At the cabin

Sorry about being AWOL from the column, we were celebrating #56 at the cabin. Let me tell you about it.

#56 stands for our 56th anniversary; October 18th, 1969 to be exact. In fact it was on a Saturday evening at Highland Park Baptist Church in Southfield, Michigan where we met about a year and a half earlier and had been attending together ever since our first date! I don’t mind telling you I was stricken right from the first time I saw Bess in the lobby of that church!

It’s Sunday morning as I’m writing this and I was just stricken again as I saw my wife getting ready for church and donning a navy blue wool suit that she bought on our honeymoon in Montreal, Quebec in 1969; and it looks as good on her now as it did 56 years ago!

We’ve tried to celebrate every year in one way or another, but ever since we acquired the cabin in 2012 from my wife’s cousin, we’ve tried to celebrate our anniversary there. There are several reasons that I’d like to share with you. 

The bad news is that it’s 800 miles north of middle Georgia which makes it a tough drive. Until this year we used to drive it straight through, but we’ve finally bowed to both of our birthdays and have started to make it a two day trip with an overnight stop.

The good news is that it’s on top of a mountain in central Pennsylvania. The fact that it’s on a mountaintop and we’re there in mid-October means that usually mother nature puts on quite a show of Fall colors while we’re there and  this year was no exception. It’s worth going just for the Fall color!

The cabin is located just one mile “as the crow flies” from where flight 93 went down on 9/11; in fact, the National Park Service has built quite a memorial park and monument there that is definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in the area.

Long time readers of this column might remember me writing about the cabin before, probably after one of these anniversary trips. But I just can’t help myself telling you again. The cabin has been in my wife’s family for 70+ years (we don’t know exactly when her uncle Dick actually purchased it but it’s been at least that long). When Bess was a little girl, her family often took her from their home in Detroit to the cabin for vacation with her cousins, so it holds vivid happy memories for her in her childhood through teen years.

Until last Spring, the only running water the cabin had was the stream right next to it. But last Spring I finally gave in to the wishes of my kids and put in a well and a shower; I’ll have to confess that I sure enjoyed that shower with hot running water this last trip too. 

Two years ago we thought we lost it when my neighbor called to tell us a massive storm came through and blew a giant tree onto, and through, the roof!  Based on his description and the pictures he sent us, we thought it was beyond repair. But after a quick unplanned trip up to Pennsylvania we were able to hire a roofing contractor to repair the damage and install a new metal roof; now it looks better than ever.

While we were gone a friend said, “Working on an old cabin is not my idea of an anniversary celebration.” I understand her sentiments, but there’s something very relaxing to us while we’re there even though we’re invariably working. In fact, we celebrate every small improvement and always try to leave it better than we found it. And we love having deer everywhere around us while we’re there.

I want to leave you with one final thought. There is one thing that we very much enjoy at the cabin: reading to each other! One of the reasons for that is that there is no TV there or a way to connect it if there was one. That one thing ensures a certain solitude that makes life there slow down into a “yesteryear” kind of pace, which is very relaxing at the end of the day. Usually, it goes like this: Bess snuggles on the sofa with a warm blanket while I get into my favorite chair by the fireplace and read to her… nothing like it!

But as I’m writing this, it occurs to me that you can do this too without a secluded mountain cabin. So, if you’re still fortunate enough to have your spouse with you, why not try turning off the TV, perhaps one night a week, and reading to each other? It makes for a delightful, economical date, and you don’t even have to travel 800 miles to enjoy it!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors, see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA