This, in the foreground, is Mary. With her is Maude. They live in the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford. I have posted their pictures before.

I was born, if anyone is curious, in 1946. Mary was born in 1946, too. She was born in India, and I was born in Detroit. The curious and circuitous paths of life have brought us both, in 2008, to Sanford, Florida. It might be that today is her birthday, too. Sometime, long ago, Mary incautiously allowed her trunk to stray into a rhino’s pen. There was, shall we say, trouble. The end of her trunk was badly injured and plastic reconstructive surgery was performed. She still gets by, but is not as dextrous with the tip of her trunk as nature intended. She was still glad, the other day, to accept beets from Babycakes’s hand, and munch them.

Life has its curious ways. I find great wonder and fascination in them. Like meeting up with Mary. The very unlikelihood of some things makes me wonder how anything at all ever happens, how any event transpires as it does. Anyone who understands, even a bit, why the story of Mary and Gerry (me) has such a strong hold on my imagination goes a long way to understanding me.

Also born in 1946 was my Honey. In Worcester, Massachusetts. Three weeks later than me. The weaving of the web of life found us both at the Bimini Boat Yard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the same moment, in the same corner of the room, in (as it turned out) in a state of emotional need. We spoke, had a meal, and agreed to meet again. She coming out of a bad marriage, cheated on, me drifting in loneliness 17 years after my marriage ended, me cheated on. The twists and turns of the spacetime continuum; we’ve been happy together ever since.

Son-in-law, who is also Gerry, is a New Yorker. His father (also Gerry) worked on the Street, and that’s what SIL did. He was married, and his wife “strayed.” He wanted a new start, and took a position with a small securities firm in Winter Park (contiguous with Orlando). Daughter came to college in Winter Park, at Rollins, where her father had been for a brief time. When she was a junior or senior she moved off campus to an apartment, my Honey and I were already together then. Gerry lived upstairs from her. She started “dog sitting” for his golden retriever, Ozzie. They ended up married, of course, and Babycakes came along. The “miracle” baby.

Gerry’s father Gerry is gone now for a few short years. Ozzie is gone.

And now it’s Sunday morning and we are waiting for (human) friend Mary to bring Babycakes to us. We will all find out, in time, what direction life is going to take in the next hours, or days. Gerry’s mom will arrive from New York later; Gerry is her only son.

I apologize for the elegiac tone of this posting, I know every family has its story and its burdens.