Adventure 434: The Story of George, 11

January 30, 2018

Real time just keeps getting better for George. His appetite has returned, much of his strength and mobility, and some of his cognition. Last night we played dominoes. He was able to keep up with the game with minor occasional mistakes, and he managed to count his points after each round. He's smiling more, and seems content. We've got him into the home health nursing pipeline as well as twice a week visits from the physical therapist. So, if somehow he'd return to regular physical exercise such as walking, he'd manage much longer. But, compared to ten days ago, he's a "miracle".

George has always been handy with metal and wood. One of the last memories we have recorded in pictures is Christmas about 1957. Sandy and Judy were old enough to realize and play with the kitchen set George made them. It was a two piece plywood arrangement made up of a stove and a refrigerator. Both pieces were painted white with black knobs. The doors opened. Who knows what became of those two items? Much later, George and Margaret realized their dream home on their two acres in La Pine, Oregon. George had the vision, drew the plans, and every weekend, he and Margaret would travel from Portland trailing behind them materials for the build in a little black trailer they called "Bessie". Bessie carried everything from windows to drywall. George oversaw the entire project, and did every bit of the work himself except for the initial framing. My brother Tom and I helped a little. I remember wiring the house. As unskilled labor, my job was to drill holes in the studs for the electrical wire to run through. I remember drilling upwards to three hundred holes, some of which were completed upside down in the crawl space. Tom, the skilled labor, hooked everything up. It went like that with the other projects such as dry wall and roofing. I always qualified as unskilled labor, which means my hands were always firmly clasped around some tool of ignorance. Oh, how I grinned like a fool. But, in those instances, George was in his glory. His vision and plan for completion was excellent. He'd still have that home now if not for one error. They should have bought land in Redmond to be near medical care because when push came to shove, they were too far into the wilderness for practicality's sake. Still, building his own house from scratch stands as one of George's greatest life achievements.

Setting up the Mexican train.