Editor’s Note: This blog was written last week prior to the author returning to West Virginia.

 

The Grapevine is coming to you from sunny Florida as I spend my last day here.  I will be flying out tomorrow and will be picked up in Pittsburgh by my son Michael.

 

I started off last Thursday with Marty in his motor home.  We arrived here early Sunday. Marty took off to other parts of Florida and left me here to enjoy a visit with my brother and his wife.

 

The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Not a drop of rain and I have been able to get a great suntan.  I really did not think it was hot enough to get a tan, but I had to quit after four days. 

 

My brother owns a home on the 16th floor in a resort.  The house faces the Gulf of Mexico and a lake is on the other side of him.  The resort is a gated community and has its own golf course and many unique shops and restaurants. You can swim in the gulf or there is a private pool for the residents. The Gulf directly in front of their home is private and every morning beach chairs and umbrellas are put up for the residents and every evening they are taken down.

 

It has been great to spend time with my brother.  We have relived a lot of memories of our childhood especially incidents involving our parents.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been for our sisters Joan and Cathy to have been here.  You know when push comes to shove, family is all we have.

 

I really packed light and did not bring any books with me.  Dani had a book here, Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly.  The cover said it should appeal to readers of author, Kristin Hannah.  I immediately knew I would enjoy it and I did.  It was another novel about the camps in Europe during the war and how people were tortured and killed.  It is almost hard to believe this happened, but it did.

 

I know now that I have no reason to complain and hope I will be better able to endure the restrictions.  I know that this is spring break week but have not encountered groups of students here so with my shots I feel protected from the virus.

 

Take care, stay healthy and until next week “Now You Have Heard It Through The Grapevine.”