Elaine

Elaine is my Grandpa Bardo's youngest child. They dote on each other much like my father and younger sister do. Elaine will always have the most up-to-date information on my grandfather (who is getting on in age, with the expected effects). She and Arne have parented some fourteen exchange students, mostly Finnish and Swedish, and a succession of gold tabby felines. I would have loved to have been at their wedding, a mixture of New England Lutheran and Russian Jewish tradition. I feel the same ease and fluidity with Elaine that I talk about with Arne. We3 seem to have something of a kindred outlook. She thrives on diversity of thought and experiencing other cultures. She engages. She realizes that perception is an art requiring practice. As we share a parent, we talk easily of family and mortality and life's experiences and pursuits. Twice her house has been a wayside in my travels. Both times it has felt like home.