8/8/16, Roll of the dice.

 Hi Everyone,

I hope things are rolling along smoothly. I’ve had some busy weeks, and have been flying around a lot, which gets more and more complicated with increased security in airports, which is a good thing. This month has been about friends for me. I had house guests last week, who came to visit their son in his summer job far from home. It was special and wonderful having friends I particularly love stay with me. It gave us time to talk, share meals, and just hang out, which doesn’t happen often in busy lives. It was a really lovely, warm, cozy time.

And I had a very special evening last week. As I mentioned to you exactly two months ago, my ex husband Tom Perkins, with whom I stayed very close even after our marriage, passed away in June. Sadly, his memorial happened in San Francisco on the day that my five youngest children arrived in France, for our annual vacation. They all have demanding jobs and lives, and had asked for their time off 7 months before, so we couldn’t postpone our vacation, and I couldn’t come back from France for the memorial. So I arranged for a very special night when I got home. During our marriage, long before, and long after, Tom had a very special group of friends, who were his closest friends and wonderful to me. They’ve all been Tom’s closest friends for more than 60 years. They welcomed me into their midst with open arms and loving hearts when Tom and I married, we have stayed close as well, and I nicknamed them The Big Six, 3 absolutely wonderful couples, who were like Godparents to me. And added to them eventually was the daughter of one couple and her husband. They were Tom’s closest friends, we saw each other frequently, and spent vacations together. And one of Tom’s favorite past times was playing Liar’s Dice, a form of poker, using dice. We had some really great times together, and some fun rowdy evenings with lots of laughs playing dice. Tom loved to win, was a great player, and took great pleasure beating us. But we gave him a run for his money too. He didn’t like playing for money, but we did anyway, for small stakes. On a big night, we could win $20.00, or lose $10. You would think we had won the lottery at the screams of glee and delight when one of us won $5.00. We set up regular dice nights with pizza dinners, and lots of snacks while we played (Cheetos, Fritos, chips, pretzels, chocolates, and one very fancy night, corn dogs as well as pizza).

So one night last week, we gathered at my home for our dice night. It was bittersweet without Tom to growl when he lost to one of us, but the evening was mostly sweet, in memory of our Fearless Leader. We talked about him, reminisced about our trips together, told funny Tom stories, and shared a warm and very special evening. I had gathered up photos of Tom and set them on the table with little vases of red roses. The photos brought back so many memories, of our trips, our wedding, our great times with him. We all cried looking at the photos, and laughed at the stories we remembered. It was a perfect way to remember him. And I gave everyone a dice cup with one of Tom’s favorite sayings on it. It was such a lovely evening, and such a nice way to share our memories of him. It was a wonderful reminder too of how precious good friends are, and how important they are in our lives, to share happy and sad moments. We all left each other at the end of the evening, grateful to be together and for our friendship, with Tom’s presence so firmly in our hearts forever. He will never be far from us.  And I won $10.00 !!!!

Have a great week. I hope you do something fun this week, and even get to spend time with a good friend. There is nothing better!!!  (Except maybe one’s kids. But good friends are so important for our well being).

all my love, Danielle