions with Liz and Jane on consecutive days, having met Jane's sister, Joan and Liz's husband Mike, and having attended Matthew's memorial combined to drain me in a most welcomed way.
So I worked puzzles and fell asleep working on each one and it took me from some time this afternoon until about ten in the evening to write yesterday's blog post because I kept falling asleep.
It's all familiar.
Maybe you know what I'm talking about when I say these two things can be true at the same time.
1. I love people whether longtime friends in the Silver Valley and Eugene and Seattle, in particular, new friends, students when I was teaching, people at church back at St. Mary's, family, book club members and many others.
2. Interacting with people wears me out.
Plenty of things I love wear me out: reading, cooking, driving long distances, shopping, etc. It's just how I'm wired.
Today, being worn out hit me pretty hard and I welcomed having a whole afternoon to rest, sleep, diddle around with puzzles and blogging, and graze in the kitchen, not making a full-blown meal.
3. Every day or two, on Facebook Reels, a reel created by art historian Matthew Olivier will pop up. He offers analysis and interpretations of paintings and has opted to put his words into the "mouth" of a fictional British AI character, giving me, at least, the feeling that I'm being guided by a tweedy British professor.
Today, I discovered that Olivier has a book coming out in October: The Art of Reading Art: Understanding what Makes Great Art Great.
I've been longing to find just such a book and thanks to the magic and manipulative powers of the World Wide Web, this one popped up in my Facebook feed and I pre-ordered it today from bookshop.org and am eager for it to arrive in early October.
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