The old man is blessed with a number of fascinating
relatives. One of them is a niece called Linda. In recent years I have dubbed
her The Activist. She is a
mid-generation Baby Boomer born about
a quarter century after the old man.
Unfortunately Linda inherited a certain
determined and very private individualism and a congenital heart condition from
the old man’s family. Much more fortunately she got her talent, intellect and
positive personality from her father!
Linda’s mother and the old man, who was the
baby of his generation, had an always loving but often disapproving-of-each-other
sibling relationship. Partly that was because of their age difference. In spite
of that the old man eventually gained some maturity as did the relationship,
which soon included Linda’s father, the old man’s wife and then Linda herself.
Linda’s father brought a new, different and rather exciting dimension to the
old man and his whole family.
That persisted for some four short years
until the old man decided to leave the coastal environment to begin his own
struggle for upward mobility. They lost touch except for occasional visits,
even after the old man decided to return to the gentle valley of his childhood
in the frustrating pursuit of impossible dreams beyond his capacity. He found
his older sibling still beautiful but with only a shadow of her vibrancy. Linda
suddenly lost her mother to heart disease when she was just eight.
While the old man became ever more absorbed
in his personal, family, professional and community struggles, Linda grew up
under her father’s guidance, developed many friendships and a new generational sophistication.
We saw her periodically in family group settings and while visiting her father
but learned little of her complexity and achievements until the old man’s later
retirement. In the meantime she had taken voice training at the university, travelled
Europe by car with a friend of many years, took
teacher’s training and taught school for many years. Linda had a special bent
for taking up causes, certain she would make a difference and make the world a
better place. Somewhere along the line, though, she was diagnosed with the
heart disease that seems to affect many of the females in the old man’s family.
She suffered through a number of surgeries, developed a super-sensitivity to
electro-magnetic radiation and after years of disability finally accepted early retirement from the
teaching profession.
For a number of years now Linda has made
the anti-wireless, anti-WiFi and more recently the anti-Smart Meter causes [Linda is the one with the glasses shown in
the photo above] into completely absorbing, totally demanding causes while
the old man cautioned her to take it easy in what seems a losing cause in our
time. Ever ready to help others, including the old man with his aging problems,
Linda has not slowed down.
In early February the old man, along with
many others, got e-mail notice that Linda, who lives alone, had been roused by
friends sufficiently to admit them and get her to hospital. Her childhood
friend of so many years was kind enough to call the old man later the next day
to provide a few details.
Since then the old man has heard that after
a few days of observation, Linda has returned to her home under the care of her
friends and according to visitors who saw Linda during her hospital stay, Linda
is her bright and cheerful self.
Through all this trauma and clan gathering,
the old man has been his usual contrarian self. He has made no effort to visit,
sent no flowers or get-well cards, totally intent on giving her time to heal,
stay as quiet as possible, and get a clean bill of health. Then, lo and behold,
a mass mailing e-mail arrived from Linda in the old man’s Inbox this morning
urging him to sign another community’s anti-Smart Meter petition on behalf of Citizens for Safe Technology. Linda
seems to be back at work!
Though the old man and his spouse of nearly
63 years have not told her so privately, they wish to tell her in this
sometimes public way that they both love her dearly and that she is proving
once again that she truly is Linda the Activist with a capital “A”.
No matter where they are positioned in her personal universe or whether they
agree with her personal decisions or not, for them Linda will always be on the
side of the angels!
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