Day 34, 24Apr10

Today was a beautiful day so I went this morning to Tennessee Valley and hiked down to the beach, to the bunker, then up the mountain to where Alicia would have been. I hiked by myself. I placed oranges at the bunker to replace the ones eaten last week. The program was still securely placed. Sandra's flowers were still there with the mini-volleyball, a letter, and some other flowers. The 'ASL' was still visible under layers of protective coatings. I hiked up the mountain further to the next view point. The candle and dried flowers were still there under the rocks. Another 50 yards or so, was the final view point. I proceeded slowly even further up the pathway to about where I would need to cross the uneven soft clumpy grass to where she would have been. I decided to stay on the path.

On my way back to the parking lot, I ran into a friend with her daughter, Alicia's age. We walked and talked about Alicia's death, colleges, parental involvement, and life in general. It had been years since I last saw her but Cathie had run into her a few times at the club. During our conversation, I could not but help think about Alicia's college choices and were she would have liked to attend college. Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She had been accepted and given some scholarship money to off set the tuition and board fees.

Speaking of colleges, I received today an acceptance letter from Puget Sound University. She had been accepted at Colorado College, Seattle University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, & UC Davis. I will call them on Monday to relinquish her acceptance.

Cathie found an essay from Alicia in which she pondered her own mortality. God it was very very hard to read. I immediately began to cry when I realized Alicia had written this within the past few months. Jeeze it was hard to read. We will use it in a collection of her writing with photos she took. We will probably use a portion for the RHS yearbook memorial page.

Cathie and I also spent a significant amount of time today with my dad in a hospital. We are running out of time to make decisions regarding his nutrition, cardiac complications, and discharge locations. He is probably within 10 days of his death if he continues to refuse food and water.