Yesterday, B and I drove to Pioche to attend a funeral for his aunt R. What are the chances that his aunt R and my aunt R would die within two weeks of each other and have funerals six days apart? The picture, above, is of the M & N B-----n family--B's grandparents, and their eight children as well as some of the eight children's spouses and a few of their children. Uncle R died in the war but Aunt R, Aunt H, Uncle J and now Aunt R have all died since I came into the family. B's grandparents and their children are all gone now except the three "babies" of the family.
There was a nice service in the LDS chapel. B's parents, three siblings, two siblings' spouses and B and I were there. There were a few other familiar faces (familiar to me) but not many. I'd met this aunt R only twice that I can recall. And her daughter said Aunt R had always appreciated our Christmas cards so that was nice to know.
I've heard of the name "Pioche" all of my life but I do not recall ever being in the town of Pioche. Evidently, I've driven past Pioche once on the highway, but I don't remember much about it.
I'm always, for some perverse reason, looking for somewhere else to live, particularly now where we could be gainfully unemployed as easily elsewhere as we are here.
There were things I liked about Pioche. For example, I always relate to a one-ward town (which is what Pioche seemed to me, despite the large chapel), because I grew up in a one-ward town. I liked that the whole town was situated on a steep hillside, which is different from flat areas I'm used to. However, I don't think Pioche is the town for me (besides the fact that B maintains I'd never REALLY move). It would be too cold there for me, for one (desert rat that I am), and too far from shopping and essential services for another (I've waited fifty years for the shopping choices and the essential services to come nearer to us here in what a couple of my N-----n aunts called, alternately, the "Navel of the Universe" and the "Tri-cities"). Pioche looked like it still had a pretty hard-scrabble existence, even more so than here. But I am drawn to a small-town which we really don't have here anymore in the Navel of the Universe, although I know that "small town" is a relative perception.
