
Monthly Activity Sheets are due for November on December 3rd, Saturday either electronically or left at Michele's doorstep in specially noted box, below her mailbox. Thank you for your consistent reporting. We need your accounts in order to produce our monthly activity -- always amazing! For instance, last month we accrued 2,013 miles of transportation/errands and 679 hours of service to 119 senior neighbors! Not the whole story, but some attempt to get a picture of what we do.
Last month, LAH lost a friend in Alice Zepeda, just shy of 105 years, left us. She and her son Nando and his wife Sandy were so helpful to LAH by donating time, talent, and their properties to fundraising for us. When I did intake paperwork with Alice, she shocked me into reality telling me she was one of the first women to serve in the Tucson Police Department in her early life. She said it was difficult being a woman in such company, but she loved the work. What a pioneer Tucson woman!
LAH also lost a relative newcomer to our group in the death of Chris Ecke. He had many health concerns, but managed to visit us at the Senior Canteen and to valiantly offer to become a volunteer with us when health improved. Our condolences to his family.
Thank you, All for your patience and understanding while I attended to my dad these last 6 weeks or so. Since 2009, I have been the chief caregiver for my aunt, mom, and dad. Aunt Dee and Mom have been gone for several years, but Dad, CSM Dale Adams Hughes, who turned 95 in October, died last Monday at home while in hospice care (thanks Casa de La Luz). Somehow, the years all melted together. All the information I have learned from our senior neighbors and their experiences have served us well. The last days were difficult. We had Dad accompanied 24/7. We had little sleep and no real outside activity, but he died as he wished at home, holding my hand, listening to music that he loved. It was an honor and it was very hard to let this WWII Army tanker and Army Reservist go. His experiences, his life, his family history, his passions are ours' now. We are all better for having loved him. Vaya con Dios, Dad. We have delayed services and burial to January because Dad donated his body to science and we will bury Mom and Dad, both WWII soldiers, together at the Military Cemetery in Marana. -Michele