2023
TRAVEL: A year of being back to normal after COVID. We started the year with a road trip returning from our 2 month visit with Bethany and family in Tucson. On the way we arranged to visit as many people as possible on our western and northerly route back to Vermont, even catching up with Guy and Vicki after 36 years, friends from Rodney’s time in Bermuda. We traveled in February/March on Sarah’s bucket list to Jordan/Israel/Palestine. Thankfully we went this year. What a tragedy in that part of the world. In October we traveled to Iceland and fell in love with the landscape and the people. We also managed a few trips to Tucson to see Otis and his parents.
SARAH: Sarah continues to volunteer in her retirement mostly with the local Unitarian Universalist Society and also for Agewell, an organization which allows seniors to age where they want. I have a weekly Meal on Wheels route and some days I am the only person knocking on a person’s door. I have become friends with some of my meal recipients. Our church starting feeding neighbors on Sunday Morning from 8-9am after we heard that there are not as many places on Sunday morning to get food. Like many cities, Burlington has a lot of homelessness downtown and in addition to feeding them we also are building community and getting to know our neighbors. It feeds my soul to be a part of this initiative.
RODNEY: Rodney’s major outlet continues to be at his art studio just a short walk from our condo. After a very successful Art Hop in September he has decided maybe it’s time to get more serious about marketing his work. We’ll see how that works out. Keep your eye on his website to see what he’s up to. He got intrigued with the idea of doing an art residency in Akureyri, in Iceland. https://rodneylowe.wixsite.com/rmlart
In April he had his second knee replacement, and is now very happy to have two well functioning, pain free knees. It’s so nice to take Sofy for a walk and not grimace when we take a longer route. There was a slight hiccup when a month later he developed a DVT (blood clot), but after a few months on Eliquis and using compression socks when flying all seems to be well on that front. After terming out of his role as Board President of our condo association he realized that it was the first time in a decade or two that he wasn’t serving on a non profit board in some capacity or other. That didn't last too long, when he was nominated to serve on the board of our UU congregation here in Burlington.
FAMILY: In June we had the joy of watching Bethany cross the stage at our UUA General Assembly in recognition of receiving Full Fellowship as a UU Minister. In July we were blessed to have everyone but Bryan on Star Island for a week. A 2 year old on Star is a challenge AND Sarah/Mémère got to nap with him most days. Zuzu is 10 and halfway through the week I said to her, in front of Chris and Meg “If your parents cannot come to Star we will always bring you.” She is coming with us alone and found her peeps on Star this year at the Marine Lab, during the Great People Hunt and in her Gull group. Magic to this Mémère’s ears. Also in July we spent a week with Bethany, Otis and Bryan this time at Thompson's Point in our camp we share with 4 siblings. Again Sarah got to nap with Otis many days. Racing Demons (google it) is our new card game and watching him throw cards into the center of the table was hilarious.
Also in July we were overjoyed to have a visit from Rodney’s niece Karen. After losing her mother and aunt and an uncle in 2022, it was a well deserved break for her, albeit a little poignant as we remembered those days she would have been here with some combination of those dead relatives.
Our move back to Vermont was such a good decision. We see some family most weeks and get to watch one grandchild grow up and attend some activities with her and have impromptu sleepovers.
We rounded out the family visits with a trip to Austria to see that branch of Sarah’s distant relatives. They were excellent hosts and the visit was made all the more fun by doing it with George and Judy, Ken and one of the young western cousins and his girlfriend.
As this year ends we count our blessings every day and try to fight evil in the world by our actions and behaviors. Our hearts break every day at the hurt in the world, and locally. Rodney, Sarah and Sofy
