Today, Friday, February 28, is my last day at The Center for Prevention of Abuse. I have actually worked here part time for six years, and it is time for me to have some time to myself and with Jason. I have loved working here with the children and it was a joy that I got to do it for six years. I actually retired from ICC Library in 1988 and worked teaching Children’s Literature and at Common Place between retirement and now. I have a friend who wants to have a retirement luncheon for me, but I feel a little peculiar this being the third place from which I’m retiring.

I am really looking forward to being home, looking out at the snow and knowing I can get another cup of coffee, pick up a book and stay home. I have loved working here, but I know I will enjoy being home all the time. I am even looking forward to maybe checking out a retirement home. I love being in my own home, but am having difficulty doing all the little repairs that come up in a house and also love being in the yard, but finding that I can’t do as much as I used to be able to do. This column has offered me a forum to let my friends know what is going on with me. It has not been a place to educate anyone or to gossip about politics as some others do in the Community Word, but many people tell me it helps them keep up with me and is kind of like a community letter.

As I’ve said before I am a dinosaur and am not always in favor of all the technology that seems to be more invasive every day. I don’t talk about the good old days, but they were different, not better or worse, just different. I do believe that too much personal information is out there and I do know that many youth have no idea of the problems that social media can cause. It seems as though there is another issue with social media every day, and I am glad to avoid it. I know many people say they must have a cell phone to keep track of their children, but back in my day, we managed, and it was not so threatening in the world then. Internet is another scary thing because children think they are anonymous and put too much personal   information on e-mail.

I’m not sure if I am going to continue this column. I will decide that after being home for two or three months. I know I want to spend more time with Jason. I haven’t written about him for a while, but he is not doing well. I went to the emergency room with him last Tuesday night at 3:00 a.m. He was not admitted to the hospital at that time and we got back home at 6:30 a.m. But on Thursday morning, he went in for more surgery on his foot. He told me the Dr, made an incision on the top of his second toe and took out some bone that was infected. I simply cannot look at his foot knowing what it must look like. I fully intend to spend more time with him and spoil him for several months.

I plan to thoroughly clean my house which hasn’t had a really good cleaning for a couple years. I also have pictures and papers to go through that I moved to this house after selling my big house 13 years ago. I know I can certainly stay busy for a year or two and in the summer can work on the yard. But eventually I am not going to be able to spend much time in the yard, so I need to phase out of that and into an apartment or something like that. I’ve truly enjoyed writing this column. I’m remembering when I started writing it in December of 1998. Jack died on Thanksgiving eve that year, and I went on the computer to see if he had started the column. He had and wrote that it would be his last. So I picked up and wrote a memorial column to my wonderful, funny intelligent man. I still miss him! Tell someone you love them!