Second Day with Aunt Hettie - Museum of the Albemarle

May 10th - Tuesday - 70 degrees - bright blue skies

We were up early and off to pick up Aunt Hettie for our day with her. I always take my camera and take pictures that she wants taken and then once we get back home I make a picture book and send her a short story of our time we spent with her along with pictures. She has problems with short term memory and she tells us this helps her remember the days we spend with her and we are glad to do this for her.

She dearly loves her Bible and this year Lou found a different picture book of the Bible land to take to her and she was delighted with it. She kept leaving through it and telling us, she didn’t think it would look like this, so guess this was a good choice.

Last year, we took her back to Gum Neck, the community that Aunt Hettie grew up in, so this year Lou decided to take her on a tour of the area in Elizabeth City that she spent her married life in and that is what we did and my golly, she sure remembered the details of the way it used to be, she is 92 years of age, and that part of her memory is sharp. As we were driving down the street, she told Lou to pull over, she said “I know that man“, so Lou pulled and sure enough, it was her grandson, what a surprise for her, so she got out and he took her into the shop that he runs and she got to see that, so that helped to make her day special.

We stopped for a special lunch and she decided she wanted a cheeseburger, French fries, hot coffee and of course, vanilla ice cream for dessert. This was at a special diner and everything was prepared as we ordered it, and it was near the site of where Aunt Hettie used to work in a box factory. Great memories for her.

We also took her out to the base where we had the RV parked so she could see our RV, so she would know where we were staying, she kept saying she wished we could stay with her and that way she would know we were alright, so she felt pretty good when she left our RV.

Then we went to a new museum that is located near where her home was in Elizabeth City. Lou found that he could get a wheel chair at the Museum of the Albemarle and she was delighted being able to see all of the “ole timey things”. I have been to a lot of museums, and I have to tell you I was very impressed with this museum. EVERYTHING was labeled and very well displayed. It was divided into three catagories. Out of the Blue - Coast Guard Aviation - City of Elizabeth City - Lighthouses, Railroads, Civil War, Fireman - certainly a very interesting visit and it was free to everyone. A wonderful gift shop. Lou was able to find a book he had been looking for, so he was especially blessed.

After all of that we drove around a bit longer and then returned Aunt Hettie back to her retirement home, tired and happy. We sat and chatted on the porch a few minutes and then we drove back towards the base, stopping at a farmer’s market to purchase freshly picked peas, new potatoes, strawberries, and tomatoes.

Once back to the RV we shelled peas and fixed all of the food to put in the refrigerator to have for dinner tomorrow night as we would be on the road, and that make a wonderful dinner with some chicken we had in the freezer.

We went out to a recommended restaurant for fresh seafood dinner and back home for fresh strawberry shortcake, as I had baked a cake in the afternoon while Lou had shelled the peas. Enjoyed a little television and packed up to get an early start in the morning as we will start for home.