MoldovAnn

I had an uneventful flight back to Columbus – man was it long though! I took Delta’s new direct flight from Kyiv to JFK, which is a 10 hour flight. And Delta now gives NO free alcohol at all on their international flights. Bummer! I had a few hours’ layover in New York, and Emily was able to come out to the airport for a bit, which was awesome. She looks great, and we had a nice, albeit brief, catch-up. Then I had a quick flight to Columbus, and was in by 11:00 pm. All told, it took me 18 hours to get home.

It was cold and grey on Wednesday, not so different from what I left in Kyiv! But Thursday was lovely, still cold but sunny. And the trees are beautiful. I want to take my camera out and capture some of the scenery. Columbus has changed so much, too. New shops and cafes everywhere, construction all over the place (as usual). I missed my exit off the freeway at one point and got off at the next exit, and literally did not recognize where I was. It was quite disconcerting to feel lost and confused in the town where I lived for 33 years!

I’ve been really busy so far. I took my laptop into the Apple store for repairs, and after about 5 minutes of trying to sort out everything that is wrong with it, the guy said “I think it would just be easier for us to give you a new computer.” Woohoo! So I picked up my brand-spanking-new MacBook yesterday, with a DVD-writer, built-in video camera, and all kinds of gadgets and toys I haven’t even figured out yet. The thing even came with a remote control (I have no idea what you need a remote control for with a laptop, but it sounds cool!). I tell ya, that extended warranty I bought 2 years ago was the best investment I ever made.

I spent most of Thursday at my Grandma’s house with my Aunt Martha and cousin Ruth Ann. We cleaned out all her clothes, kitchen stuff, etc. We have some more to do today (Friday) and then on Saturday when my Dad and brother can come over too, we’ll divide up the sentimental and valuable things. Not a fun task, but we did find some really neat stuff that both tugged at our hearts and made us smile. Grandma had the dress she was wearing when Grandpa proposed to her in her dresser with a note on it. It’s no surprise she got a proposal in it – it’s quite a sexy little flimsy thing! And she has the fabulous derby hat that my Grandpa wore for their wedding. Lots of photos and albums and some old letters that we set aside to look through later. I’m looking forward to that. Aunt Martha pulled out record albums and fired up the old record player. For most of my life, I never knew there was a record player in that box on legs in the dining room, and I certainly never heard Grandma play an album on it. We had fun listening to the music from the 40’s and 50’s.

My Aunt Mary Ellin flies in today. Tomorrow there will be memorial mass for Mom and then we’ll all go out to dinner. It’s very very strange to have two huge holes in my life here. In the car from the aiport Tuesday night, I had to stop myself from asking Dad how Grandma is. Just a habit to ask, I guess. And so strange to be packing up her house without Mom. There are many things that I know Grandma would have wanted Mom to have, and things that I know have meaning or importance to Mom more than anybody else. And the things that I know Mom would be able to tell us where they came from, but now some of those stories are lost forever because the people who knew it are all gone. Grandma was thinking about us, though, and we found several things with little hand-written notes attach to let us know what was important to her, like her engagement dress, or the ceramic bowl that belonged to her grandma. Gosh, I’m really missing Mom and Grandma.