poppy fields

yes, poppies. California poppies. Whole hillsides of them.

Chris, Rose and I took the hour drive out to the Poppy Fields. You can see them miles away. Big swaths of orange on the distant hills. And as you get closer the orange light is everywhere. It is really amazing. Hill and dale full of flowers.

And the aroma is like a drug. More sage that anything else. All warmed by the sun and fragrant beyond belief.

Vivian

Vivian is gone. We got the call around 11 pm and drove for 2 hours . We walked into the ER and saw her. She was still breathing all hooked up to tubes and machines. But she was really already gone. A massive brain aneurism.

Somethings are like lightening strikes. A bolt out of the cold black night. They illuminate so much more than the trees. You see a quick flash of your own awe-struck eyes. Then all is dark again.

They took her, lovely sweet Vivian off the machines and put us in a private room with her. We stood the death vigil. Every breath you could hear and feel. After about 3 hours her breathing became shallow. And then it just stopped. It is a strange experience. One of those adult things. As much as I hated it, as much as I wanted to run away and hide, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else. A person deserves to have those who loved them be with them at the end. As much as it pains us to be there we own it to them.