Wizblog

Been Away

Please excuse the longest blogging hiatus in the 2+ years this thing has been in existence. My mother passed away late Wednesday night, so it goes without saying that I have been consumed with other matters. I'll have more to say about that wonderful woman in the days ahead. In the meantime if it's sporadic, you understand.

UPDATE 7/8: Thanks to all of the commenters for your kind and comforting words. Here's the Plain Dealer obituary for my mother, Ruth McCullough Wismar. The PD emphasized her military service owing to the coincidence of it appearing in the paper on the 4th of July. The text that her family put together stressed the themes of education, family and her nursing career which, together with her deep Christian faith, come closer to defining her than did her military service.

That service had brought her some recent notoriety however. Just over seven months ago, on Veterans Day 2004, a local display of her WWII photos landed her picture on the homepage of CNN.com for a few hours. Here's what that looked like on the morning of November 11, 2004. (She's the one not in uniform, on the right). Characteristically, she didn't bother even looking at the site, and couldn't have cared less about her picture being seen by millions of people around the world, enjoying only our excitement about it. Enough for now. I'll try to gather my thoughts for a later post.