Our home for a week in Worcester MA was the home of my brother-in-law, Ray, and his lovely wife, Kim. It was mostly a stay-at-home week, but the main reason for even being in MA was my 55th college reunion. Or, more specifically, a fraternity reunion that coincided with my 55th college reunion. There were 14 young men in that freshman class in the fraternity (which is a living group, so I lived with most of these men for 4 years and a couple of them for a few years more). I met them all 59 years ago. Three are deceased, two were unable to travel due to illness and one living on the west coast simply couldn’t make it. That left 8 of us to drink and eat for all 14, both at the Friday night gathering at the home of Bob Wilson in Weston MA and the dinner at Oscar’s in Dedham MA on Saturday night. We were joined at the dinner by the brother of one of the deceased brothers (a brother brother?), his wife and two widows. It was a very nice weekend with some very dear old friends, most of whom, thankfully, looked quite healthy and fit.
The video chat Friday night was with Walter Edridge, our freshman pledge trainer – kind of a “house father” to us all. He is nearly 80, in poor health and in an assisted living facility in Baton Rouge LA. It was nice to see and speak to him again, though his condition was sobering to all of us approaching his age.
Ray is not in the best of health, either. He recently spent 10 days in the hospital with what was eventually diagnosed as a rare bacterial infection of the spine. He was on 3-times-a-day infusions of heavy duty antibiotics the entire week we were there, finishing the day before we left. We certainly hope the medicine did its job and he will fully recover. I need him. He is more of a brother to me than my biological brothers.
Kim was, as always, an incredible hostess, serving us some amazing home-cooked meals. Becky bonded with both and became Ray’s emotional support animal.
Marlene more than earned our keep by sewing some custom pillows. Hard work but they turned out beautifully.
We made a pilgrimage to Kimball Farm in Westford MA on our last full day in Worcester. The seafood there is wonderful (and wonderfully expensive) and the ice cream is arguably the best I have ever had.
We left at 6am the next day.
Great people. Thank you, Ray and Kim!