Another of the lovely ladies of Our Area has now gone to her reward.

I did not know Dr. Marian very well, since I only saw her now and then at places like concerts, the Erwins, Second Wind, etc.

She was always the gracious lady, more interested in whatever was going on than in herself. As my Fran says of so many, “He (she) knows who he is and feels no need to prove himself to you.”

Dr. Marian had been there, done that, but did not feel that she had to tell you about it. When she did, it was a time of sharing, not bragging.

I came to appreciate her very much, and always sought her company if she were present.

We have a move-in date at the White Oak apartments in Tryon, so our preparations to move have suddenly gone into high gear! Fran has been after me since we got on “the list” some two years ago to get rid of a lot more stuff than we did when we last downsized!

We bought a nice little four-room house then, and I sent three big truckloads to the dump. As we were looking at our new place, she decided we needed more space for guests to sleep and for my big computer operation.

So I agreed to add two bedrooms at the end of the hallway. Easy…just move the end wall and extend the gable roof. Simple, and therefore cheap.

I made drawings, secured a building permit — then Fran asked, “Do you suppose we could enclose the patio?”

Back to the drawing board — actually the computer — and finally broke ground for adding three rooms to our little four-room house!

Whee! Now we are cooking with gas!

That’s no joke. I converted the all-electric house to propane because my Texan wife has “always” cooked with gas!

It has been a very comfortable 13 more years, but now Fran is tired of cooking and I cannot do my yardwork or much else any more.

So we got on “the list.” Have not heard whether we passed the physical or even what our new address will be.

But the apartment they showed us as the one we’d soon occupy was last occupied by my late friend Maj. Jack Brandon, United States Marine Corps aviator.

Fran had offered the idea that you cannot cram some 70 years of living into four rooms.

This time, we have to try. And trying we are! You who have done this know the drill. If you have not looked at it or used it in 10 years, out it goes.

That may come down to five — or less!

The two bushels of family pictures got whittled down by my scanning many into my computer. They don’t take up any room there. However, I kept bringing more boxes to Fran that contained pictures. Finally, she just cried.

I got a big black trash bag and began to empty the boxes into it. Then I told her that I would put the bag into the tool shed and we could maybe look at them later.

I have already taken several carloads of paper to be recycled. My college notes, my piano tech notes, huge data files — too much to shred! Besides, we can Google anything we want to know.

The Columbus Lions are going to help us with a sale tomorrow (classified Moving Sale ad is also in Friday’s Bulletin) so come on out to 80 Sourwood Lane and take something away with you. Thank you!