We arrived in Maine last Friday to some terribly sad news. Our daughter Cassie has worked with autistic children for the past twelve years. Her first student, and the one closest to her heart, has been Tim Stickney, who she started to work with when he was four years old. Over the years, many of which she was his one-on-one aide, Cassie and Tim developed a very special relationship. Although she stopped being his aide several years ago, she still maintained a very close relationship with Tim and his family. Last week, Tim, now 16, tragically, died when he suffered a seizure in a hot tub and drowned. As you might imagine, Cassie was devastated. We were glad to have been able to be with Cassie for the wake and funeral over the weekend. Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral, a testimony to the many lives Tim touched in his life. As the priest pointed out at his funeral service, Tim may have had special needs, but he brought all of us special gifts. Here are two photos of Cassie and Tim:
We spent much of the weekend in Cassie and Alana’s apartment with their dog, Yote. Here’s Cassie, with her partner, Alana, getting some love from Yote.
Since Monday, we’ve been in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, where we lived for 22 years. Wendy and Troy, newly engaged, live here and we’ve been enjoying cooking and visiting with them. No photos yet; we took some with Wendy’s camera, but I don’t have access to them at the moment. I’ll include some next week when I post from Indiana.
The weather here in Maine has been, shall we say, wintery! With temperatures near zero and several storms of snow and ice, we are reminded why we have decided to spend our winters in Mexico. Scraping the ice and snow off Wendy’s car, driving on icy roads, wearing four layers as we venture outside…ah the joys of winter in Maine. Here’s one sample shot:
On Saturday, we’re off to Muncie, Indiana to spend a week with Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle. I’ll post some photos and news from there.
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