Sylvia's Journal

Saturdays are nearly always dedicated to flying, weather permitting. I woke up to a glorious bright blue sky, no winds, a perfect day for taking off. Bill and I were going to practice yesterday morning, among them some IFR procedures that would be new to me. But it was too beautiful a day for staying close to Beverly. So we changed our minds. I flew to Biddeford in Maine and then over a winter landscape and many frozen lakes west to Laconia in New Hampshire. The last time I landed there was with Axel on one of those $100 hamburger trips in the early summer of 2007. Bill flew us back to Beverly.

When we landed in Laconia a couple, in their late 60s, with a huge dog and a Mooney (a fast little plane), were preparing their flight back to Virginia. It would take them about three hours. I watched them with some envy. That is what I had in mind, starting to fly late in life: going on trips with Axel – maybe not as far as Virginia, but surely all over New England. We are not quite there yet. Axel has mentioned that he may be ready to fly this summer. His first trip will probably be him sitting in the back with Bill and me in the front. We are not in a hurry to do this though.

My (ex) sister in law Judith was cremated yesterday. I am sorry I could not be at the service, in Holland. If if only I had left one day earlier. But such things cannot be known, even when there was no surprise. Still, I was there in spirit. She’s traded in a life that held no promises for something else unknoweable – undoubtedly more peaceful. She is in a better place now than she has been in a long time. “It was good” wrote my brother. And with that, a chapter is closed.

I caught him on his cellphone, only minutes after I landed in Amsterdam. He was sitting on a sunny terrace, after a bike ride through the dunes, looking out over the North Sea. A good place for reflecting, contemplating and sorting through the avalanche of feelings and the social, familial and private labels attached to each of them. If mine are already mixed, I can’t even begin to imagine his.

Axel is having a good time in Costs Rica. He sent me a picture with his and Chuck’s catch of the day – a trout I believe. He’s so busy having fun that he won’t even notice that I am gone.