Dear Henry

There is a hurricane coming. It's named Isabel. There was a tropical storm a week or so ago named Henri. I was thinking back to the time when I drove through that hurricane to bring the cells to Detroit.

On Saturday night we went to see Bruce Springsteen again. For the second Saturday night in three weeks the clouds parted and gave us good weather for the concert.

Look who we ran into in the parking lot.



Cousin Catherine!

She and Tim came to the show. We also saw Uncle Andrew and Aunt Tracey. They were sitting in the section one over from us. Helaine and Richard were there. My friend Justine was there, too. Seeing Bruce in New Jersey was fun, but it was very nice to be home and literally surrounded by friends and family. For the first time I felt like a lot of the songs were about death. I never noticed that before. The band played "Bobby Jean" and I cried. I posted the lyrics to that song a couple of months ago right after you died. I told you how it made me think of you because I thought of you as my best friend. In the song, Bruce says that he didn't get to say, "goodbye." I feel I didn't either. It was so hectic the morning that you were intubated. I was keeping back a little so the doctors and nurses could work, and Mommy was right by your side. I don't know what I said to you. I don't know if you spoke to me. I don't know the last thing we ever said to each other. I definitely didn't think there would not be another chance to talk, to tell you I love you, to say goodbye. I said those things to you while you were unconscious that next week but I know you couldn't hear me.

One thing I've learned from death is that I need to tell people how I feel when I feel it. A friend told me the other day that he might move away from Washington. I told him that I would be sad if he left. The only problem was that it took me two or three days to tell him. At Uncle Bill and Cristina's wedding I said in my toast that one of the most important things you need to do when you are married is to tell the other person every day that you love them. I said even though you might show them you love them and feel like you them you still need to tell them you love them. I didn't say this because I thought you might not get another chance to tell them you love them.

One neat thing about Bruce Springsteen is that he writes and sings a lot of songs with the following:

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
and
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

That is good song writing, seriously. People don't do that enough anymore.

Here is a picture of Joe sitting in a bean bag chair in Mrs. Singer's new classroom. He came with us to visit the new school building.



Doesn't he look relaxed. He is a crazy man lately. He bangs his head on the floor and then says, "hurt." No kidding. Jack used to do that, and Mommy did that when she was a little bitty girl. Joe will grow out of it.

Good morning.