Felipe: RIP

Our holiday season was interrupted by sadness when my beloved Felipe died suddenly last week. He had not been well since the last visit to Dr. Garcia in David where he received a diagnosis of an inflamed colon or intestine. He was treated for that, and the major symptoms were relieved, but he had been listless and depressed for several weeks. The intestinal symptoms returned with a vengeance Monday night a week ago, however, and he began experiencing stomach cramps and pain. He died within a couple of hours, in my arms. Consultations via e-mail with U.S. vets Joe Cordell and Dan Evers suggest an internal tumor or lesion which only an x-ray and major surgery possibly could have helped, but animal x-rays aren't available in Panama and there were no indications anyway until it was too late. We buried him in the back garden, and I'll plant something special there in remembrance of all the joy he brought to the household.

Otherwise, life has been full and happy. The Bid 4 Boquete charity event finally was held on the weekend of December 4-5: a wine tasting and live auction on Saturday night and the silent auction and variety of sales, raffles, and children's games on Sunday afternoon. We netted $55,000, more than the first four years combined, so eleven months of planning and execution paid off. Close on the heels of that extravaganza, Larry surprised me by putting on a big birthday dinner for me at a downtown restaurant with about 10 friends. That was followed by my hosting the garden club Christmas party here on Thursday, attended by over 40 people. So I spent the weekend trying to catch up around the house and garden.

Steve completed the new orchid casita, and I purchased a host of new orchids. Annie La Foley, a local orchid grower of some renown, sold her entire collection in preparation for a return to the States due to some medical protocol that her husband can receive only there. Steve and Marjorie Sarner, good friends and renowned orchid growers in their own right, accompanied me on two trips to Annie's and helped with my selections.

We'll have the usual crowd here for Christmas dinner on Saturday, and then Derek arrives on December 31st for about a week. Larry has planned a golf outing at Cielo Paraiso, and I'm putting together some hiking with Steve and Marjorie and new friends Peter Sterling and wife Sally Zigmond, retired neuroscientist/naturalist (Peter) and biologist (Sally) from the University of Pennsylvania. The weather has been beautiful for about a week now, and I'm looking forward to getting out and about before the trade winds kick up in January and February. Larry, on the other hand, will be glued to the bowl games on t.v.

On April 24th I am leaving Panama for a two-week transatlantic cruise with friends Penny Barrett and Betty Gray. Larry, homebody that he is, wasn't interested and therefore will remain behind to keep house and pets and get some well-earned relief from wifely chores and admonitions. We are leaving from Colon on a Royal Caribbean repositioning cruise to Palma de Mallorca, with stops in Barbados, Curacao, and the Canary Islands. We'll spend a couple of days in Mallorca and a couple of days in Barcelona before flying back, so I'll be gone about three weeks in all. The garden club also is planning a two-day trip to the Wilson Botanical Gardens in San Vito, Costa Rica within the next two months.

The entire community is in full holiday mode, with numerous parades and fairs which make getting about a real challenge. Extensions to the municipal park/square has made parking a minor problem, and the beginning of tourist season has exacerbated the situation. Everything is bustling!

So, other than Felipe's death, life has been going smoothly, remarkably so. Co-chairing the auction gave me the opportunity to meet lots of people and become an active member of the community. The protracted "settling in" time required had limited our social engagements, but now our calendar is almost too full. Meetings, parties, and luncheons have become the norm rather than the exceptions they once were. There have been no bureaucratic hassles of late, but I'm confident that the Panamanian government will remedy that soon.