My only daughter, Jennifer, lives in Santa Fe, Texas, near Galveston and Houston. I had not seen her for sixteen years, although we talk on the phone frequently. Jennifer lost her sight twenty years ago as the result of a car accident, and has learned to cope with her blindness, although she has never had any blind training, which I wish she had. She is married and has a daughter, Tabitha, who is now seventeen and starting her senior year of high school. She was a student last spring when her school had a serious shooting incident. I am thrilled that she is having a regular senior year and looking forward to attending college next year. She also has two half-sisters and a half-brother, her father’s children. They are all grown, one of them married with one child, the brother not married and planning to attend college soon, and the one half-sister, who has three children and who lives with Jennifer and her husband, and Tabitha, all in a small mobile home.

I went to visit Jennifer and her family August 3-7, going to Deming and then taking the train on down. I am glad I went, glad to see my daughter and granddaughter, glad to meet my great-grandchildren, but it was not an easy trip. Trains are not really very restful. Because eight people are living in this mobile home, and several dogs and televisions, there was no real chance to just visit, and no time for me to visit alone with my daughter. We did go to Galveston to the seawall and the beach, and we went to Texas City, but the visit was short and rather hectic. I will always be glad I went, and I don’t know when I will be back, or when my daughter or granddaughter might come here. For now, the telephone will remain our way of communicating.