David and Margery

My dear old friends David and Margery (see the Extra) rolled into town today on an extended train trip from New Orleans to Seattle. They've been traveling two weeks and left after our lunch to complete the final leg of their adventure. They are old "Civil Rights-ers," long devoted to undoing racism and white supremacy. If you click this link and scroll down, you can learn the vital statistics of both their lives. 

Margery and I have been good friends since the late sixties. She and my friend Leif were my birthing partners on the day I gave birth to Seth. She has known Seth all his life, and she stood by me in many hard times, and in the 80s and 90s she and David both stood by me. They were my neighbors in New Orleans when I returned from Africa with the two girls; they knew Palesa and Manko in those very difficult days of transition to this country. I sat on their front porch and wept with sorrow for how hard it was to make that transition. I wept with them again today. Old friends, dear friends, they met me in my doldrums and laughed with me, hoped with me as they have done so many times before. They also introduced me to a new friend-to-be, another white woman who spends her life undoing racism and lives here in Portland. She and I will meet again and see what we can do together.