colors in the wind

Our maple tree in front of the house is a blaze of color - bright orange to bright red.  Many trees in the Prescott Area are light to deep yellow, very little green left to see and even some trees have dropped their leaves.
It is always remarkable to me how the controversy in Washington (0ver the shutdown this time) just swirled in its own microcosm, and life just went on as usual here.  Oh yes, they had professionally produced placards up the day of the shutdown (wonder if it was a pre arranged activity) that prevented people from going into the park system areas - but public activity at the Grand Canyon forced that attraction to open anyway.
The major activity we have engaged in recently,was when the carpet cleaners came.  Talk about upheaval!  Well we had to clean up the stuff around the house and the end result was that Goodwill and Catholic Charities won big - we just left our stuff off at the drop-off site and drove away.  How freeing is this?  It has spurred me on to go through the house and get rid of all kinds of stuff.  Pretty soon we may just be looking at bare walls and shelves - but I seriously doubt if I can just throw it all to Goodwill.  After all I do like to look at the various things I have made and that are loaded with lots of emotional content.
For one, there is the little Moose given to me by Sue in Maine - he looks so at home on my fireplace.  There is the paper sculptured Swan given to me by the office receptionist in the Archives office - it is beautiful to behold and to just admire.  I do know that one day I shall leave mortality and all this stuff, but at least I hope to have reduced the bulk of it by that time, and in the meantime I shall enjoy having them in my home.
I just found out that my Slot Canyon quilt, that has been touring around the state in celebration of the 100 quilts 100 years for Arizona centennial, will be coming home on November 30.  That will be a very nice birthday gift for me.  I have missed not having the quilt in the house.  It has been gone since September 2011.  If it could talk, I wonder what adventures it has had?  I must add that I was very impressed at the way it was displayed in both the Museum of Art in Tucson and in Sharlot Hall Museum here in Prescott.  I hope that it was appropriately displayed at the other locations.  Someone asked me how I could bare to part with the quilt for so long, but I am heart happy that it has been on display for many people to see it - not just people who come to our house and see it on my wall.
The American Quilt Society is having a BIG quilt show in Phoenix in February and our guild is going to rent a bus to take us all down to it.  I will be meeting my friend Desiree there.  She lives in Bullhead City on the Colorado River.  We have been friends for 14 years - I met her when I came to Prescott in 1999.  She is a marvelous quilter and staunch friend.
On October 26, the Northern Arizona Genealogical Society is holding a Genealogical Conference at the church.  I have been asked to teach a class in Roots Magic genealogy software.  It will have to just be an introductory class because I only have on hour to talk about it.  I have done this class before.  Some weeks ago I gave a presentation to my beading group on Genealogy and as a result two of the ladies will be in attendance at the conference. 
Today I dropped off 8 quilts to the CASA program at the court house.  They are gearing up for the National Adoption Day November 23.  They are expecting close to 70 adoptions to take place this day.  It would have been wonderful when we adopted David and Sara if someone had given the children a quilt to remember the special day in their young lives.  Instead, they handed me a baby in a diaper and that was that.  The sleepers that they were wearing when we went to pick them up were not that expensive, and removed,  but to be handed a baby just wearing a diaper was somewhat of a let down to introduce us to parenthood.  Luckily, I had taken clothes with me to dress the little ones in otherwise they would have had to drive back to Johnstown clad only in a diaper.  So I am glad that I head the compassionate service arm of the Quilt Guild and that I get to take the finished quilts to the various agencies to help alleviate the heartache or give joy to the recipients.  There does not seem to be a middle ground.
I have sent my 3600 hexagon quilt to the quilter to have it quilted for me.  It is king sized and it is beautiful and spectacular.  It is also a mourning quilt - made while I dealt with the emotions that descended upon me when Sara told me of the limited prognosis for Jacob's life with his disease.

