A few years later, newly married to her high school sweetheart and with an infant in tow, Lyndie took off on her next great road trip. They were “escaping” from Stanford University, where her husband had learned that college was not for him, and from what she calls an “over-controlling family.” Carroll (“Cal”) Duff wasContinueContinue reading “6. The Tenement Year”
Author Archives: Lyndie's Journey
5. Skylights and Bombs, Nudes and Murders
Bit by bit, in emails, Lyndie shares fragments of the “every-which-way jumble of recollection” that suddenly floods in unbidden, “in full Technicolor,” after I have asked about something else. “Do you know I can draw or describe every detail of the rental house on 26th St. we lived in till 1945? The upstairs bath had green walls,ContinueContinue reading “5. Skylights and Bombs, Nudes and Murders”
4. Of Alice and the Angels
Sometime after Lyndie’s disappointing cruise, she and I took a road trip together from Wyoming to Texas. I would visit my grandchildren. She would have an opportunity — perhaps her last — to see her blind friend again. That was the first time I saw Lyndie up close and personal with others. I saw thatContinueContinue reading “4. Of Alice and the Angels”
3. What Went Wrong
https://youtu.be/ITgBtiMv3Ps https://youtu.be/JQnpGmC7egY Here is Lyndie’s own written account of the ordeal:It was going to be our last great adventure together. We’ve been friends for nearly 50 years, both of us now widowed after long marriages. I have traveled often with Graciana (not her real name; that’s the one she has chosen for herself here)–in crampedContinueContinue reading “3. What Went Wrong”
2. About Lyndie
Quite some time ago, Lyndie sent me this picture of herself. She often uses the words on that T-shirt as her sign-off on letters to me: OOW# followed up a long nonsensical string of numbers. Taking that journey with her blind friend, both widows in their 80s, was indeed rather outrageous. Whose idea was it,ContinueContinue reading “2. About Lyndie”
1. Where I Imagine What Might Have Been
Although this is about Lyndie’s journey, in a sense it starts with me, so that is where we will begin. My husband and I had planned something very special for our 50th anniversary: A Viking River Cruise along the Danube from Budapest to Bucharest, traveling through Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania – a regionContinueContinue reading “1. Where I Imagine What Might Have Been”