Thursday, February 23, 2012

(posted by Greg)

One of the personal things of Opa's which recently came back to us was a photo of Monica. It was a photo taken of Monica in our front yard in the snow a couple of winters ago. I particularly like this photo because of Monica's smile in it. It was a great, natural smile. I had a similar reaction to a photo of Monica taken last week when she had lunch with the girls from the office. Once again that same great smile.

I realize that Monica's smile is one of her trademarks. She had a great smile for me in 1982 when she came to my cocktail party (the start of our relationship). She had a great smile for me walking down the aisle at our wedding when she  realized that I had noticed the hat ( a surprise) she was wearing. I often would get a smile when she walked by my door at the office. The smiles haven't always been the same but over the years I have had lots of those smiles. She also always had lots of smiles for friends and family- always happy to see people and showing them how she felt with her smile.

Believe it or not, Marley and I are still seeing lots of those smiles. Monica's still finds lots of reasons to laugh and smile. She has some great smiles for the kids when she sees them.  - Just thought that I would mention something that I realize I am grateful for.

Weekly update: On Saturday we connected with the son of friend from Germany. We showed him a bit of the City and had him over for dinner before he went to the movies with Jesse and Marley. On Sunday we had a relaxing, long visit with Oma who continues to do well and then joined Ingo for dinner at his house. On Tuesday, Monica and Marley took a friend of Oma's out to see her and had lunch with Oma, Aunt Ida, and the friend. Yesterday the physiotherapist visited and reviewed some range of motion exercises with us. The weather was nice so Marley and Monica had a nice walk with the wheelchair in Central Park. Today Monica had another Bev treatment and all went well.