A DAY WITH MARY

We spent some time with Mary and her family.

Some of you may have heard that our old home on Kings Gate Way in Bloomfield Township is up for sale.  If you click on the link above you can see all the pictures of the rooms and the changes since we were there.

 Mary made an appointment the Real Estate agent who is handling the sale.  We went in and Mary announced she grew up in this home and tears began to flow for Mom and Mary.  The Chinese family who bought it from us invested a lot of money into the house renovations.  Check all the pictures.  They took the "Girls" bedroom and bath and the "Boys" bedroom and converted it to one huge master bedroom and bath with a huge walk in closet,  Hard wood floors everywhere with granite counters everywhere as well,  It definitely was a tug on the heart strings to walk through the empty house and remember so many good times.

We then had another heart wrencher as we went to the Lone Pine Cemetery to visit Julie's grave.  There is a feeling of peace there but it is always tough for me.  Sometimes we do not feel so far away from Julie.

Mary had a party for Mom's 75th birthday at her home
 and Al came over with all her kids.  Bryan and family were there as well. We just had a good time with all and Mom had a fine happy birthday in Michigan.

We visited an old friend and colleague, Eli Aboulafia, who was a vascular surgeon trained in the East and practiced in Botsford and Sinai Hospitals. He covered for me on occasion and I always liked him.

When Mom and I were in Madrid, Spain, we visited the El Prado Museum and saws all the great masters painting by Raphael, Goya and El Greco.  There was an El Greco exhibit and there was one painting of an Aboulafia by El Greco that looked a lot like his descendent, Eli.  That one was killed by the king of Spain, "Pedro the Cruel" but the painting remained and in fact El Greco stayed at the Aboulafia estate in Toledo.  The Spanish Jews were forced to leave Spain and their descendants are known as Sephardic Jews.  The original Aboulafia estate still stands in Toledo.  An interesting side note of our trip.  His wife is an accomplished artist and we have one of her oil paintings.

Well all good things come to an end and we flew back to Salt Lake after a great and event filled visit, the star of which was Naomi Suzanne Fredenberg, our 81st grandchild.

Love to All,  Mom and Dad