November 2021
It seemed ironic that the Christmas before, I bought him a cookbook titled “How not to die”. I thought about this as we drove to Ogden after my daughter had just called us and said simply “He’s dead”. Buying gifts for E was not easy. My daughter’s boyfriend of several years loved to cook and to read. He loved dogs and had two of them that he pampered. He related better to dogs than people but then dogs don’t judge or make demands. He was a guy of plaid shirts with understated colors and jeans which endeared him to me as that is how my people in northern Michigan dressed. He was originally from Wisconsin but he didn’t like cheese except when it was on pizza, which I could never understand. He always wore comfortable but expensive looking shoes. He was picky about all of his clothes and I knew it was a mistake when I knitted him a pair of socks for one birthday in a muted color that I thought would be acceptable. I found out later that along with many other things, he gave