SUNDAY

"With each memory let our hearts be reminded that nothing can ever take away the love we have known. For love remains a part of us forever."

Well, today was the first day I woke up just at dawn.  I jumped up and put my clothes on over my PJ's, threw my jacket on, grabbed my camera and walked out into the Antarctic.  The wind was howling, the sky was gray, the sun was a small pink spot just over the water.

I found out about 2 minutes later when I came back inside that the temperature was in the 30's with the wind out of the East at 20 miles an hour. I did get some video of the lake though. You can’t hear the waves for the sound of the wind blowing and I did get some video of the cabins where we were staying. Then I rushed in and tried to thaw out my hands over our little fireplace.

Here's the link for the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ-e07-kcwc

It was a cold, windy, sometimes rainy day all day long. The rest of the morning we ate cheerios and hung out at the cabin, JoAnn packed, I was just lazy. Then we went to have lunch. We had the best chicken tenders I think I have ever had. They were so fresh and battered with a beer batter, really good...again canceling out any calories we burned working the past 2 days.

Then we went to Chan's house (it just feels good to say that), and Hurman took us on a tour of his and Chan's favorite places. Remember the vid Chan did where she and Hurman were throwing the ball for Baci?  Here's a  link for the vid. http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=318029055754 

We went there – it’s a park where there’s a lighthouse.  In Chan’s vid you can hear her talking a little bit. I love watching the vid, just to hear her voice. 

Chan also had a youtube channel where she has several videos where you can hear her voice. Here’s the link  http://www.youtube.com/user/tunnelbrat

Hurman took us all around the countryside for about three hours and showed us some of their favorite sites – their favorite restaurants, fishing holes, parks, places to take Baci, etc. I remember Chan talking about “hubby time” and about their Sunday afternoon drives and meals out. There are some really beautiful sights in the area and although it was really cold and windy, it was nice to see the area. It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Later that day we went to a café to meet Chan's friend Beth, who drew the beautiful Vincent angel for her and visited her in the hospital

"How far that little candle throws his beams!"

William Shakespeare

She is really young, and really sweet, and her grief is still so raw, so of course we did what we had been doing for 3 days now, we cried (all 3 of us several times during our visit). (I know the people in town think, "Who are those women that are always crying?")

During our conversation we thanked her for speaking for fandom during her visit while Chan was in the hospital. We told her we were grateful that someone in fandom was able to express our feelings to Chan in person. She said she was concerned she might not be doing the right thing, but she felt she had to do it, so when the fans on BBTV told her they appreciated what she’d done, she was relieved. She held Chan's hand and just talked to her. She told her what her friends were saying, feeling she could hear it. She said she drew the Vincent angel for Chan the night before and she couldn’t sleep until it was done.  The original picture is so beautiful.  The feathers in his wings are so delicate and so real looking.  There is so much emotion there that just doesn't come through in this picture.  The Vincent Angel was one of the original's that Hurman kept in a special file of keepsakes. 

Beth told us stories about her visits with Chan and their art projects. She showed us some of her art and she is really talented. I didn't know she had never been to a con. She is hoping to come one day. We encouraged her to draw more B & B art for us. Oh and we had pie and coffee....more calories. LOL

As we drove back through town we noticed that Sharon had put a sign in front of her shop saying, "Welcome friends of Chan”.  Somehow both of us missed seeing the sign the whole time we were in town. She probably had it up when we first drove through town and we had been past that store I don't know how many times, and had gone to the shop 2 or 3 times and never saw the sign until today. Boy did we feel bad. She has done so much for us and been so much help, even put a sign out to welcome us and it took us 3 days to see it. We couldn’t apologize enough to her.

I guess we could have been forgiven the first day because one of the first things we saw when we drove into town was one of Chan's wall murals and immediately started to cry, so we couldn't see much at all for a while.

It was almost dark after our visit with Beth when, walking back up to the cabin we saw a really big rabbit. We were creeping up on it to get pictures and it was sitting very still. We were surprised that it didn't move as we were freezing cold, but creeping up trying to get a good pic (you know all B & B fans have cameras ready at all times). Then we decided it was a lawn ornament and had probably been there the whole time, we just missed seeing it like we had missed Sharon’s sign. We started laughing at ourselves, trying to sneak up on a lawn ornament and then it moved, so we laughed some more. I think with the emotions, the exhaustion and the cold we were either punch drunk or hysterical, maybe both.

We stopped at K-Mart before getting to our cabin and got some soup to go with our sandwiches for supper. After being in and out of the cold and wind all day it was nice to be warm and snug in our little cabin, with a fire going, the wind howling outside (last night I thought it was cats mating, LOL), eating warm soup and watching Pretty Woman on TV.

This was our last full day in Oscoda. I know I will never be back and never see my friend Chan again. How can either of those be possible? I can't say goodbye, maybe if I won't say goodbye it hasn't happened. I’ll hang on to that for now.

“So you must not be frightened, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if arrestiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand, it will not let you fall.”