Mary Lou's Memorial

Hello!

I completely forgot to mention Frank's Virginia weekend, in the last blog post.  (We did miss him over the weekend.  It was a pretty quick trip.)

Frank got to visit with some family members he hasn't seen for awhile, when he went to a memorial service for his Aunt Mary Lou.  She passed away during the summer and Amelia (his cousin, Mary Lou's daughter) organized this additional memorial service, for those who didn't come to the one earlier in the summer.

I remember Mary Lou's passion for nature.  She would take these crazy-long camping trips, and got into birding.  Then it became a quest to search for birds, birds, and more birds, in their different habitats, in different regions of our country and Canada.  I think it was called the "700 Club" that she was in.  She observed and identified over 700 species of birds! I posted this bird on our blog once, and she told me almost immediately what it was.  (I can't remember the name now.  But she knew!)

Her brother Bill remembered how she was a voracious and fast reader.  When they were younger, he would watch as she would read, just slowly turning pages continuously.  He was skeptical, and didn't think she was really reading.  Periodically he would "quiz" her on the material she had just gone through.  And yes, she would actually remember the information!

Once she came to our house when we lived in Colorado, and she showed us her very fancy, custom camping van.  Frank and I were amazed at all the amenities, that she squeezed into a normal-sized van!  (Who cares if it rains or not when you're camping, if you have one of those cool vans?)

Here is a photo of Mary Lou when she was in her 20's (my guess).  Isn't she beautiful? :)







And here is the group of family members who went to dinner after the service.  Frank was glad to be able to visit with his aunt & uncle, cousins and their families.  It's good to get together when everyone lives so far apart.

Thanks, Amelia, for organizing this!  You're a star! :)