Hi All,

Ida's much beloved grandaughter and her baby and husband have been staying
with us for a few weeks till they relocated up North.   They just got sick
of the hurricanes etc. and decided it was time to come back home to the
Northeast.   Anyway this week we just got them relocated into a rented house
about 30 miles away in a lovely spot at the most glorious time of the fall
season.   It is gorgeous here now.

Well, I have to tell you that little girl is the sweetest, cutest, most
adorable little three year old honey you have ever seen in your life.   She
looks exactly like a brunette Shirley Temple, big eyes and all.   Ida loved
her grandaughter (the baby's mother) more than anyone on this earth.  She
got to see the little one once, but never really quite understood who she
was.

In fact at the point when the little one was born, Ida imagined SHE had a
baby herself (!)  She knew there was a baby and that it was important to her
personally, so she could only imagine it was her baby.   She was so caught
up in the delusions of her illness it was very sad.   One of the greatest
joys imaginable is getting to know ones grandbabies.

Anyway, I was just thinking how much she would have loved that child.   I
give her extra hugs not only because she is beautiful and sweet, but because
there was a grandma who would have done so if she only could have, and if
her mind had still been intact.

A few years ago when I attended the funeral service of a wonderful man who
had been my boss for many years, the Rabbi (my boss was Jewish) said that if
there was no death, we would also never be able to experience the joy of the
birth of the new generations.    It stuck in my mind as a great truth.   It
comes to mind when I see our sweet little granddaughter.   Like you
southerners say, she is "cute as a bug's ear"....:-)

So with the sadness of passing loved ones, also comes the joy of newly born
loved ones.