Background courtesy of
Ace of Space

A Day with Tab

Mom graciously offered to watch all three boys today so that Tab and I could have a day to ourselves. We went out to breakfast at Big G.'s in Winslow then drove down to Portland, about an hour and a half away.

I have many fond memories of Portland, having lived there for three and half years after college, from 1983 to 1987, before I moved down to New Jersey to be with Tab. I had moved to Portland on a whim after reading an article on the resurgence of the town's Old Port area in the Boston Globe the summer after I graduated. I wanted to see if I could move to a city where I knew no one and didn't have a job or a place to live and get by. And I did. In fact, I thrived there.

I still think of Portland as my town, which makes it all the more disturbing to walk through the streets of the Old Port and find some of my favorite stores and restaurants are no more. I guess it is a little unrealistic of me to expect that everything stay exactly as it was in 1986, but somehow I do.

Tab and I split up for an hour in Portland so we could visit different stores. I was glad to see that one of my favorite bookstores, Books Etc., is still on Exchange Street. I picked up Cordelia Underwood, a historical novel set in Portland in the late nineteenth century and noticed that the next book in the Moosepath League series is out.

Across the street from the bookstore, I found an internet cafe where I popped in and sent off a quick note to my notify list. Then I met up with Tab at our agreed-upon time and location.

Tab wanted to show me an old map of Skowhegan he'd found in an antique store. While we were there, we found an even larger map of Skowhegan that was dated 1884 and included names of all the homeowners. We found my sister Lori's house on the map and learned that the owner then was C.H. Cushman. My mother's house does not appear on the map as hers was still two years away from being built. Tab saw that I coveted that map and offered to buy it for me as part of my Christmas present. I happily agreed.

After a quick lunch of a pizza slice each, Tab and I drove to Freeport, home of L.L. Bean as well as numerous outlet stores. Tab loves L.L. Bean; in fact, today he could have been a walking advertisement for Bean since he was wearing a Bean shirt and Bean cargo shorts.

I left him to go worship at Leon Leonwood's altar while I visited a few other stores. I didn't buy much since I'm short of cash these days, but I did decide I liked Crabtree & Evelyn's Nantucket Briar scent and bought a Nantucket Briar candle for Mom and a small container of the powder for me.

We got back to Mom's house around 6 o'clock, in time for a birthday party for my niece Emily, who will be 8 tomorrow and the twins, who will be 4 next Tuesday.

Before we joined the party out on the deck, Mom approached us with some sad, but not unexpected, news: Rita had called Mom earlier in the day to tell her Nana passed away this morning. She died in her sleep some time between 6 and 10 in the morning. I am just so glad that her end was peaceful and that she was able to die in her own home and not in a hospital hooked up to machines.

Even so, I found it hard to keep from crying during the party, despite the good company and the fun we had watching the kids open their presents. Later in the night I remembered how Nana used to say good-bye. When I'd say, "Take care, Nana," she would invariably reply, "I will if you will!" I could hear her voice so plainly that I burst into tears, and Tab held me while I cried.

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