14 October 2025

Hello from All of us in The Hermitage. We are all surviving and have hope. Not many of us have been doing anything. This is the second day in a row we have decided not to get dressed. Why? We aren’t going anywhere. The activity level is low to nonexistent for most of us.

Chef makes things that can be consumed over a few days. It’s that or sandwiches.

Gardener makes sure things are watered when they are supposed to be, and glad things are doing well again. Especially the Hibiscus! In July and August it was suffering with whiteflies and going downhill fast. Leaves were turning brown, etc. She clipped many of the branches back, and sprayed it with vinegar. While that helped a little, Oldest Son and Queen’s brother suggested Neem oil. She was able to spray that on, and NOW the new growth is exceptional! She is VERY excited by the outcome! It is even blooming again.

Chauffeur has taken Shopper to the market a few times and Disciple to Church twice. Chauffeur is having issues, especially at intersections. The mental issues from the accident are taking a toll on her. The property issues with the insurance are done, but as of yet, The Hermitage does not have a permanent carriage. At the moment we are borrowing Queen’s Oldest Daughter’s extra carriage, but not really going anywhere. It IS good that IF we do need to go somewhere, we can.

For the most part we are getting through this ordeal and thankful. We still have some physical issues, but they are slowly healing. Vitamin E oil is doing wonders for the scars from the staples, etc. What is life without battle scars? Scars on the heart are the worst. Do they heal?

At the moment Pluviophile is watching a storm blow in from the mountains in the west towards us. The wind picks up and blows dirt and leaves everywhere, and the sky is dark, but so far not much else. She can only hope.

Disciple has experienced several heart-wrenching situations since Writer’s last journal post. President Nelson died, and a meetinghouse in Michigan was left in ruins. But she got to go back to her own ward. The new General Presidency was organized today. The Michigan Chapel incident has been extraordinarily bitter-sweet. The talks and hymns during General Conference ALL pertained to things going on in The Hermitage, our country, and the world. General Conference put things back into perspective and helped remind us of what is most important. We ALL watched and we were ALL filled.

Queen was able to see the long-distance grandchildren and got to visit with two of them for quite a while. They seem to be doing well, and she was VERY thankful to see them.

The Neurologist looked at the results of the MRI we had in August, and told us EVERYTHING is great, but we have arthritis in our neck. That explains a LOT.

We have been gathering each morning in The DOORS. When we first started doing this two weeks ago it was 74º but this morning it was 58º. Fall is in the air, and winter is coming. Watching the birds is fun. A hummingbird flew about a foot away from our faces, hovered and looked at us, then flew off. The doves are larger, but are far more timid. We do a LOT of thinking about MANY things out there. The main thing is getting the backyard organized. Painter did paint the back gate as that was something easy to-do, AND something we thought should be done.

Seamstress has been busy. She went with Disciple to “Sisters in Service” and made close to two dozen burp cloths for Baby’s Bounty. She also brought home flannel to make NICU hearts. She has been working on those for four days. The hearts are traced onto the flannel, then sewn most of the way around, cut out, seams clipped and then turned right side out, pressed and sewn next to the edge. She made 128 hearts/64 pairs in this long, tedious process. Sewing is interesting. One’s mind wanders everywhere. In making quilts out of leftover fabric, Seamstress remembers all of the dresses, shirts, costumes, ETC., the fabric was originally used for. Those memories can be fun. But in sewing these hearts, Seamstresses mind was on mothers and babies. These “heart pairs” are given to mothers whose babies are in the NICU. The mother places one on her skin, then it goes in with the baby so the baby knows the mother’s scent. Seamstress thought about these mothers. Their worries over these fragile babies. Maybe they had a hard time conceiving and the baby was born early, too early. Maybe they’ve had miscarriages, and now this. She is sure the stories of these babies are endless, and her mind is everywhere thinking about each scenario. She calls Disciple in. “Please pray for each mother and baby who receives these hearts. Pray for them to be blessed and watched over,” she asks. Disciple is more than happy to do that and is touched by these thoughts. Queen had very BIG babies, and remembered the woman she shared a room with in 1981. Queen’s baby was 9 pounds 1 ounce and 22 ¾” long. The other woman’s baby was only a coupleof pounds if that and only about 9” long, if that. Babies are gifts from God. Each with a purpose and plan. Having babies can be easy, or difficult. Some come into the world with no problems, others with several. We hope each of these pairs of hearts help moms and babies bond.

Disciple, Reader and Investigator went to see author Lee Strobel the other night, who was going to speak about his new book, Seeing the Supernatural: InvestigatingAngels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World. He is close to our age, so we could relate to the times he grew up in. He was an atheist turned Christian when he was 29 and his lifestyle and choices were far different from Disciple, Reader and Investigator. They were MOST interested in the “investigating angels, demons, mystical dreams and other mysteries of the unseen world.” They have heard and read countless stories about near-death encounters, so that wasn’t as captivating as the other parts of the book. Yes, each individual story has its value to the one who experiences it, but there are people who have also had these experiences who feel they are sacred, and don’t share them because they are just that, sacred. Sadly, these sacred experiences can become “entertainment” and it removes all of the sanctity and holiness. They were looking forward to hearing his first hand experiences with his investigations, and such.

Movie Buff has been THE MOST active of all of us. She has been busy looking, searching, finding and choosing shows for us to watch while we continue to mend. We test our knowledge with Jeopardy Monday through Friday. We all watched every session of General Conference. When not having to pay attention she puts on things we’ve watched countless times; Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, The Good Witch, and other Hallmark movies, Mamma Mia, and she found a NEW movie we’ve watched three times in the last four days, The Thursday Murders Club. We all like it. She also put on Ancient Aliens which we all find intriguing. BUT we have found that our FAVORITE are the Perry Mason shows from 1957 and 1958. At the beginning of each show there is a “warning” that the shows involve “smoking and violence.” This is humorous to us, and we wonder what scale they are using to judge the “violence” in each show. Certainly NOT the violence that happens in life on a regular basis in the world. We finished season one, and are still watching season 2. We love the show for many reasons; the clothes, the manners, the behaviors, the skills of writers, the stories, figuring out who did it, the actors… little known stars who became stars later, the locations, AND THE CARS. S1E7 was filmed at Malibou Lake where Queen lived for 4 years. Researcher found that Perry Mason liked to fish at the lake and several episodes were filmed there. They do a lot of filming at the beaches as well. BUT THE CARS!!! Perry drives a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner Convertible where the hardtop goes into the trunk! Queen’s cousin had one of these. COOL car. Mechanic is fairly certain that the police cars in the 1958 episodes are Fords with the 352 police interceptors! There are a LOT of incredible old cars, and Mechanic has seen a few that we’ve actually owned. WELL, NOT the ones on the show, but ones we bought in the 70’s and 80’s. We continue to watch at night before lights out.

When Disciple went to Seminary from 1969-1973 she studied and learned a lot about these times. At the time, she found it difficult to believe that she would EVER see the world the way these times were talked about in the scriptures. Yet, here we are, living those prophecies. Every day something we’ve read about. Every day, she sees the things she learned about all those years ago. She is SO thankful for the restoration of the Savior’s Church here upon the earth. Thankful that God has provided a way for us to return. We are truly blessed and thankful every day. We ponder about many things and count our blessings. We have “felt” things happening, changes going on, and know we live in the times the scriptures prophecy of. In the last few weeks we have been reminded of The10 Virgins many times. They all “knew” the same things, they just made different choices.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, text messages, posts, calls, etc.