Catching up with sisters

I found out today that my sister Linda has an appointment Friday, July 31, to hear the read on her MRI taken last Friday. So I will be eager to find out how that goes, as she continues to struggle with a hurting neck and numb hands. Her daughter Carissa, husband and family have returned from an extended vacation trip, including one to Sicily where ancestors on the dad's side came from. Carissa kept her maiden name Bongiorno, so she must have been greeted with great friendliness while there. That means good morning I was told. Linda's son is named Gaetano Bongiorno which I have always thought was a beautiful name. It was his grandfather's. The family always called him Tano, but he eventually became Tom to everyone else. I guess Tano was just too exotic for some!
Sister Ann has just posted a poem complete with pasture photos about cows getting into the mountain pasture in her blog Kanyonland King on my blog list. Quite a few of the King family descendents bought part of King's pasture, so when somebody says somebody's cows have crashed the pasture fence, quite a few respond with appropriate alarm. So far all her entries have been in poetry. Now that tops me and shows she is the greater poet of the two of us, but Linda probably tops us all as she has been steadily writing poems and putting out poem books for years. And always has a notable new poem for her blog Vooman's Voice.
Now to a surprise, sister Margie whose blog Marge I have just added to my blog list has posted her second entry. She has had a lot of medical problems delayng her blogging, but she has led a life of drama in her nurse's career, so once she gets going she should have a blog worth a look see.
I will ask my sister LaRae what she is doing, as I don't want to miss her, even though she has passed to another realm some 20 years ago.

LARAE: I was afraid you were going to leave me out. After all I went to the Boulder Heritage Music Festival, too, where my daughter Cheryl did me proud. I have never seen such a display of expertise with her workshops and work on the ranching book. I sat around with the sisters, too. Cousin RaVoe went with me as she wanted to see how her sister Roma did on her first trip back to Boulder for many many years.
GERRY: LaRae, I hope you are doing something about the women in the King families great reluctance to look at reality and what the men had to contend with from old to young in the homesteading and pioneering life in Boulder.
LARAE: Yes, we are holding workshops on the situation. First of all the ladies have to come over here and see for themselves that the Mormon heaven they visualized just does not exist. Someone is always asking for directions to Mormon Heaven, so many that there is a designated green pasture we send them to, but they come back wanting an explanation for a green pasture that is empty! Then I say that is Mormon Heaven! So then they settle down and try to figure out just what we are supposed to be learning here, which as far as I am concerned is what that life was all about, and what we missed, and what we messed up and what can we do about it?
GERRY: That sounds to me like you are headed in the right direction, sister LaRae.
LARAE: I assure you that when you arrive here and have recovered enough, you will be booked as a guest speaker to a Boulder Heritage Festival for the spirits, which is scheduled to follow the one on earth, so we can discuss what happened. We are looking forward to the play about dying the next festival will feature, Happy Hello, Sad Goodbye, both here and there.

MOTHER: Since I am in the photo, bigger than anybody, I wonder if I might be allowed to say a word? I get the feeling my daughters have all muzzled me. I don't know if I will ever be allowed to say anything again, even though I held my own, writing three books of family history.
GERRY: Oh, hi, Mother. I hope you are enjoying yourself. I am sure we will get around to you in time. Your books of history are still prominent on our shelves, so now we must get busy and get ours done. I am off to buy a cartridge for my printer. I remember you slaving away on your last book of history when you were 78. It was printed when you were 80.
MOTHER: Yes, I shocked everyone with the family secrets I told without realizing it. I have not caught up with them yet. I knew not what I was saying. I was far too ignorant for my own good. Or so daughter LaRae tells me.

Thank you, Connie, for the border you put around this notable photo. It was taken to my son Raymond's wedding in Phoenix, I believe.