Today would have been the 71st birthday of someone who was once and will always remain very special to me. Our loving bond with Suzanne's family in Sweden softens the loss, but it's still persistently painful, twenty nine years later. The world has missed what she might have been, but while she lived she surely felt her wings.
The photos are from a trip she and I took in the summer of 1980, a train and hiking adventure through Finland, Sweden and Norway. That's me with my dark hair posing by the Arctic Circle sign. The other shots are from our hiking and canoeing adventure in the Arctic Tundra. We hiked in with a group and paddled canoes back. There was another group using the canoes first, beaching them for us as they began the hiking portion of the their trip. It was an amazing week, we saw Sami reindeer herders, swam in crystal clear streams, and walked miles each day with heavy packs. Bosse, our guide was fabulous. We navigated only with compasses and maps, battled huge mosquitoes, and slept like babies each night in our tents. It was the hardest physical activity I have ever done in my life and I shall never forget the wonderful people in the group who all spoke English just for me and the incredible nature above the tree line.
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
