Family
My wife and I have kids and grandkids strewn from Virginia to California, her sons
in the Bay Area being the closest relatives. So here’s the family you’d meet when
visiting the farm. I’m nearby on the “Aboot” page. This is the rest of the crew:
JUDE: the last in a series of wives. We met on a locked
psych unit. I like to tell people that she was the charge
nurse when I took myself in for an estimate. Actually, I
was there first, on night shift, when she started working
there. I was attracted to her straightaway, but we were
both on the tail end of other relationships. She was sur-
prised when I finally asked her out for the coffee date
because she thought I was gay — apparently since I was
polite and watched my weight.
While we were hitting it off at IHOP, my mother was breaking her hip in Kansas.
Just before I headed back east, I asked Jude if I could call her while I helped Ma
with her rehab. We courted by phone. We fell in love on the phone. We were on
the phone when the second plane hit the World Trade Center. By then our souls
were fused.
What I want you to understand most about her is that her beauty goes all the way
through. She gives and gives, yet knows when she’s given enough. And she’s not
cursed with perfection. She has one serious flaw — she cannot or will not acknow-
ledge the massive difference between watching a sporting event live on TV and
watching a tape of it later.
ROAMEO: a mix of pit bull and golden
He was a rescue dog who rescued him-
self. He wandered into the barn of a
friend of Jude. An escapee from a dog
fighting ring, he had cuts on his head
and chest. At age 14, his physical pain
overtook his will to live. We had him
euthanized in 2011. Rest easy, bud.
SLINKEE: our beta pet with eyes on the
throne. Part collie, part retriever and I
like to think that there was a wolf in the
woodpile. Another rescue dog, she was
picked out at the shelter by Roameo.
I’ve never met a more exuberant being.
Everyone is her best friend. Her huge
wagging tail cools us in the summer
and chills us in the winter. She patrols our little valley with regal bearing. I can’t
imagine the farm without her, but we had to put her down this April.
OLLIE: officially Oliver Purr Twist,
he was literally dumped in Jude’s
lap on a home visit with a hospice
client. Ollie has no assignment in the
family constellation because he lives
in a parallel universe. He is even in-
different to gravity. To him, there is
no time that can’t be playtime, there
is no object that can’t be a toy. A superb mouser, he excels at the hunt outside
as well. He brings in birds and mammals ranging from shrews to minks. We dare
not go barefoot inside.