Trego's Mountain Ear

I heard this morning that Jean Nordahl had ended the struggle with colon cancer with a tie.  Aside from Henrietta Lacks, we don’t lose our battles with cancer – the tumors and metastases leave the world when we do.

Jack and I had stopped by to see him a few weeks back.  It was a good visit – touching on old times, places and people, and the ironies life has in store for each of us.  For Jean, memory has him in a red log truck more than anything else. 

He spoke to us of the irony of owning oil wells at a time when his body didn’t allow him to enjoy what they could provide him.  I’m glad that the medical establishment could see past the opioid paranoia to provide a drug that could get him outside again – as we visited, I could only share that my own experience was early stage 3, while Jean calmly told of his stage 4 diagnosis. 

I think back to the red house where Paul, Yolanda, Jean and Dave Nordahl lived with Grandma Vizzutti.  Paul, who taught me to use a forester’s compass with a Jacob staff.  I think of Yolanda’s efforts that were part of getting the new school for Trego when the construction boom came.  I remember Dave’s love for Datsun Z-cars.  With Jean gone the last of a very good family has passed. 

Absent friends.