Speaking of Frances
Apr. 28th, 2010 06:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brucebSince several of you have asked who she is, who keeps turning up in my remarks (and commenting on them, to boot)...
I met her and her husband when we were all students at University of Puget Sound back in the middle of the 1980s. (There will be a brief pause while some of you get off my lawn.) We shared - still do share - some geekish and other interests, and have traded others. When I had the catastrophic collapse that destroyed my college prospects, they saved my life, being the ones on the spot to see how bad things had gotten and getting the news to people who could do something about it.
(That's a long hard story I seldom tell all of. Someday, maybe.)
Things got in the way of being in touch for a decade or so after that, until Frances happened across mention of my gaming work - this was when I was most busily productive for White Wolf - and worked out that it was in fact me. We've been back in touch on and off since then. I fell mostly out of touch in my most recent big collapse a few years ago, but then I did that with more or less everyone. Last fall we finally managed to sync up again for visiting and doing stuff together.
It happens that Frances has some needs that line up well with mine. I have to be getting more exercise for weight loss, and for specific things like post-vascular surgery recovery. She's got a bad knee that needs strengthening. We are both the sort of people who are good at finding excuses when alone, but good at providing encouragement to others, and if it works to ride along, or walk along, then so much the better. So just about every day, lately, she comes over, we walk the required amount, usually have a midday meal together, and visit, and like that.
All my readers who like it when I do well, you should be glad circumstances and decisions allow Frances to spend more time with me. Mom has commented that she feels better knowing that Frances is around to nag me just the way Mom would if only she were here and feeling in good form, and that's about the size of it. It's good to have people around who really are good for you, and this is the case with Frances and me.
And now you know!
I met her and her husband when we were all students at University of Puget Sound back in the middle of the 1980s. (There will be a brief pause while some of you get off my lawn.) We shared - still do share - some geekish and other interests, and have traded others. When I had the catastrophic collapse that destroyed my college prospects, they saved my life, being the ones on the spot to see how bad things had gotten and getting the news to people who could do something about it.
(That's a long hard story I seldom tell all of. Someday, maybe.)
Things got in the way of being in touch for a decade or so after that, until Frances happened across mention of my gaming work - this was when I was most busily productive for White Wolf - and worked out that it was in fact me. We've been back in touch on and off since then. I fell mostly out of touch in my most recent big collapse a few years ago, but then I did that with more or less everyone. Last fall we finally managed to sync up again for visiting and doing stuff together.
It happens that Frances has some needs that line up well with mine. I have to be getting more exercise for weight loss, and for specific things like post-vascular surgery recovery. She's got a bad knee that needs strengthening. We are both the sort of people who are good at finding excuses when alone, but good at providing encouragement to others, and if it works to ride along, or walk along, then so much the better. So just about every day, lately, she comes over, we walk the required amount, usually have a midday meal together, and visit, and like that.
All my readers who like it when I do well, you should be glad circumstances and decisions allow Frances to spend more time with me. Mom has commented that she feels better knowing that Frances is around to nag me just the way Mom would if only she were here and feeling in good form, and that's about the size of it. It's good to have people around who really are good for you, and this is the case with Frances and me.
And now you know!