Dateline August 13, 2021, Raleigh and Family
We had planned a trip north, time with the family in Raleigh first, then a week in Pinehurst to play in the North-South Senior, then up to Cape Cod to see Janice's Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bill, and on to New Hampshire for her sister Connie and her husband Lee. Raleigh, and the family, came first.
Arriving at Kieran's. We pulled in and were met by Kieran and her dog Rocky. We have always thought of Rocky as our family pet; she has had him since her college days at Florida State. He has slowed down a little over the years, though we have to admit, so have we.
John's brother-in-law Parker, the husband of John's late sister Carol, had arrived the night before with his close friend Donna and their sixteen-year-old golden retriever, Cooper.
Then it was time to start celebrating a family get-together. John's son Courtney, his wife Amanda, and their two daughters, Izzy and Finley, came over for dinner, along with Kieran and Amanda's good friends Liz and Tim. The next evening Courtney and Amanda had the whole crew over for dinner and drinks, and a good deal of wine was enjoyed.
Will's celebration of life. John's brother Will had passed away earlier in July, and the real reason we had come north when we did was to gather as a family and celebrate his life. He was William Frederick Wilson II, born in 1949 and gone on the thirteenth of July, a loving husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, and great-uncle. The afternoon held a great deal, love and sorrow and tears, and just as many laughs. No one could throw a party the way Willie could; they were legendary.
The service was the family's own. We opened with "Amazing Grace." John gave the eulogy, and Kieran read from the Bible, the twenty-third Psalm, John 14, and the lines from Ecclesiastes 3 about a time for everything. Courtney and Amanda's girls, Izzy and Finley, said the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. James and Mary's two, Collin and Liza, who are in a full Mandarin immersion program at school, gave Will a sendoff in Mandarin. John and Parker offered their tributes to Willy, the kind only a brother and a brother-in-law can give, full of stories. We all said the Lord's Prayer, Janice closed, and we sent him off with Frank Sinatra and "I Did It My Way." It was all so well done. Will would have been thrilled.
Beaver's Dam at Falls Lake. Falls Lake sits just outside Raleigh and makes a wonderful spot for a picnic, a swim, or an afternoon of floating with kayaks and paddleboards. Kieran, James, and Courtney and their families and friends make a regular thing of Sunday trips out there, for the water, the gabbing, the food, and the drink.
The lake itself owes its existence to hard experience. The Neuse River used to flood badly, doing real damage to roads, railroads, farms, and businesses, so the Army Corps of Engineers built the Falls Lake dam to hold the water back. Work began in 1978 and was finished in 1981, and on top of the recreation, the lake now handles flood control, water supply, water quality, and fish and wildlife.
A USGA qualifier, and Wildwood Green. Janice has gone to qualifying for the USGA Senior Women's Amateur for years now, getting through some years and not others. This year there was a qualifying site right in Chapel Hill, next door to Raleigh, which was convenient with Pinehurst coming the following week. She did not get through this time, but there will be another chance next year.
With the extra time on our hands, we played Wildwood Green Golf Club up in northern Raleigh. It was a fine, challenging course, with a lot of hilly lies of the sort you do not often find in Florida, where eighteen feet of elevation counts as a mountain. The setting was lovely, with handsome homes looking down over the holes.
James's friends, and the family. It was a fun week of family togetherness, and Friday night was no exception. James and Mary were heading down to the North Carolina shore for a week with Liza and Collin, and two of James's closest friends from Seaford High School on Long Island came to join them. Will came down from Beacon, New York, and Kevin from Farmingdale, out on the Island, with his two children, Abigail and Travis. We still laugh that James's grand plan after high school had been to move to England and open a pub near where his friend Will's father lived. Life takes its turns. James is a software development manager now, Will makes documentaries, and Kevin teaches math.
The final night, Shabbat. For our last evening, Amanda and Courtney had us over for Friday night dinner and Shabbat. It was a lovely close to the week, and we said our goodbyes all around, since we were leaving for Pinehurst first thing in the morning.
It had been a full week, the kind that holds grief and joy in the same hand, and we were grateful for every part of it. In the morning we pointed the car toward Pinehurst.
