All Those Things Done and Never Done

I was thinking today that Leif did more in his 33 years than many people ever get to experience in a full lifetime. He lived in four countries, a US Commonwealth (Puerto Rico) and six states. He traveled in many more countries and states, served his country in the army, played musical instruments, starred in a musical, flew in airplanes, built his own computer, owned cars, a truck and motorcycles, was in love probably four times, was married and divorced. He worked at at least nine different jobs. He visited castles and cathedrals, watched performances ranging from Japanese Yabusame (archery) to hula dancing. He swam at beaches from Thailand and Japan to Jamaica and Italy. He went on two Caribbean cruises and attended three family reunions. He was an uncle. He had a college degree. He was a member of the SCA and fought in medieval armor. He was a SCUBA diver, had a black belt in judo.

There are so many more things, so many details of his life I could enumerate, so much he experienced. But in the end, did he feel his world was shrinking? So much of what he had experienced was either as a child with us, or and adult with us, or as an adult in the army. Then he circumscribed his life with debt and could no longer continue that kind of life.

But worse, so much of what he really wanted was out of reach. He never experienced years of a happy home life in a stable and loving marriage. He never had children. He never had a job or career that gave him satisfaction or a feeling of real achievement. The things that really matter to a man, he did not have.

We were able to give him a lot, but those things were out of our reach to give him, too. It's so sad to me that he never was able to find them, and sad that I will never hold a child of his in my arms.

Most of the photos I have of Leif are either happy, silly, contemplative, or sometimes, just absorbed in what he was doing or thoughtful. This photo is different. I wonder what he was thinking. There's a kind of sad and melancholy look about it, but maybe that's just my way of seeing it now, after his death. It was taken when we went to the "Big Island" of Hawaii for Christmas in 1985. He was almost eleven years old.

That was my idea because I was tired of hot weather for Christmas and wanted to feel a chill in the air. I wanted to see my breath. It was chilly enough for that at Kilauea Military Camp on the rim of the volcano. We had to wear jackets and we even had a fire in the fireplace in our lava rock cabin.

Peter Anthony's birthday is Christmas Day and he was turning 17. It didn't occur to us that no place would be open to get a good Christmas dinner in Hilo, which was closer than the tourist area at Kona. We drove around and around and finally found that although even Pizza Hut was closed, the International House of Pancakes was open, so we ended up there for our Christmas and Peter Anthony's birthday dinner. Not what we expected, but it makes a good story. Leif found that quite amusing, yet another of the many experiences in his life. Did he think they were over?

Leif on a lava field - Hawaii - December 1985 - Age 10 (almost 11)

We visited the "Big Island," Hawaii, twice. The first time was on our way across the Pacific when we were moving from Germany to Japan. The second was during our three year tour in Hawaii. After two years of warm, even hot, Christmases on the island of Oahu, I was hankering for some cooler weather. It seemed so odd to me, a "Northern girl," to be wearing shorts or muumuus on Christmas, hearing "Jingle Bells" and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" in 80 degree weather, and seeing fake snow on the windows of Pizza Hut.

So, we went to the Kilauea Military Camp on the edge of the Kilauea Crater on the Big Island of Hawaii for Christmas. We stayed in one of the lava rock cabins. It was rustic, rural, unusual, and spectacular. We saw a lot of fantastic scenery. This photo is of Leif on one of the lava flows. He loved climbing around that stuff and seeing the odd formations. He was almost eleven years old.

We hadn't thought about where we were going to eat Christmas dinner. The nearest city was Hilo, so we drove there thinking we would find a nice place to eat. It was Peter Anthony's seventeenth birthday (my Christmas baby) so we had a double reason for wanting a nice dinner. But, we couldn't find anything open! We found one hotel, but Peter W. didn't like it and thought we could find something better. No such luck. We drove around for a long, long time. Even Pizza Hut was closed. We finally found an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) open and were so hungry we settled for that. It wasn't what we had hoped for, but instead of a great dinner, we got a great story.

We found out the next day that were we should have headed was to Kona, where the tourist hotels are. It was farther away, but that's where the good Christmas dinners were.

However, we were happy to be together celebrating. How lucky we were to have those days.