David > Recent Status Updates

That's it. The end.

them, who's going to get the house, my money's on Denny.

On my doorstep. He's doing o.k. Honey, the dog, I don't know. He's the one who's looking rudderless and tired. In the race to see, between

He doesn't swim the lake anymore, but he still tends their garden with great passion and care. Perfect, ripe tomatoes still show up

She was a long time dying. When she finally left, I thought Denny would fall apart. They'd been so close. He took the loss hard, of course.

playing at Virginia's bedside. When the widnows were open, glorious music would spill out into the street for the rest of us to enjoy.

a steady stream of family and friends through there to see her. A couple of times a week, a harpist would arrive and spend long hours

Shots of Virginia at the little shop she used to own at the edge of downtown where she sold fabric and sewing notions. And Denny conducted

during WWII, their early years in Minneapolis when the kids were young...

of her time on earth.There were photos and scrapbooks from every part of their lives together - their time in the military together

than how I saw Denny take care of Virginia. He bought a hospital bed and turned their room into a living shrine dedicated to the celebration

was make her long, slow decline as comfortable as possible for her. I've never seen anybody care for another with more love and grace

But now, Alheimer's was stealing her from Denny's side in vicious little bites, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. All he could

like a metaphor for what their marriage was like, their bodies perfectly synchronized as they knifed through the water, side by side.

still swim like a mermaid. To watch them swim the lake together was like watching poetry in motion, like watching porpoises at play. It was

was their regular weekly swims together across Lake Harriet in the summer. Virginia had been an Aquatennial Princess in the 30s. She could

They were beautiful, trim and fit. They walked the neighborhood and they gardened together. But the most spectacular thing they did was

They really were golden like that... a walking testimonial to the possibility of a truly graceful old age.

"Wow. What they've got... I hope that's what my spouse and me look like to other folks someday if we live to be that age."

She was his wife of nearly sixty years, beautiful, vivacious, full of life, very wise and very kind. People would see them together and say,

If you'd asked me a couple of months ago who was going to win that "race" I would have called it even odds. Recently, Denny lost Virginia.

"Guess you could say Honey and me are in a race to see who gets the house."

Honey barked, as if on cue, but it didn't sound to me like she meant it.

"Gettin' old ain't for the faint of heart. They say you can learn to love it all the way down. I don't know. We're tryin,' ain't we Honey?"

"Just needed a breather after our walk. Jeez, we're a pair ain't we... this dog and me? Pretty broke down. Tell ya what, sonny..."

It's a little embarrassing for both of us. I don't Denny knows. "Hey, Denny, are you o.k.?" I asked. "Oh, yeah," I'm fine," he said.

Sometimes I help her up when Denny's let her out for a pee. I place a hand under her butt and give her a little shove.

But she couldn't get up there to him because she's become too arthritic to climb the steps without a boost.

down the steps. His little dog, Honey, is even older than Denny is dog years. She seemed stressed, as worried about him as I.

He's fine. I was worried. His arms were all the way out at his sides, as if he were about to make a snow angel, his legs trailing all akimbo