Mom's Birthday

January 23rd was Mom's birthday. I'm sure she'd want me to say she would be turning 50. We decided to get together some friends and family at The P.I. for fish and chips (the Best Fish and Chips, I should say). It turned out to be a lot of fun. Mom would have had fun. It was great to talk to some of her friends and now I feel like I could go to The P.I. without getting too emotional. It was also great to have a plan. Having a plan for Mom days is my new plan. I think I'll try to always do something like this on her birthday and then something again in July. Probably it will just be a big 4th of July party in her honor every year (even if we move away from a good view). So, mark your calendars for next year - January 23rd is the official Sally Day.

We love Grama Betty

Grama Betty died last night. It is four months to the day from when Mom died. It makes me think of how hard it is to be here without Mom, but it also makes me think of how lucky Grama was to be here into her 80s. I hope I am that lucky. I hope everyone around me is so lucky. This is one of the only pictures I have a Grama, but I will use Mom's blog as a place to put so many more as I get them. I am thankful for this day, even though Grama isn't here anymore.

Paint Chips

This is the color I'm going to paint my new living room. This isn't a picture of my living room, just the color. My new living room has wainscoting and a fireplace, but it also has acoustical tile on the ceiling. It's our first house, we had to take the good with a little bit of bad. We officially close today and get the keys in the next day or two. I am nervous and scared and devastated all at the same time. We bought all of the paint yesterday. We were only at Home Depot for about 45 minutes. That's too fast to spend almost $500 dollars. I haven't written on the blog in so long, but I'm having a reach out and touch someone kind of morning. I found a pile of greeting cards Mom had given me over the years. They were in with my crafts because I liked the pictures. That's the devastated part. I could hardly look at her handwriting. I had to squint while I read. I found these cards in the midst of packing. Every one of them felt like a good bye. Every one has a different meaning now. There was a page from Sendak's In the Night Kitchen when the boy is flying a plane made out of dough, and all she'd written inside was "I wish this was me, flying to see you. Love, Mom."

Since I have been taking care of mom's garden most of the time, I am the lucky one who has been picking all her dahlia blooms. It is amazing how many there are. I feel like every day I go outside and a new one has bloomed. As I am gathering them up I always think that I should be giving them away to our family and mom's good friends. She always gave them away. Whenever I came over to visit she would send me home with a vase full for my apartment. My favorite was the year that she grew the huge yellow dinner plate dahlias at the Bagley Street house. The size was outstanding!

This last month I have not been the most social person. I have not given away as many of the flowers as I wanted. Having a passion (my close friends might say obsession!) for photography led me to take some pictures of the blooms. I want to always remember these because she actually grew them herself. I know from now on I will always grow dahlias in my yard but it will probably take me a few years to get them to be as magnificient as hers.

So here are a few of Sally's famous dahlias. If I have not seen you lately then think of them as a virtual bouquet from me and my mom. Thanks for everyone's kind words and support.

Hanna

Poem for Mom

I heard this poet, Kay Ryan, on KCTS just a few days after the memorial. I don't have cable so I watched a lot of The Yankee Workshop and This Old House during the soap opera hours. I had been just floored by the Jane Kenyon poem Steve read at the memorial so when they started interviewing Kay Ryan I stopped flipping and listened. The poem follows and I love it. It makes me tear up a little. Her whole book (The Niagara River) is wonderful - short, simple, amazing little gems of thought that are so personal and so universal.

Things Shouldn't be so Hard
by Kay Ryan

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space -
however small -
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.

Potato Salad

Mom was always surprised when people went crazy for her potato salad because it was so simple. It's just four ingredients, she said just this last 4th of July. But there are a couple of secret things that make it better than just four ingredients. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I know all the tricks. I would love it if people tried the recipe and then left comments about whether or not it worked. Maybe all together we can figure it out.

Mom's Potato Salad

1 Russet Potato per person
2 (or 3) hard-boiled eggs per person
2 pickles per person, reserve the juice in the jar
(Mom's preferred salad pickle is Farman's Original)
Lots of Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

• Boil the potatoes whole with the skins on until the centers are tender (it's okay if the outsides are a little overdone, this makes it better). Let them cool, then peel and chop.
• Mix potatoes together with the chopped eggs and pickles, mayo and s&p to taste, and some of the pickle juice. If you find the salad is getting too wet with the pickle juice, try soaking the cooked potatoes overnight in the juice and then draining it off (this was Mom's idea, but she rarely had time to soak anything overnight). As much mayo, salt, pepper, and pickle juice as you can handle will make it most like Mom's.

Let me know how it turns out!

A couple more

Here's a new picture to liven things up, and a couple more entries in the guest book. I've been away for two weeks and it is strange to feel the passage of time, strange to think of her time in the hospital in the past tense. Almost six weeks ago. I still can't think of her in the past tense. I'm already planning her Birthday party. I have a fundraiser in mind, maybe at The Pacific Inn... keep checking the blog over the next months. I'll also post the info (once I get it) about a plaque that is going up at Children's Hospital.

August 24, 2006
	I am so sorry to hear of Sally's passing. My thoughts and prayers are with all the Clark family.
	Steve Newman (Osaka/Japan)

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	August 17, 2006
	I just heard about Sally's death. I have memories of taking care of her younger sisters and brothers , then she would come home and take over . also seeing her at church.
	Sharon McFarland- Wood (Grand Coulee, WA ) kayfraser33@yahoo.com

August 8, 2006
It is such a surprise and a sorrow to hear that Sally passed away! Lil, Hanna, Ben, and Steven too, I don't even know if you remember me, but I remember you fondly, and the chaos and warmth in the House on Mercer, as well as Greenwater and the place on John's Island. Ben- we went fishing out there when you were about 13, and we caught rockfish and a ling cod that was a new creature to us, we were a bit freaked out to see that face looming out of the dark water...

I hadn't seen Sally in a while; once she left the neighborhood and I stopped interpreting on the UW campus, our paths didn't cross as much. She was a gentle woman with a quiet voice and a rich laugh, so ready to engage and to take an interest in the lives of those of us lucky enough to have known her. I know you all gave her much joy and made her proud, and my warmest thoughts are with you. Elizabeth Rothman (Seattle, WA )
erothman2@earthlink.net

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	July 30, 2006
	I can't think of Sally without a big smile on my face and in my heart. The joyful mischief we shared! I'll miss having her in the world, miss the random meetings at U Book Store or on campus, miss the chance to reminisce and share memories of our wonderful years at HNA, and miss the future with her. My thoughts are with her children and family - such a huge loss. But weren't we lucky to have crossed paths in life with the likes of Sally Clark!
	Kathy Rowan Wilson (Seattle, WA ) kathywilson@mac.com