Happy Birthday, Dan - Memories of Frankie - Where are my Glucose Tabs!

Jennifer Hetrick celebrates the fifth anniv of Frank Kelso Woolf's life and work.

MEMORIES OF FRANKIE

I hold up my coffee cup

which in honor of you

I drank outside. You'd still

recognize the world that Someone

rented for us. Look at those silly birds

quarreling in the birdbath. Your work

is so fine, I've hidden it away in the

middle bedroom. They've found a couple of new planets

since you left, demoted Pluto. Frankie you were so sure of yourself

so sure of yourself until you took that final plunge, that final

final ...

*

Returned to Willow Grove Physical Therapy for exercises and measurements on my bad back.

Super-tall MATT was my therapist.

My prowess had deteriorated quite a bit.

He was impressed however when I squatted, as my late Gramma Lily did when she planted flowers.

Walking is the best exercise.

Scott and I walked along the Pennypack Trail.

Foolish me had again injected too much and I was fading, fading.

Where were my glucose tabs?

I had removed em from my backpack as they were TOO FRIGGIN HEAVY!

This is how people die. I would've asked someone on the trail - loads of people - to call the police.

I did have a smooshed peanut butter bar which I ate from my backpack.

Gotta find out where the Warminster Library is as I have a class there this afternoon from 1 to 3 pm.

The map says Route 263 but what is the name of the street?

*


LEST YOU FORGET

The DEMING was aleady there
It meant "crook" in the old country
said Dad
We agreed on Nathaniel or Daniel
but only Daniel bore a nickname

I'd already moved to PA when one day
I looked out the window
"Paul's Interiors" read the white van
in the drive next door

Upon occasion I'd email Dad
at a "cox.net" address if I
needed an answer to a scientific
question

No more tomorrows for Dad and me
but you, on your forty-third birthday,
know what it's like to be the finest
dad there ever was.

Celebrating with your charming noisy
family on October 9 at the Franklin Institute
while the world assumes its place in the cosmology
thanks to discoveries made yesterday by Nobel scientists.

Always look up in the sky.
For wonders seen and unseen.
A telescope is the perfect gift
for new scientists to be born.

Your gift awaits you when you get home,
DPD.