Landscapes

This Monsoon Season we had very heavy rains and they lasted a long time.  I thought it might be time to invest in web feet or something.  Now, today, we are back to high desert sunny weather and the landscape needs looking at.
There are many species of plants that have bloomed that have not bloomed for quite a while.  One of them is a fragile looking white flower with hundreds of petals on it.  It has a remarkable purple center surrounded by these little petals.  The whole plant is so spindly that one would think that one puff of wind would lay the whole thing flat but it doesn't - they just wave gracefully in the wind and cheer my heart to see them.  I have no idea what they are called, but who cares?  They are wonderful to see blooming in the fields around here.  these fluffy looking white flowers are less than 1/2 inch across.
In many areas there are carpets of yellow flowers.  These are also spindly plants with these 1/2 inch diameter bright yellow flowers.  There is a house nearby that has a spectacular stand of these yellow flowers.  In one area there is a vast field of them but they will not be there next year because I see the heavy earth equipment grading the soil and digging for roadways etc. so with houses planted there, we can expect to have to live without this glorious yellow sight.
As I was coming along the highway yesterday, I noticed a bright pink haze on the ground.  As I got closer I could see that it was a wild plant that is just pink leaves and they are all over the hills now and look quite showy and pretty.
I have noticed the Indian Paintbrush plant is now in full bloom and that is a sign that winter is coming.  The maple tree in front of our house has changed a lot since the last cold snap we had so I guess soon it will be ablaze with color.
My neighbor has an Agave plant in her front yard and although it is quite small, it has sent up its central frond into the up-most branches of her ornamental Cherry.  Most Agave don't send up the frond until they are quite old and mature.  This plant in her front yard was just a baby sucker from her larger plant that died and we have watched it grow these past 14+ years.  Some people call this plant the Century Plant - once it has sent up its central frond and bloomed, it dies.
I love the wild flowers that have bloomed here in Prescott this year.  On one road we take, there have been many sunflowers.  These are the wild variety and measure about 4inches across.  In the past week I have watched them fade and leave their seed filled centers for the tiny birds to feed from and they flock to these sunflower plants.
The government has shut down and the nearby camping site at Lynx Lake is now off limits to everyone.  I am glad that we went two weeks ago for a breakfast cookout because we would not be able to go there now.  Lynx lake is part of the federal system.
Well, things are going along as usual even though the government has shut down!  Cannot figure out how or why things are still functioning.  Perhaps we do not need the politicians running the country after all!

Getting older

Life is still at a crazy pace but a friend sent the following to me and it made me smile.  Bill is turning 69 tomorrow and we went to Applebees for lunch.  We had the wait staff sing to him and they gave him a free Sundae..............I had to buy mine!  It was one way to assuage our angst over his truck breaking down............eat and forget the troubles.
Of course this is not the best day for his truck to pack it in..............I have an assignment for quilt guild on Monday as well as two appointments that I must keep plus I will probably have to drive him to work and pick him up in the evening........I do not really like afternoon traffic between Prescott and Prescott Valley.  Most people treat it like it is really the Daytona 500 but there are no cheering crowds to fete those who beat it across the line before the light turns red!!!!!




So here goes with the "Aging" musings from my friend.

I was thinking about how a status symbol of today is those cell

phones that everyone has clipped onto their belt or purse.  I

can't afford one.  So, I'm wearing my garage door opener.

I also made a cover for my hearing aid and now I have what

they call blue teeth, I think.

You know, I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized

that people didn't like me anyway.

I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing

husbands on beer cans!

I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is 'when

you still have something on the ball, but you are just too tired

to bounce it.'

I thought about making a fitness movie for folks my age, and

call it 'Pumping Rust'.

I've gotten that dreaded furniture disease.  That's when your

chest is falling into your drawers!

When people see a cat's litter box, they always say, 'Oh,

have you got a cat?'  Just once I want to say, 'No, it's for

company!'

Employment application blanks always ask who is to be

notified in case of an emergency.  I think you should write,

'A Good Doctor'!

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a

whole lot more as they get older.  Then, it dawned on me. 

They were cramming for their finals.

As for me, I'm just hoping God grades on the curve.

Gentle Thoughts for Today -

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by

then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good

friends.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to

buy a replacement.

He who hesitates is probably right.

Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are XL.

If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in

mind to blame.

The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when

he's really in trouble..

Did you ever notice: When you put the 2 words 'The' and 'IRS'

together it spells 'Theirs...'

Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying

about your age and start bragging about it.

Some people try to turn back their odometers.  Not me, I want

people to know 'why' I look this way.  I've traveled a long way

and some of the roads weren't paved.

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your

youth, think of Algebra.

