I went on a cruise to
Alaska in August 2001 with Armand, his wife Mary and daughter Ann. That
was when Armand, then 86, and Mary 89, drove about 5,500 miles from
Morgantown, WV all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska! Let me add some more
exclamation marks: !!!!!!!
From there, they drove to Banff,
Alberta, to join Ann's husband's family reunion and then motored on to
Vancouver,B.C. where Ann and I met up with them. I'm the "lady friend"
that he refers to in his 2001 Christmas letter to friends:
I
was not writing about Armand at the time, but the experience certainly
added to my decision to start the Where's Armand? blog. He was constantly on the go,
from morning to late at night. I overheard other passengers as they
pointed out the "older couple" holding hands as they walked on deck,
"Look, there they are, isn't that so sweet?" That sweet couple logged in
a total of 13,850 miles by the time they returned to Morgantown.
Now
that I've read his diary entries about Mary (see "Looking For Love In All The right Places"),
my memories of the older couple walking hand in hand on deck, will
always be prefaced by images of them as young and in love. This weekend,
I'll be boarding another cruise to Alaska with Ann, her husband Tomas
and members of Tomas' family. It'll be a mixture of the beauty that sits
waiting to be seen, and that which begs to be remembered.
Read:
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska - July 2001
Photo:
Cruise Ship Vacations