Our youngest daughter, Rose, is spending the week in Disneyland with her 21 year old sister, Naomi, so my wife, sue, and I are empty nesters for a while. Yesterday we spend a day together not unlike how many of our weekends looked before we started our family 23 years ago.
After a quick breakfast and clean up, we went to the local nursing home to do our first show of the day. We do three or four shows at the Bridgton Health Care every year, but it is often just Rose and me or, in some cases, just me. It was nice to have Sue with me, and it allowed her to reconnect with Erlyne Proctor, a long time friend who is now a resident at the nursing home. Being deaf her whole life, Erlyne has a hard time visiting with Sue, but yesterday they just sat together and held hands. It was very sweet. During this show, I did the vanishing champagne bottle for the first time ever. Setting up the trick, I joked that it may be a little early to bring out the bottle. An old lady in the front row yelled out, "No it's not, Rick! It's not too early." Good for her!
From there we stopped quickly for a bite to eat and headed Downeast, as we had a 6:30 show in Hope, Maine at an Episcopalian retreat center. Our friends, James and Valerie Wethersbee (See previous blog) live near Rockland, which meant we were heading to their neck of the woods. This gave us three or four hours to meet up with them at their house before finishing our journey to Hope. We had never been to their house before, and they are on a beautiful inlet from the ocean. Yesterday was a clear, crisp autumn day on the coast, so we enjoyed walking through their yard looking at the amazing view. Then we went in and, over a bowl of okra gumbo, we shared stories of how each couple got together. The more we spend time with this couple, the more we enjoy them.
After a second bowl of gumbo and some apple pie, it was time to head to our second show. St. Anne's Episcopal Church of Windham, Maine, was having a retreat at Bishopswood Camp. It is a beautiful, wooded summer camp run by the Episcopal diocese of Maine. The show was scheduled last June through a parent of a former student. The priest at St. Anne's is named Tim Higgins, and he was the chaplain at the youth correctional facility in Portland for several years, so we already knew each other. It had been a long time since we had spoken, though, so I enjoyed reconnecting with him. Furthermore, my new classroom assistant, Kirsten, is a member of St. Anne's. Back when the show was scheduled, I hadn't even met her, nor had she even applied for aide the position. But, as only God could plan it, after only a week of working together, we found ourselves at the same non-work related event, and I was able to introduce her to Sue.
Once the show was over and we packed up the props it was time for a two and a half hour drive home. There was hardly anyone else on the road, and, having each other's undivided attention, we were able to talk about everything and nothing: the events of our day, our friends, our daughters, our church, the good old days, and the good days yet to be.