You know you are getting old when everything either dries up

or leaks.

One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that

it is such a nice change from being young.  Ah, being young

is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over

my mouth...

End of Summer and welcome Autumnal Equinox

I guess time just gets away from me most days but the days are so full that I do not feel like writing at the end of the day.

We have had such overcast dreary days here in Sunny Arizona.  Since I came back from Nebraska,  and with the clouds we have had loads of rain.  Probably well over 6 inches of rain and the rainy season is supposed to be over by now.  If the rain keeps up, the native plants will start to have problems because they are drought centered plants.  Another aspect of all the rain is that the wild flowers have bloomed and filled in all the spaces and it is glorious.

I am glad that we have facetime on our Ipad because it allows us to talk to Sara and family and to see the baby.  He smiles now and is a chubby little guy.  Of course he looks like the other two boys and people will just look at the three of them and say “There goes the Friest Boys”. 

We are both involved with the Family History Center and each Thursday we spend 4 hours in the center helping other folks get their family history done.  Some of them come in with valid questions while once in a while we get a patron who is disappointed that there is no magic button to push to get one’s genealogy to spew out of the system.

Autumnal Equinox:  Well, time has passed again – life is over busy these days.  It is interesting to note that up until today we had very hot days and cooler nights, but the weather seems to know that it is the Autumnal equinox and today is was a day to wear a light jacket.  It is like someone just flipped a switch.

Our Maple tree in the front yard has started to change, and with this crisp air now, it will change drastically.  I love the bright reds and oranges and yellows of its leaves.

I have noticed that there seems to be a whole village of spiders who have taken up residence in our back porch furniture.  They have built their untidy webs everywhere and it matters little whether we break them down  - they just reappear.  These spiders have an unlimited supply of web producing glands to keep up doing what they do.  There are loads of little bundles in their webs – these are the stored food supply for the spiders I suppose, but I observed one of the smaller varieties of birds zoom by and pluck a dainty morsel or two from the webs, leaving an even bigger hole in the untidy mess.

David was up for a visit this weekend and we took him and two friends to a nearby lake where we cooked breakfast.  I love to go to this lake and just sit and watch the water birds come and go.  The lake is pretty full when compared to the holiday weekend at the beginning of the summer when the water level was really far down.  The surface of the water was like glass and someone came by in a canoe and the reflection was classic of the canoe, people and trees that are on the opposite bank.  There were Ducks and Geese and some cormorants moving around the lake.  There used to be a Raptor that nested in the trees on the east side of the lake but I do not know if they are still nesting there.  At another lake nearby there is a Blue Heron that is a resident of the shallow edge.

There is a lady here who orders fruit from some farms in Utah.  I ordered Raspberries that were wonderful and some Tomatoes.  These items are ungraded but they are vine ripened and wonderful – tastier than the ones you buy in the supermarket and quite a bit cheaper.  When we were in Maine, Anne, the lady in the archives office, brought us some special tomatoes that were just as wonderful as these ones in from Utah.  I tried to grow tomatoes this summer but because I was not home to tend the plants, they got leggy and they are not producing very well.  All I want to do is grow Zucchini.  I tried to grow them from seed in the garden and the Quail came in and fed on the new green tender plants.  I re-planted them and either the Quail or some other hungry character came by and ate those too.

 The following year I bought started plants but they got eaten off as well.  So I bought Grow-Boxes and managed to get 3 Zucchini and two yellow squash before I left for Lincoln and when I came home there was nothing left.  I have not been successful as a gardener here in Arizona.  I hope that next Summer I will be able to stay home and tend my garden and get some produce from it.

 David took us to Walmart to see what he could find to spend our money on.  He headed straight for the

electronic section and wanted right or wrong for us to buy him an I-pod touch.  He was at his manipulative best - gave us good reasons why - 1. as an early Christmas Present (12 weeks early) 2. so he could contact us by using Face Tme (he has every electronic device known to man on  his person and is a walking ad for Radio Shack.  He has a cell phone but rarely calls us and never answers our calls to him) 3. It does not cost as much as if  we bought it for him at Best Buy  4. he is tired of using Skype ( we have talked to him no more than 4 times on Skype) 5. It has game aps on it that are excursively Apple products and he wants to play those games.

Number 5 is the winner!

