When I saw your Instagram post, some 35 years stepped out of
the line behind me when I turned around to look. There you were in the yard with Ohio..
Lying in the front yard of our Ashburn cabin, reading to
Ohio as she stands guard. One of my favorite early pictures of you. When Carla
told me that she planned to homeschool, my own very traditional upbringing made
that sound like telling me that you were going into astronaut training. But in
those days, my job was my job, Carla ruled at home. The only caveat I had was
that you learn to be an excellent reader and writer. I knew those things could
take you anywhere you wanted to go. We lived in the country, no TV, no peer
pressure, you probably watched “Pete’s Dragon” on the VCR a thousand times or
more. Books were your main vehicle for travel beyond the house though. You
spent hours in a booth at Friendly’s Ice Cream parlor with armloads of books
from the library, you and Carla reading to each other and to Hannah when she
came along. Of course your first audience was Ohio the Wonder Dog, both of you
sprawled out in the mottled sun. It was a perfect time, one of many to come.
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