Pipes of Pam: AHHH

January always comes as a somewhat relief, almost a respite, from the busyness of December. Our retired life comes almost to a standstill. But we had a few special moments with loved ones.

A friend, KD sister at USU, and now a shirttail relative (grandson, Josh's, wife's aunt by marriage), Dixie Conger, from up north, visited her condo in St. George. She called me to see if we could go to lunch together. She very recently lost her husband and I thought it would be nice to fix lunch and then we could chat in our home and it would be cozier (more hygge, as I learned about last summer in Scandinavia).

I had fun fixing Tom Kha Gai chicken, shrimp and mushroom Thai soup - it is one of my favorite things to eat ever when I order it in Thai restaurants, and I have learned to make it. Dixie LOVED it, too! We also had simple little appetizers, soft cream cheese spread on crispy crackers with Trader Joe's pepper jelly.

Roger was "invited" to our lunch, too, and we had a fun, lively conversation.

Our dessert was a lemon yogurt/whipped cream/lime zest mixture over homemade coconut macaroons, topped with fresh, diced mango.

Dixie said our time together lifted her spirits immensely and I loved reconnecting with an old friend.

And speaking of a dear, old friend, Kathy Gardner, wife of USU Balladier Don Gardner, passed away January 11 from a long illness. She has been in a memory care center in Ogden, and Roger and I visited her and Don there last fall. We brought our favorite ice cream, thinking the nurse could put it their freezer and she could have a treat later. Don said, let's dish some up and enjoy it together. So we sat around her bed for a couple of hours, eating ice cream and laughing and reminiscing. How we love these two and what a delight Kathy was! She held two bachelor degrees, a master's degree in social work and she was a licensed clinical social worker, helping so many children and adults in Florida, South Carolina, Wyoming and Utah. Her last job was working at the Adult Psychiatric Unit at McKay-Dee Hospital and she was a therapist at LDS Family Services. And this all was while raising six great kids!

One of her last requests was for the Balladiers to sing, The Sweetheart Tree, at her funeral, which we had sung at Don and Kathy's wedding reception, 56 years ago.

Eight Balladiers were able to travel to Logan for her funeral and sing. We met at Craig Jessop's condo clubhouse before the viewing to rehearse. Craig was with us while we rehearsed, but he couldn't sing with us at the funeral because he had to travel to SLC to do a recorded interview for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (formerly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). He is in charge of selecting the voices from other countries to sing and perform with the choir. He was previously the choir's conductor for 10 years.

Craig and Ken't wife, Linda, catching up.

Mark accompanied us with guitar and harmonica. It was so fun to sing together again! There were 4 other members who couldn't be there.

We gave this beautiful spray of flowers to the family.

Roger took some shots of us singing at the funeral. Don and his family were sitting right in front of us, all with big tears in their eyes.

Because Don and Kathy lived in Ogden, but she was buried in Providence, there was no church dinner after the services. The Balladier family ate at the Olive Garden and, as always, had so much fun together. I love and adore these guys!

We stayed with Rick that night, and he took his kids and married kids out to dinner to celebrate Jodie's and Sadie's birthdays at Aubergine in SLC. It was the first time we have eaten at one of these and it is health food-oriented and we loved the flavors.

Rog took some shots of cute great-grandson Caleb with his new haircut playing peek-a-boo.

Katie didn't want to let our great-granddaughter and her niece, Lydia, go!

Back home in St. George, our granddaughter, Anna, called and asked if she and a friend could stay with us overnight so they could train in St. George for a marathon they will be running in two weeks in Scottsdale. When they arrived at the door and Anna was introducing her friend, Bren, I just stared at her and I said, I know who this is! She is my longtime hairdresser in Ogden, Jessica's, niece, and she was best friends in Rexburg with Clark Gilbert's daughter, Page. She's one of Anna's good friends and they're going to run in the marathon together. Anna is gluten-free (Celiac's Disease) and Bren is dairy-free. I had a time trying to figure out what to feed them - Anna even requires dedicated cookware because her Celiac is so severe. I figured it out and we had grilled-on-tinfoil salmon, coconut rice and haricots verts green beans.