We did not buy the device this weekend and next week does not look good either.

Labor Day Week and Weekend.

Life runs at a feverish pace.  To counter that, we have a bird feeder in the backyard and it is visited by many birds.  I have no idea what their names are but they flutter in and out and provide a distraction from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
This season that we are in  is called the Monsoon Season - primarily because rains come up from the gulf of Mexico and travel up the state of Arizona dropping rain on the desert and causing it to blossom.  The wild sunflowers are spectacular this year and every plant that has ever scattered seeds to the wind has had those seeds germinate and the hills are now quite green.  Of course this has caused flash floods here and there and made life miserable but it is rain and rain is what keeps our plants and animals alive and the creeks run and the lakes fill up.  Unfortunately, a homeless woman drowned in a swollen creek in the center of town.  The report in the paper was rather vague but it is a sad situation that she got washed down stream and drowned.  They reported that she was either bathing or playing in the water and a storm upstream sent a surge down the creek and washed her away. 
Saturday morning I went out for the paper and was struck by the silence of the area.....that is except for the birds welcoming the rising sun.  The air was still and the native cedars were giving off their beautiful clean scent into the air and the moment was magical to me.
The weekend is a three day weekend celebrating Labor Day and signalling the official end of Summer.  All the water parks etc. close down after this weekend to re-open in the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, next year.The town square is host to a huge craft show this weekend.  We went to it and wandered up and down the alleys.  There seems to be a preponderance of Bead and jewelry booths and a smattering of oil paint and acrylic paint artists and a musician by the name of Patrick Ki plays his music for all to hear.  I stopped by a quilt booth.  The work seemed to be all one person's work and not imported from China as in other years.  The one thing that came across to me from the show was the amount of work these people had put into their wares and the amount of money they have invested in supplies.  With the monsoon showering us almost daily, the crowds do not attend because this is an outdoor show and people do not want to get wet.  The crafters do not do well under these conditions.  There were lots of dog owners out with their pets and as far as I was able to observe there were no altercations between animals - in other years there have been some really good dog fights erupt on the grounds.  Owners trying vainly to calm their pets while the pets just wanted to settle once and for all who was kingpin in the dog world of the courthouse plaza in Prescott, Az.  The biggest dog on the plaza was a Newfoundland.  It looked like a tiny horse.
On Monday this week, we had our monthly gathering of quilters for the Community Quilts effort.  I was surprised to see 30 ladies come out and work.  They pay $3 for Pizza and it is delivered to the facility and we all eat lunch together.  I cannot bring myself to eat the pizza - it does not look good to me.  We have someone bring the breakfast treat, and two people bring salads and about 4 people bring desserts.  This week someone brought individual cheese cakes...........Oooooh! Yummy!
We have loads of fabrics in totes that we open up and the ladies are free to pick whatever they feel they would like to have to work with and they create some wonderful quilts.   Most of the quilts go to the CASA program for the adoptions and we are gearing up for National Adoption Day, November 23.  The CASA adoption day is very festive and the children to be adopted are overjoyed for the chance to become permanent in someone's family.....most of them come from the foster family program.
Friday morning, while Bill was at Computer class at the College, I went to the Bead Show up at the Yavapai Resort.  The man who runs it comes up from Tucson and apparently he does well enough to keep coming back.  We have a new beader in our group named Pam, whom I met at a craft show down on the square a few weeks ago.  I told her about the bead show and she said she would go to it.  I was very happy to see her there and we ogled the beads he had on sale - we also bought some.
Today we talked to Sara and family over the Facetime on the phone.  Ethan told us that he and his Fifth grade class went to see the Salt Dogs play baseball.  It was a good game but filled with lots of problems - a number of students had to be treated for heat exhaustion, one student got hit by a stray ball and Ethan's gymnastic friend was hit in the head by a flying bat.  Do not know how that happened but he got three stitches and will not be doing gymnastics for a few weeks.  He was out of gymnastics for a while this past summer for an injury at baseball - a pitcher sent a wild pitch that hit him in the knee and put him out of commission.
Oliver does soccer at school.  He used to do soccer with a club but with Sara and Jacob both working, it is hard to get the kids to practices etc. so Oliver does soccer at school.   He has lost the two front teeth on the bottom.  When I was out there, I noticed that his new teeth were coming in behind the front teeth so the dentist encouraged Oliver to loosen and then pull out the two baby teeth.
Lyla showed us all the toys that the girls across the street gave her. She is delighted.  These three girls decided to give their toys to Lyla because they consider themselves grown up now and these are for little kids.  Lyla thinks it is better than Christmas.
While we were on the Facetime, baby August woke up and we got to see him.  He is a chubby little guy and he is rather long already.  I guess he will be the tall one in the family.
In sharing time at church today, with the little kids, they had stories about Jesus.  One picture showed how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples.  The thought crossed my mind - What were these men thinking as Jesus was washing their feet?  They had been with him for a couple of years by now and had seen many miracles performed.  This washing of the feet was a first for them and did they really understand what the significance of the ordinance was to them?  They were mere mortals and Christ is half mortal half immortal and it was not until after the Holy Ghost was sent to them later on that they became a force to be reckoned with.  It was a mind boggling thought to be sure but I did not have time to explore it because it was time to take my little brood to class.  Our class time this week was a lesson on how Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, no matter the language used.  I had six children in my class - 2 regular participants and 4 visitors.  On the holidays one never knows what  or how many class members will be in attendance.

