Monday, Feb. 10

I dozed this morning, listening to the radio, not worried about getting the boys out the door at 8:00 because L was up and would take care of it.

At a quarter to, Don came down to tell me Barney wasn’t dressed and hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. With a pained groan, I got out of bed and came upstairs to see what the holdup was.

He was dressing and had made toast for himself but it was “not YOUR bread, Mom!” so he left it on the table with one bite out of it. L had gone outside to check on cattle when he saw Barney sit down with his toast, and no one remembered that there was a bowlful of leftover banana pancakes in the fridge. So Barney has gone to school with no breakfast, bearing a piece of fruit to eat on the bus, and I will be baking bread today.

A friend’s mother died this morning. I tried to phone him when I heard she was in the hospital, but he has been staying in the city with her. He has lost his two closest family members -- his mother and grandmother -- within the past six months.

On the highway to my hometown since we moved here, I have driven right on past their house every weekend, each time thinking “I must stop in there soon, but not today.”

He didn’t get along with his mother, so I have no idea how he has been faring with her so ill. I’m not even sure if he was still living with her; he may have moved into his grandmother’s house in town.