Albany, Oregon. I am leaving the family phase of the trip and will be entering the friend phase. These are Sue’s friends and it is important for me to spend some time with people who knew her differently than I. I leave Crescent City around 9am and drive up the coast. It is spectacular scenery and I stop numerous times for photos, if I continue like this I will never get to Joyce’s. Soon both the weather and the road intervene, clouds move in and the road moves a little off the coast. It is now dreary and drizzling so I step on it. I arrive at the former Joyce Lundstrom’s, a friend of Sue’s and a very brief love interest of mine in the summer of 1967 as the three of us hung out at “Trudy’s”. Sue babysat Trudy’s kids in the smallest house in St. Louis Park. It was also a refuge. For me it was a place where I could get away from mom and grandma, the women were much younger at Trudy’s. For Sue it was a refuge from a chaotic home life and the money she earned gave her some independence. For Joyce I think she also needed to get away from her home. For Trudy it was a refuge from the police. We didn’t know it at the time but she was a prostitute and she would often run in the door as if people were chasing her. She often took the money and ran from visiting businessmen without performing her craft. But she was usually running from pimps or the police. It was pretty exciting.
We reminisce until it is time for bed. In the morning we get into some discussions, which ultimately lead to “ultimate reality”, a topic I have brushed against several times during my trip. For Joyce, ultimate reality is the bible. It has guided her through healing and led her on the journey toward a wonderful life with her husband Ward and her family. It is a rock solid base to operate from. I still struggle with ultimate reality. I have not been given the gift of absolute sureness. I search and doubt and yearn to learn. The only true certainty for me is love. As I said in Sue’s funeral oration: if God is love then I believe in God because I believe in love. All that is good in my life has come out of my need to love and my need for love. This trip is motivated by my love for Sue and my need for healing love. Love always aims me in the right direction, and right now that direction is Vancouver, Washington and Donna Peterson.
Joyce: You have a bright, lively mind and a way of defining things that brings them into clear focus. You were kind and loving to Sue for which I will always be grateful. You are also a rascal, which endears you to me. Ward is a good man and your love for each other is evident. Jon

p.s. I still haven’t done my taxes, I think the tax police are following me. Where is Trudy’s when you need a place like that?