Hi everybody out there – I wasn’t going to write tonight –

It has been a week today that Henry left us. Seems like a dream – so busy, so much to attend to, so many calls, so many visits, so many who care. In a strange way it’s as if life is the same, with him in there in the Dodger Den snoozing in his recliner.

I am well aware this is denial, even now…well, handling this the best I can.

BAAM, aka Bobby, Anne, Abby and Maggie left today “for real life to start tomorrow”. This afternoon eagle-eyed Anne went through the bills online as Henry would have, and found two discrepancies – a restaurant added 7$ to the tip our bill, and a hotel rounded up 178$ to 200! And, I always trusted everyone. No more.

This afternoon we went to the airport, yet again, and waved goodbye to our last out of town guest – this time, Adele (Madele) who has become our Resident Nanny, chasing after the six little kids. We are missing all who were here for the weekend.

So tonight I have been writing thank you notes for some hours. Mostly for food – between the neighbors and the church ladies (who we could not beat off with a stick!) we had to buy a second fridge for the overflow. We did have two fridges in Arabia, but that was when we hosted many tennis parties and U Drive parties and endless piano events. Here in the states, life has been simpler – sort of. We have appreciated the much food, though. It is all gone now and we are fending for ourselves. Cindy is manning the kitchen.

Was just reading through some of the tributes – each time I log on am amazed at what Henry has generated with his wonderful life.

Thank you thank you thank you all for writing.

Today was thinking of when he turned 50 – that would have been 17 November 1984. For the man who has access everything, even though he actually lived simply – what to do? Somehow, I thought of a telephone shower. I wrote up a flyer and took it to the post office – this was in Ras Tanura. Explained to the men there that it was for Henry’s birthday, and for that day this paper simply asked people to call him and sing! or say happy birthday. They got quite excited when they realized this was for “The Boss” as they called him. They ran off MORE flyers and put them in every box of everybody in RT! and sent some to Dhahran and Abqaiq. The trick was to keep this a secret, and not let him know who did this to him. He never knew, always assumed it was either someone from drilling, (who would dare? Several people!) or more possibly he presumed one of the U Drives. He was forever planning on how to turn the trick on whoever did this to him, but he never figured it out.

I remember Jim McPeters calling me and saying that the drilling office set up a signup up sheet, about every 10 minutes someone was scheduled to call. And the faculty at the school took this idea and ran with it. Henry had a really busy day…at lunch I innocently asked him how life was, his birthday and all. He sighed, said people kept calling, singing happy birthday, he could get nothing done, and by early mid-morning he finally realized this was one big community joke and just sat with the phone in his hand, waiting for the next call. Some families had each child call separately and sing happy birthday to him. It was a busy day for him – and strangely pleasant that all those people called and cared. I was a little worried, the drilling department came to a standstill for the day. This thing took on an entity of its own, and once set in motion could not be called back .. . somewhat like this website, I guess.

Bye for now … Bonnie and the Cook Family

Oops – it’s 3 am now, and I’ve locked myself out of the internet – so- in a few hours when the computer gurus are awake I’ll get some help here…