Since I first shared our daily stroll, many things have changed. Most noticeably is the fact that the sun isn’t up when we leave the Guest House. It’s actually dark with only street & security lights providing illumination. But the hustle & bustle at that time of the morning hasn’t changed. Vehicle traffic, students on the move, morning joggers, medical staff heading to work.

Because our time is the same every morning, we now recognize people & vehicles we pass every day. There’s a black car that reves his engine up and speeds down Polk Street every morning; a young student with wavy blond curly hair that we meet as we turn the corner on the mall; and the receptionist/greeter in the Cancer Center who hasn’t recognized us on the street yet.

The temperature is the second noticeable change. We have traded our short sleeve shirts for warm hooded jackets. Hands in pockets and a brisker pace is what Suzanne would like but her stamina is waning and the pace is slow and methodic.

Color in the trees has progressed along as fall rivals summer for my favorite season. Polk Street and the ‘Mall’ that stretches through the campus where we walk are lined with locust trees, all bright yellow now with the walks covered in the little leaves.

Our walk is a lot quieter now as well. Not because there is less traffic, but because Suzanne saves her voice. The volume she can now achieve through her mask is not able to penetrate my tinnitus stricken ears above the traffic noise.

I have been so proud of my wife and this stroll that she makes every day. It would be so much easier to take the shuttle but her ‘I can beat this’ attitude along with her desire to maintain some physical exercise, even as her body is failing her, has been inspiring.

One more stroll tomorrow and then back to the Guest House to pack and head home.

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22