College friends moved to West Virginia a couple of years ago; sadly the only time we'd met up in person was at reunion last year. Several speakers at the memorial service recalled Sandy's determination to attend it, cancer be damned. It claimed her last week, and so there I was driving through mists and light rains until the hills began to appear. At the higher elevation, some of the trees were gorgeously frosted. Route 17 by Delaplane is stupid-gorgeous normally; with misty fog icing the trees ... well, I just had to pull over. I stopped at the state park: breath-takingly cold after the warm car; quiet except for chunks of ice falling off branches. I trotted to the bathroom -- first state park visit in flats and my dress coat! -- and back to the car. The cold, gray, quiet cleared my head.
