Lisa's family

We have been in Salt Lake for a few days visiting my old friend Lisa Shavers and exploiting the comforts of her home. Michael is fixing something with her electricity right now so I’m staying calm by writing this.
It was wonderful to see Lisa who I have known since we were both lost Juniors in a St. Louis county high school, both having come from the east coast to Missouri that year. Long story short, she and her husband moved to Salt Lake area in 1967 and I went with them while I was waiting to hear from VISTA. They stayed, had two children, divorced and developed interesting lives, while my life took me west..
Lisa is now retired after 20 years in corrections. (To see my gentle friend with a gun blew me away back in the day she was a parole officer.) John got a PhD and was a psychologist but has retired from practice and now is volunteering with a non profit sending material aid, especially computer parts, to Uganda and elsewhere in the world of need. Their son Andy is off in L.A. but we got to see daughter Laura, her husband Tony and their son Max both at their home and at a fantastic Vietnamese meal last night.
Seeing the generous, sweet dispositions of Laura and Max interacting was really heart inspiring. Knowing people through four generations (I knew three of Lisa and Johns’ parents too in the time we were all younger,) is just like being part of the fabric of something durable and fine.
For many people this is commonplace and unremarkable but for me, who moved around and disconnected from the thread of the past at each new turn, this long friendship is unique and special and treasured.
(We also appreciated the respite from the road. THANKS LISA and doggy Franky and kittie Cheba.)