More Social Problems

While I was in Lincoln there was a terrible thunder and lightening storm that sparked a fire in the Yarnell area.  It burned many homes and due to a wind shift, 19 Hot Shot firemen lost their lives.  This was a tragedy to be sure becuase these men are the ones who hike miles to an area where they clear a line in an effort to stop a fire from going further.  their jobs are risky but they are the elite of the fire fighting community.  Our Granite Mountain Hotshots  based in Prescott, were the 19 who lost their lives and that has left a litter of complaints, fund raisers, accusations and finger pointing, politicians arguing over what can or should be done versus what is not being done and the bottom line is that 13 of these Hot Shot firemen were not full time employees and there lies the problem.  They are not eligible for payout by the city because they lost their lives working for the city due to being seasonal workers.  A couple of the wives have been proactive and the news media has at times handled that badly.  The politicians got into the fray and one in particular exhibited a very condescending attitude towards these ladies.......one of the ladies in particular.  We are in an election process right now and his comments just may have lost the election for him...........but I doubt it because wierd things happen during election time.
All around town one can see evidence of grief and mourning for the loss of these men.  There are shrines set up just about everywhere and they consist of many things.  All the way from pieces of  purple ribbon twisted in the same shape as the symbol for breast cancer and worn on lapels etc., purple tulle tied to fences, mail boxes, street lamps, and cars, to one large shrine consisting of tee shirts from fire fighters around the country, shovels, boots, hard hats, flags, crosses of all kinds and composition, flowers, stuffed toys, candles and notes of condolences from near and far.  At first sight is was mind boggling to see it and commanded a reverent air about the area.  Now, after many rainstorms and winds as well as blazing heat, the major shrine looks rather ratty and has become an eyesore rather than a place to command reverence. 
There have been myriad fund raisers but no one knows what has happened to the money that has been raised to help the families of the hot shots.  One hot shot did not die because he was moving their little truck to a different area and was not with his team and he has had many mental battles, according to the paper, over why he was spared and not dead like the others. 
In the paper today a committee was featured that is supposed to be the distributor of the donated money.  They say that the money is in a local bank and that they have been distributing funds as needed to the families, for immediate expenses, but the legal wrangling and the tax involvement is on going.  There are still many more fund raisers planned and people are selling all sorts of things to raise funds - rubber bracelets with 'be strong' written on them, medallions cast with the logo of the Hot Shots on them, and the list seems endless.  There is a metal permanent shrine consisting of 19 crosses that has been erected at the fire station where the Hot Shots were based.
We have a local newspaper that is not much more useful than to wrap fish , but it contains a parade of the social ills that have beset our community.  Stories of knifings, shootings, beatings, political chicanery, and pointed/biased editorials.  I suppose things have not changed much since the Old Testament times where we have stories of genocide, fratricide, homicide, infanticide, incest, spys, suicide, debauchery, corruption, lying, racism, laciviousness, cheating, stealing and hegemony, and that is not a complete list by any means.
So I guess that in order to live some semblance of 'observant life', we pick our way gingerly across this 'playing field' called mortality, and try to run between the raindrops.

