Ruth Maus

Our friend Ruth Maus died Wednesday. She had battled ovarian cancer for a long time and seemed to be doing well when Dorothy and I saw them a month ago. Then it suddenly went downhill. She had just entered hospice and she died peacefully. Our friendship started at Armco

25 years ago. I'll miss her.

On a brighter note, my Middfest guests are here. I have Basil Mills from South Africa (with a crocodile and a South African porcupine); also a woman from Indianapolis who is part of a troupe doing reenactments of the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books on Botswana; and three musicians from Philadelphia. Middfest goes till tomorrow evening.

Dorothy achieved a coup this week. She notified the Journal that Milton's Donuts would be celebrating 50 years in business, so the paper wrote up a nice article. The irony is that when we went to buy doughnuts on the big day, Friday, they had closed early because they were sold out. It was all Dorothy's fault.

Someone at the church unearthed a box of Irv Emmons' sermons, so on World Communion Day tomorrow Tim Doty is going to preach one of them. I gave him a copy of Irv's benediction that I have on the wall here, and I think Tim will use that too.

Love, Mother