There were a lot of things that people did, but one that sticks in my mind wasn’t anything I could have anticipated. A friend’s mother was visiting from Canada and they stopped by my house to visit and see my new garden. I had a small screen-in porch that, I’ll call her Sharon, and I sat in while her family ran errands around town. We got to talking about my travels and experiences in the Navy. She had lost her husband and wanted to travel but wasn’t ready to go alone. After talking about where each of us would love to visit, Alaska came up as the top place we both would love to see.
She pulled out a CAA, the Canada AAA, flyer and offered to go with me on a cruise to Alaska. That unexpected offer led to six different cruises that we went on together before she died. I often drove up to visit her in Canada and just enjoy talking and planning about where to go next. I’ll never forget her and I’m glad I was able to offer her the security of a traveling partner so that she could enjoy visiting places she might never had gone to.
Her spirit encouraged me to take a safari trip to Botswana, and it was the best birthday gift I gave myself.
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