Peter & Melodye Bowers blog for updates, family tidbits, all the usual stuff that goes in a blog...
Peter & Melodye work in Albania since 1998. They have 3 boys: Christopher (5/99), Joshua (10/00), and Jonathan (9/03).
For those of you unfortunate enough to not have Albanian exposure, here's a quick "glossary of names". Each of the names are typical Albanian names, but each has a special meaning. Alban="The Albanian", Shpresa="Hope", Kreshnik="Warrior", Gezim="Joy", Bekim="Blessing". I won't be any more obvious than that... :-) Once upon a time there were 5 friends. They were born in the same town in the same year, grew up together, went to school together, played on football team together, got in trouble together. They were inseparable; you almost never saw one without the others. After they finished high school they found various honest jobs around town and soon one of them, Alban, fell in love with a young lady named Shpresa. Soon they were engaged and Alban was hard at work building another story on his parents’ home in preparation for the wedding. But then one day the unthinkable happened. Alban had been wo...
I was going to post this on FB, but I realized I would have trouble finding it later and this is definitely a keeper... My wife has gone off with some of her girlfriends for the weekend leaving me and the boys to fend for ourselves. Fortunately this is the week after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Melodye decided to put the leftover turkey in the freezer for soup and I didn't know about it until it was frozen hard-hard-hard. But we do have lots of mashed potatoes. (Thanks, Lori!) And carrots and carrot casserole (tastes like sweet potato casserole - if you've never had Melodye's carrot casserole then you are missing out on a thing of beauty and wonder!) and all those other good things. But to properly enjoy mashed potatoes you need gravy. "No problem," I thought, "Jen told me how to make gravy a while back." [Madly searches through viber, whatsapp, email, etc. and comes up with squat.] "No problem," I thought, "if Jen can make gravy ...
The exci tement of the trip, buying new items, thinking through what might be needed, arriving early to avoid the traffic, carrying suitcases and boxes and crates, watching and talking while he organizes things. And then the excitement ends. Not slowly and gently but suddenly and loudly, like the sound of a guillotine slamming home. A last meal. A last prayer with a tight voice and a quavering chin. And then there were four. A long, quiet drive home, a growing pile of tissues on the floorboards of the car. Periodic conversation gambits fumbled in the haze of sorrow. This morning I got up as usual before the rest of the family. Usually I have to be careful which light I turn on because Christopher's room is a little day-room that looks into the kitchen. This morning I didn't have to be careful. No snarled sheets, no bed-head on that pillow. Oops. Not "Christopher's room is" but "Christopher's room was"... Words hurt. Even the tense of a...
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I am very happy you've chosen to leave a comment here. If it's not too much trouble I would really appreciate it if you would either sign in somehow or else identify yourself in your comments so I know who you are... (Not required but appreciated.) Thanks! -Peter