Kind & Generous

You've been so kind and generous,
I don't know how you keep on giving,
For your kindness, I'm in debt to you
For your selflessness, my admiration
For everything you've done.

You know I'm bound,
I'm bound to thank you for it....

--Natalie Merchant, Ophelia, "Kind & Generous", (1998)

Actually, this song in it's entirety is applicable to my wife, Melissa, but that's another blog. Instead, this blog is about everyone else who has been so kind and generous to me, and more importantly, to my family. We had yet another anonymous and embarrassingly generous gift of what my dad and Uncle Steve (or as he is known around these parts "The Uncle") call "folding money." This is not the first anonymous gift we've received and besides sending our thanks back through my parents who gave us the envelopes, this is the only way I can think of to try to try to reach them "personally."

And I decided to at least try to thank some of the people who have helped us so generously with their thoughts, deeds, and actions. (Yes, Mom, you did teach me better than this. I even have two boxes of thank you notes sitting inside my desk as I type this. I'm just lazy and rude I guess. :-) )

The danger in doing these kind of public thank yous is that you inevitably leave off people because you just forget. I hope nobody's feelings are hurt, because that is not my intent. You have to admit I have a pretty good excuse for forgetting. :-)

Friends and of course family have helped us out immensely, but my sister Megan has gone over and above the call of duty, carting the kids around to various activities, seeing that they're fed and giving us a couple moments of sanity in between all this madness.
Curt and Julie, Doug and Patti, Rod and Holly, Ben and Wendy, Bruce, Scott, Tom, Al and Phyllis, Terry and Sandie, our old neighbors (you know who you are), and our new neighbors, Ron and Joyce, Vicki and Harold. All of the people at the City of Des Moines, who generously donated their vacation time and for inviting me to lunch every Wednesday months after I went on disability. Thanks to James for seeing that the details at the city were taken care of.

I am writing this from the Taylor House Hospice. Hopefully, a temporary stop on the way to Kavanaugh House and eventually home for the inevitable. I apologize if I left anyone off. I think I still have a couple of blogs in me, but we'll just have to wait and see.