Barbara J. Hamby

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Driving

I am packed and almost ready to leave for Seattle. I’m not looking forward to the memorial service on Friday. I do look forward to seeing relatives and friends, however.

Since I’ll be going alone, I’ll be practicing my freeway driving skills. For the last two years most of my driving has been in and around the metropolitan area of Portland. Now that I’m older, I want to continue driving under a variety of conditions. I don’t want to lose the skills I spent more than fifty years developing.

I’ve watched friends and relatives who were widowed and had not been allowed to do much driving, or handle finances, or keep in practice at other things their spouses took care of. The transition back to single living and being responsible for all their own activities was made more difficult for some of them because they were rusty. I hope to be able to continue to use the knowledge and skills I still have for as long as possible.