80!

My beautiful and amazing long time panda loving friend, D, today at book club where we celebrated her 80th birthday!  Last month we had 2 who turned 75.   (We’re just doing the big numbers now!)  10 years ago I helped D celebrate 70 on a boat around Cape Horn, .....The changes are galloping along…D just lost her husband last fall and now has a child battling cancer, one just last week moved to a retirement home with her husband , one is getting ready to move hubby to a facility for people with dementia,  another is getting ready to move with her spouse to a facility that has dementia care, another is looking to move to a retirement home in the next year,  one was with her husband who had surgery today.  Such courageous moves for these women (and of course the men) and ever more reason to celebrate these warm supportive friendships over stressful times.,


The book “Burmese Days” was George Orwell’s first novel (1934) …such beautiful writing about the ugly times of colonialism…it’s many shallow and evil characters in what sounded like a horrid place to be.