On 7 July Danielle Gardner called to tell me that Gean Lunt (my cousin) had passed away. Later in the day, Reed and Colleen came unexpectedly. What a wonderful surprise! They were here for her brother’s wedding. Later I had a nice visit with Reed - I got the feeling that he is not too happy and I’m sure he regrets that they have not had a family.
I am getting used to having my mouth closed, although it is difficult to communicate. I am trying to tolerate it and am happy that I will be wired shut only two more weeks. One good thing has happened; I have lost about twenty pounds. That makes me very happy.
25 July is a day I have awaited for quite a while. The wires were removed from my mouth and I am free. It will gradually be open but I will keep working on it. In honor of this occasion, Sheila invited us to their home for dinner. I took one bite of the delicious food and found I just couldn’t chew. It hurt too much.
On 25 August we had a party for Larry’s birthday at Sheila’s and things went well. He is so good for Sheila and they have a lovely family.
John is working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He was very excited about this as it meant there would be no more traveling, because he hated leaving his family a lot. They all went to his new location and lived in an American Compound there. As the people in that country observe the Sabbath on Friday, they did also. They met in different homes and the most unique thing about this is that Barry and Holly were baptized in the Red Sea. What an unusual experience. They said the whole group would hide what was going on because a Christian baptism was strictly forbidden. They would have to tell you the great experiences they had which were very unusual. The children loved their life there.
When John was ready to go to Saudi, he said they were sending us tickets to meet them in London for their first summer vacation. I never thought this would happen to me. A few months before we were to leave, Ralph and I walked good distances every evening to ready ourselves for what was ahead. I also put forth a real effort to lose some weight so I would have more endurance
I contacted a travel agency in Maryvale and through them, John made arrangements for us to meet them in London. We left Phoenix on June 12th and flew TWA to London. I need to say that I would never go TWA again. We were supposedly given a choice of Smoking and non-Smoking section. Despite our preference we sat across from a chain smoker on the long flight. I will say now that the same thing happened on our return flight. I found out then that I do not sleep much on the plane.
It was a Wednesday when we got into London and the next day we rode a bus around London to see the sights. Busses have precedence over all other vehicles and we had a wild ride on the upper level.
We met John and family at the Euston Train Station. We had a long train ride by sleeper to Inverness, Scotland. What a beautiful country! John rented a van and we drove to Loch Ness and looked for the monster. There were a lot of tourists at the Visitor’s Center and I think most of them are Americans.
We registered at a Bed and Breakfast home. After breakfast we set off to go to church. We met some lovely Saints, though few in number, they are faithful. They made us feel welcome but it was difficult to understand everything. I was very happy to be there. In the afternoon we started toward Eilean Donan (castle with the name McRae over the main door.) Ralph noticed an old cemetery on our way and we stopped there. There were mostly McRae markers which were very old. My relatives must have lived here for hundreds of years.
This land is full of large lakes (called Lochs) one after another. We arrived at Eilean Donan at closing time, so found a place to stay and will return tomorrow.
On 17 June we returned to the castle. Only two large rooms have been restored, which were so unique. I could feel that I was where my ancestors had trod. I cannot describe the beauty of Scotland, green, green.
We were told that rain was predicted and it was right. It misted and rained softly all day and did the wind blow. The ferry boat took us to the Isle of Skye and we drove to Dunvegan Castle. It was very impressive but quite up-to-date, compared with Eilean Donan. It didn’t give the same feeling at all.
When we left, Rhett and I were walking together and he wanted to go down to the boat dock . . . When we were ready to go, he was nowhere in sight. He finally showed up and he said “I lost myself’. Children can say funny things.
We stayed in a nice home and got a good sleep and had a good breakfast. We will go back to Inverness today and see the same beautiful countryside again. So much water, mountains and green. I would like to stay here forever. We stopped at Eilean Donan again for one more look. I hated to leave as I can certainly feel that my ancestors roamed this land and lived and died here.
Link: Life Story of Dorothy Evelyn McRae Keller, eighteenth installment
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