December 1, 2019 BORN TO RUN

Grateful for so many things this Thanksgiving. Grateful to spend the holiday with family and friends. Grateful that everyone--at this moment--is HEALTHY & HAPPY.  Especially grateful to Prevent-Heal-Thrive for an amazing 5K yesterday. Their Festive 5k Run/Walk/Roll--AND--1 mile Conga Line was the ultimate tribute to their sister Michele. Over two hundred people came together to support a family forever changed by the death of a woman who may have been tiny in statue but was seriously one of the strongest women I've ever met. One thing I've learned this past year is that people grieve in many different ways. The Cote girls have taken their grief and channeled it into helping others. It's a noble cause and one that would have been dear to Michele's heart. What better tribute to their sister than by offering comfort, hope and assistance to other cancer patients and their families. I want to thank the Cote girls--really ladies--and  the whole Bassett family for their continued friendship and for the comfort all of you have given me this year.  It really takes a village.
I'm sure Olive Kitteridge felt great comfort after her marriage to Jack Kennison in  Elizabeth Strout's  sequel Olive, Again. If you haven't read Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning book of 2008 Olive Kitteridge or watched the HBO miniseries, I recommend you do so before reading the sequel. In the newest book, Olive is a seventy year old widow who decides to marry her neighbor Jack Kennison. Her son is flabbergasted, but who is to judge what it's like to be alone in your old age. This is just one of the short stories in the collection that totals thirteen. Each story is interrelated and takes place in Crosby, Maine. Olive is still a cantankerous, judgmental Northerner, but she's also a loyal, honest and kind person too. She's quite a dichotomy--she's a real person--good and bad. By the end of the novel Olive is eighty-four and living in an assisted living facility nearing the end of her life. I totally enjoyed reading about Olive again, but did find it sad at times.  It is a must read if you loved the first novel as much as I did. It's about 305 pages or a 3 mile run that will stick with you forever.