On Sunday morning we received the sad news that Mary Lynne had passed away. We bought tickets to Detroit, and early Monday morning we were on our way.
Michigan welcomed us with sunny spring – but also with a rather malicious wind. Carelessly, I walked around without proper clothing, and by Tuesday the consequences became obvious: sneezing, coughing, and a sore throat that accompanied me for the rest of the trip.
Most of our time was spent with Scott’s family. We attended the viewing and the funeral, both of which were very heartfelt and moving. It was also an opportunity for me to finally meet many members of Scott’s extended family whom I had only heard about before.
In between the sad moments, there were also lighter ones. We had a mini adventure afternoon with Rubie and Grace. Grace drove us around town, we went shopping, and ended the day with burgers at Schlenkers.
One particularly unexpected moment happened while we were driving around. Suddenly we noticed a license plate on the car in front of us that read “ISAOMA.” Not exactly a typical U.S. license plate – and in Estonian it means “dad’s property.” Scott became curious and decided to follow the car for a bit to see if they might stop nearby.
A minute later they pulled into a driveway. Scott immediately recognized it as the driveway of his great aunt Louny’s old house. There was a woman on the porch and a man getting out of the car, and we explained why we had pulled in. We told them about Scott’s great aunt who had once lived there. The current owners had bought the house 26 years ago and had lived there ever since. As it turned out, one of them had Finnish roots and the other German. They explained the license plate: “ISA” means grandfather in Finnish and “OMA” means grandmother in German. I also explained what it means in Estonian.
It turned out they lived just a block away from Mary Lynne and had known her well, so we also had to share the news with them.
I will miss Mary Lynne. She was always the first to comment on my food stories, loved my baking, and because she adored teddy bears, I would always send her a photo whenever I spotted a cute one during my travels. I’m glad Scott managed to give her the Murano glass teddy bear we brought back from Venice.
Some trips are planned months in advance. Others happen suddenly, and for different reasons.
