Sad Trip North Tomorrow - Lulu's Aunt Ethel Died

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Tomorrow at 10AM - Lulu and I will fly north to attend the viewing and funeral of her Aunt Ethel Pelcheck. Ethel was Lulu's Dad's sister - she was a Cox. She lived near Allentown and spent many summers with Lulu at the Jersey Shore and Saylor's Lake in the Pocono Mountains.

When Lulu and I eloped - Aunt Ethel was one of a handful of Lulu's relatives that welcomed us back home with open arms. She was always such a positive person and would brag about Lulu's success. They were Cox girls through and through.

When we moved to Tallahassee - Ethel came to visit two times. Her husband John is a big Duke basketball team fan. They visited to see Florida State upset Duke and also to see a Wake Forest game here. They drove all the way from Vero Beach - 7 hours each way - not bad for a couple that was almost 80 years old.

Last summer when Lulu taught at the FSU Campus in London - we made a special trip to Lamorna - in Cornwall, England. We took lots of pictures and Lulu made a little album for Ethel. Ethel's Grandfather Heath left Lamorna for a new life in America. It is such a pretty place there - along the coast - with granite quarries and tin mines running down to the sea. We found out all about this from Aunt Ethel's family bible. Ethel loved finding out that that Larmona was along a beautiful shore.

On our recent drive north to spend Christmas with the family - the first place we stopped in the Valley was Aunt Ethel's home. She was weak and sore from the radiation treatments - but got up to visit with us for a little while. She and Lulu used to love to get sunburned down at the Jersey Shore - now her face was red from the treatments. We all knew it would be the last time we would get to visit her. She tried to be a positive force until the end.

We will fly out of here at 10 in the morning - get to Allentown around 3 PM - visit with the family a bit and attend the viewing. Wednesday morning we will be at the funeral to be able to say goodbye one last time. Then we will fly from Allentown to Atlanta and get into Tallahassee around 9 PM.

Life will go on - but it will lose a little bit of its color for a while. Ethel will be missed by everyone who knew her.