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

[Jan Leitschuh]

Wow. 
I feel like hugging you guys.
You've spent a year in your heart. First the trail, then with your mom.

I'm so sorry for your loss, and the richness, beauty and sorrow of your tale touched me.
Welcome back.

Jan


Message: 1
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:26:20 -0400
From: "Slim's Mail" <bogey at toast.net>
Subject: [at-l] Bogey and Slim's 2007 Adventure
To: "List _AT-L" <at-l at backcountry.net>
Message-ID: <003001c7f498$dfeff5c0$4e161c3f at 0022687953>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

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 ca
 lled 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