Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
August 6, 2020
By Pat Edwards

We woke up this morning to some rain, and after the hot days we’ve been experiencing, it actually felt good. For me, rain denotes a slowing down of our days and permission to stay inside and either snuggle into the day or to spend some quiet time on things that have been put aside until “we have a chance to do them.” There’s always a slight feeling of guilt for staying inside any more than we have to during the bright and sunny days of summer.

Our days, lately, have been filled with several “catch-up” doctor’s appointments for Jim, who has been reporting in electronically to his doctors during the earlier part of the pandemic, and a couple for me in addition to servicing our car and making bank and grocery runs for the store. So, life has continued to be busy for us despite temperature checks, masks and social distancing as we make our rounds.

Masks are not our favorite things, but we have learned to automatically put them on when we step out of our car into public areas. One incident provided me with a bit of a chuckle this week. I had been asked to speak at a small socially-distanced writing class at the Lamb Cottage in Spencer Butte Park. We all wore masks and sat well away from each other as I talked and answered the questions about self-publishing in the 8-person class. In my haste to get to the class on time, however, I forgot to wear my hearing aids. Normally, I can get along pretty well without them, but that day, as I was taking questions from the group, I found myself straining to hear what they were saying through their masks. While doing so, it suddenly dawned on me that I was pulling my mask down a little below my nose in order to hear better. Strangely, it seemed to help!

This past week was an especially exciting one for us. Little 7 lb. 8 oz Hudson Ross Haxby joined our family on July 30. He was born to our granddaughter, Linsey Kau Haxby and grandson-in-law, Brent Haxby of Veneta. Hudson is their 2nd son and is adored by his big, 21-month-old brother, Sawyer. I’ve mentioned before in this column that boys are a rarity in our family. For the past 3 generations before Hunter was born, there has been only one male born to our family per generation. Hudson broke that tradition and we are loving it.

Linsey’s older sister, Stephanie Kau Furlong, and her husband Chad, have given us four great-granddaughters including little Cora who was born only six weeks ago; our grandson, Kevin Stevens, and his partner, Jazmine, presented us with sweet, beautiful Calliope 8 months ago, and we have another great-granddaughter due in November. I have no doubt that all will be raised more like brothers and sisters than cousins as our own grandchildren were. Each one is so special to us and they all brighten our days during the few times we are able to get together during this pandemic.

I haven’t been able to hold Hudson yet. His brother, Sawyer, had a cold when Hudson was born, and passed it on to his Grammy and Grampy Kau and his mom, so we’ve all been keeping our distance for now. On the day he came home from the hospital, though, Jim and I brought them some wonderful barbecued chicken from the Crow Grange’s annual feed, so we were met at the garden gate in front of their home and able to at least see Hudson in person and “ooh” and “aah” a bit.

We have been so blessed!