Trip Downtown

Russ (and I!) made another goal this week. Russ had not been downtown since his stroke and has been wanting to make the trip to honor the secretary he used to work with. She will soon be retiring after many years in the JEMA office. About a year ago his goal was to make the trip by train, but as time went by we realized that was too ambitious a goal since Russ' strength has been declining. I offered to drive him knowing that too would be quite the challenge (any trip is taxing for Russ, there's the emotional toll of seeing his old life, there's the daunting challenge of driving downtown to a place in Tokyo I've never driven to, and I wondered how I'd manage Russ and the car once we got into the bustling heart of this enormous metropolis.)

God blessed our trip with success. Our friend Steve offered to ride down with us. In addition to being one of the most interesting conversationalists that I know, it was really reassuring to us to know that once we got downtown, if I couldn't find a parking place at the center, Steve could take Russ in while I searched for a spot. There are thousands more cars in Tokyo than legal parking spots so parking alone is a huge deterrent for taking a car down there. We really wouldn't have needed Steve to go with us since everything went very smoothly, but having him with us was a huge stress reliever for us.

Our time with Russ' former coworker was a blessing. I made a cake and took tea for us to have a snack together. The time brought satisfying closure to a chapter of his life.