The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)

Very long story, condensed.  I first met Reba and her husband Vic at the 1999 Folk Alliance in Albuquerque, and we crossed paths again at the Kerrville Folk Festival a few months later (May).  They started coming down to attend the South Florida Folk Festival, first for a week at a time, then two weeks, then a month, which segued to many months (December through April:  snowbird status!).  

Vic passed in 2009, and Reba continued her visits.  We got together regularly, just the two or us or with friends... for concerts, dinners, socially.  Reba was my road trip buddy, always up for crossing county lines!  In fact, it was our last outing (to St. Augustine, to see Dar... 😍) before the pandemic shut everything down in mid-March 2020.

I would ask her to text me her grocery list once a week, I'd have everything Instacarted to my house, and then drive it up to her apartment (20 minutes north of me), where she'd put the perishables in the freezer and fridge, and then we'd sit on her back patio, masked and six feet apart, for a lovely chat.  Reba stuck it out until late-June and then decided to move back to her home in Maryland, and then a few months later to her daughter Judy's in California.

Whenever I was on my way to pick her up for an event (she didn't drive at night), it was my tradition to text "crossing Cleary" (Boulevard), which meant I was close to her apartment, and she'd come out to meet me.  We joked that I should write a song/poem with that title and, last week when I remembered it was her birthday (84th, I think), I decided I had procrastinated long enough.  I love you, RH!

SONG:  The Long and Winding Road by The Beatles

BOOK:  Ira Says Goodbye by Bernard Waber

POEM:  Crossin’ Cleary (a parody to the tune of Makin' Whoopee) by Susan Moss, dedicated to RebaH, with boundless (and boundary-less) love... 💞

Another winter, SoFla exodus

Another snowbird, Reba comes back to us

Another season, another reason

for Crossin’ Cleary

A few festivals, a lot of concerts

Many dinners, sometimes include desserts

It's really thrillin’ that I’m so willin' 

to cross Cleary

Picture a little apartment

Down where the hibiscus cling

Picture the same sweet apartment

Think what a year can bring

We dealt with COVID and social distance

She's so appreciative, and she missed us

Thank god for Instacart, folks, that's what she gets, folks

when we cross Cleary

Another year, or maybe less

What's this I hear? She’s leaving us

She took the train back, she asked us to help pack

oh, crossin’ Cleary

She’s settled near San Fran, we shipped her clothes and

We text and e-mail, we Zoom once in a while

We miss her dearly, those visits sincerely,

no more crossin’ Cleary

Sometimes I drive that way to Parlour Vegan or Tarjhay

My eyes get misty, I still have her key

It makes me feel love, to remember the years of 

crossin’ Cleary

QUOTE:  "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao Tzu