Scam Grandma

Well, I have heard of these phone calls and never thought I would get one but today, on a whim, I answered a call marked "Blocked" which I rarely ever do.  However, I did find that one of my physicians has his phone call to the patients marked Blocked -not good for business in my opinion.

So I answered this call - just for a lark and to my surprise a voice on the other end said "Grandma?".  I knew instantly that it was a scam phone call because a friend of mine had received one recently and we all had a good laugh over it - her grandson was in the same room as her at the time, and so he could not possibly be on the phone to her with a sob story asking for money.  My first comment to him was, "My how your voice has changed!"  and he did not get a clue.

This well developed male voice went on with a very disturbing story of how his friend had been killed by a drunk driver in Mexico and he and another friend, whom I should have known from his high school days, were on the highway going to the funeral and they had been stopped by the highway patrol for a broken tail light, " and you would not guess what they found in my car." he went on to say, and at that point I chimed in and said " So they found a dead body?"  He did not even get a clue that I was toying with this call, this caller is pretty dense, "No, " he said, "they found a big bale of Marijuana" and I said to him "Well, at last they caught you with the goods.  You should have been more careful!".  He still did not get a clue that I was toying with him.  He said "I am now in jail and I need you to not tell anyone what I am about to tell you."  Promise me Grandma, you won't tell...............At this point I had heard enough, I just told him, "you know what honey,  you are not my grandson.  My grandson is 6 weeks old and I really doubt if he would have a drivers license or be in possession of Marijuana.  You sir, are a scam artist."  He then started on asking if I could give him a phone number of someone who would help him out with money........!"  Are you kidding?  I hung up on him and have had a good laugh over it.  He was not even smooth in his delivery and not convincing that he was my grandson.  Even Ethan, at age 10 is still a boy soprano and he is my eldest grandson, and then comes Oliver at 7 years of age and August  now a little over 6 weeks of age.

Some crooks just are not smart!  However, many seniors in this area are scammed daily by just such calls.

Some time back a lady called and after she had identified herself (I still did not know her), she said "Mr. Smithers (or some such made up name), will be at your home next Tuesday  at 2pm, to help you with your estate planning.  We would like you to have all your papers out ready for him to look over and tell you the best way to plan your estate.  He will also look over your Trust."  I said to her that we had just had the Trust drawn up and did not need anyone to look over it.  I also told her that I did not know her Mr. Smithers and neither did I have an appointment with him.  She said, well, you do need your TRUST examined because the laws have changed since it was done.  That was puzzling becuase only about 4 weeks had elapsed since we had it drawn up.  She went on to say, Well it must have been your husband who set up the appointment.  In any case, he will be there at 2pm on Tuesday.  I managed to keep her on the line asking her questions etc. and finally she said, "You sound awfully young. You are 82 years of age aren't you?"  I then came to the conclusion that this was indeed a scam and told her that she had better find some other person who was really really old to see if she could squeeze their life savings out of them on this pretense.

Other scam artists come often to Prescott and send out flyers offering a free meal - sometimes at a really upscale restaurant, but mostly at the "Feeding Trough" type restaurant.  They come with flashy clothes, slick presentations, canned jokes, and greedy eyes.  Some of them come in expensive suits, flashy rings (probably from K-Mart), suave haircuts, perfect tans, or open neck shirts, Salvation Army Thrift Store slacks and coat that do not fit well and scuffed shoes along with the greedy eyes. They have investments that you NEED TO MAKE this month and to take advantage of their offer sign on the dotted line.  they promise "You can make millions on our plan" - correct that - they can make millions on your money and give you little return if any or if at all.  Anyone can be a financial planner  even a flim flam con artist.

Well, so much for the excitement of today.  Later on I have to be at the Family History Center for my 4 hour shift and I wonder what I will have to solve today.  Last week a lady came in trying to find her birth mother or information about her own parentage.   Apparently she was adopted by and raised by her birth  grandmother and not her mother who was 16 yrs old at the time.  I told her that we only deal with dead people here.  She did not give up at that point but pursued the need to solve the parentage problem.  The more she spoke about the family relationships, it became clear that this was probably an interfamily adoption.  In any case, those who know the true story are all dead and the records are closed.