[at-l] Bogey and Slim's 2007 Adventure

[Slim's Mail]

Listers,
I haven't received at-l for at least 3 months. Don't know why but low and behold today "There it was!" So here I am saying hello. 
Our condolences to Gran-ma Soule's loved ones.
As some of you know me and my hubby aka Bogey and Slim started a thru-hike on March 26. We made it to Catawba when we had to go home.  My (Slim's) mother was ill and getting worse during the time we hiked. She was our one woman support team.  As we called home she told us she had pain that was so bad she couldn't cook, bathe, or eat and my siblings were not doing what I could have done. In Pearisburg we were expecting a package she was going to send and she was always reliable. When it wasn't at the Post Office I knew something was seriously wrong. We called her and she told us she was diagnosed with lung Cancer. We cried. We then for 4 days agonized over the love of the dream hike and the love for my dear 79 year old mother sufffering all alone. It was a no brainer. So we stayed at Niday shelter where we met Daybreak and Blue Yonder and later a miracle would evolve from that meeting.  There's always another year for our hike but mom needs us now we said. She cried when we called her from Daleville & told her that we were coming home. She wanted us to stay on the trail but in her heart I know she was glad.  Just by fate Blue Yonder and Daybreak had a van in Damascus that they needed driven to  Harpers Ferry and we needed a way home to Pennsylvania. It worked out that we got home on May 23rd and took mom into our home and took care of her until she passed away on July 26. We are still in mourning. I never knew the true depth of the love I had for her until she was gone.  We are now settling her estate. 
A BIG THANKS to Blue Yonder (who is just finishing her thru-hike) and Daybreak. 
BTW: we loved the Trail and the other hikers and everything was going well.  We miss the sights, sounds and smells of the forest. Next year we go again but earlier.  We're on trailjournals.com/bogeyandslim 
  
Slim aka Nancy

One of my favorite quotes:   "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived." 
---Henry David Thoreau