Reese came by the office Monday to wish Kimmie a happy Mother’s Day. At a little over a year, she jabbers a lot but only says two things we can understand for sure: DaDa and Momma. And she lit up with she saw her friend, Gwen, come to the door of Kimball’s office. Reese used sign language to greet Gwen, both arms held up in the “take me” position.

She rode her momma’s hip into my office and just looked at me pleasantly without smiling.

Adrian called her momma on Mother’ Day. She put 30 month old Van on the phone.  She did coach him a little, but he got it perfect, “Happy Mother’s Day, Kimmie.”

– We really enjoyed Jan Taylor’s retirement party Friday. Her sons did a good job on the smoked beef and all the trimmings. It was our first public event in weeks except for a school board meeting.

Municipal Judge Greg Beydler said she had kept him in line for 36 years. She said she had been municipal court clerk for 40 years.

I reminded Jan of her first retirement years ago when I asked her the most unusual thing that had happened in her years as police dispatcher. I couldn’t tell you anything then that she said, but she remembered it well. As police dispatcher, in a blinding snowstorm she had to give a helicopter. coming in from the west highway directions.

Jan told me Friday that because of the way she was seated at the console, she couldn’t do “east” and “west,” one of the firemen standing nearby interpreted for her.

Her fellow employees had made a sign and all signed it: “You can’t retire from great.”

Jan had some welcome competition for attention. Her seven-week-old great-grandson stole the show.

As Kimball and I left the event, I paused at the head table to tell Jan, “I never called you at the police department or at the utility department that you didn’t help me.” And I never had to tell my name or ask hers. We knew each other’s voice.

– Jeanne Hoagland told me something that is appropriate during the Covid 19 lockdown. She said she told the young teens in her Sunday School class, “You shouldn’t be looking for the one you can live with. You should be looking for the one you can’t live without.” Took me almost 29 years. KL

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