THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER: VOLUME 134 APRIL 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

I was planning on vising the Indy Lowe family the first week of March but two things conspired to thwart my plans. Ming Lee was hospitalized for a week and asked me to delay my trip until he was home again and that week The Corona Virus – Covid 19 became a concern in our country. Thankfully Ming Lee is home with his family and feeling much better but no-one can visit him due to the pandemic. I am so glad that he and Lori have Blake and Claudia with them ( as their schools are closed and operating online) meaning they have a lot of family time, games and activities to enjoy together! And since they are all foodies they can appreciate each others efforts in the kitchen!.

The children were on Spring Break in mid March when it was decided that on the Kansas side of the state line they would not be returning to school for the remainder of the school year, and on the Missouri side it was determined that they would take another week or so off, which was gradually extended until the end of the year too. Coryn and Kay are both working from home for the remainder of the school year. Sean and Sarah are home with Emmy Lou, their company, Cerner had everyone who could work from home do so early in the development of this pandemic.

I am virtually confined to my house and garden as my boys think my age puts me in the high risk category and thus I am allowed very limited contact with my Kansas City family which is very hard as I adore being with my grand children. Sean, Coryn and Kay are making sure I have food! In fact I have never eaten so well in years thanks to them! Bryn and Sean went in together on a huge Costco order – they must have bought me at least 8lbs of cheese! Then Leslee-Ann and Marc purchased another lot of supplies for me a couple of weeks later!

During this trying time Kay and Richard moved from their home in Overland Park to their new one in Prairie Village over Easter weekend! Unfortunately due to social distancing none of our family members could help with their move. Normally this would have been an all out family effort but as Richard is out on the front lines every day he is probably most at risk of contracting the virus. I can't wait to see their new home in person and make some helpful decorating suggestions! Of course I have seen the online Realtor photographs and Kay gave me a virtual tour on Facebook!

Since the Easter Weekend coincided with my Birthday this year I had a small celebration with Sean, Sarah , Emmy Lou and Josh! Pizza and a delicious chocolate mousse cake! It was my first sighting of Josh since his return from Florida two weeks previously. My boys are taking this quarantining and social distancing very seriously, far more so than I think necessary but of course failure to comply means even more limited time with my grandchildren! We also used Zoom as a family so all eight of my children were able to interact with me and each other. Lainee had mentioned in a recent phone call that her family was using this to stay in touch. I had never heard of it but several of my kids use it all the time apparently!They have set up a weekly ' Happy Hour' during this time of home confinement.

The previous weekend Coryn had escaped to my house to pick up some masks for her family and asked if I could possibly make some more for friends who would be so grateful. She even contributed an old plaid flannel shirt to make some more macho looking masks. Of course I said I could and she suggested that I should get right to it! She would pick up lunch for us! I thought that she might want to mention her plans to Jeremy as she had left him with the kids under the impression that she was just stopping by my house to pick up some masks and then do some grocery shopping. I pointed out that Jeremy probably was expecting her back with lunch somewhere in all those grocery bags but she just shrugged and and said he'd figure it out. She needed a break from working remotely with two children around 24/7. I had mentioned to her and all other family members that I was running out of elastic for mask making so Coryn bought over a tablecloth I had made for Ava's bedroom when she was into Princess décor, which had an elastic casing to keep yards of sparkling pink tulle around the table. I set Coryn to work unpicking it all so I could use the elastic for her new order of masks. Of course she complained the entire time she was working on it but since she doesn't sew she couldn't switch jobs with me! Actually it was worth my time since I got a good lunch and a couple of bottles of wine for my efforts!

A sparkly pink  custom mask for Coryn!

patriotic themed one!

For friends of Leslee_Ann!

A couple of months ago I decided to ditch my cable TV as it was costing me north of a hundred dollars a month. I mainly watch British shows on PBS, the news, and football :I knew that with an antenna I could watch all these shows for free! I ordered two of them for Sean to hook up to my televisions. It has been well over four decades since I have watched television without paying a cable company so I was surprised to find myself taken back in time to when I lived in my flat in England in the early seventies and judged a boyfriend's worth by how many times he was willing to get up off the couch and walk the antenna around the room in hopes of getting a watchable picture with sound! My new antenna may be more compact but it seems to have improved very little in its ability to deliver a sharp picture without a lot of position changes! Every time I switch channels I seem to have to get myself off the couch and move it around to get a signal. With hind insight I can admit that perhaps this wasn't the best timing on my part going into our long quarantine! I just hope that by the time my Chiefs are back on the field I will have perfect signal strength or I may have to figure out another streaming device!

I spent Easter Sunday with Sarah, Sean, Emmy Lou, and Josh feasting on steak and smoked ribs and would never have believed that a few hours later Sarah would be delivering her baby! On Sunday afternoon she was putting together an outdoor activity center for Emmy Lou and was in great spirits. She was still comfortably pregnant and actually hoping to make it into her ninth month with this baby but it was not to be. The next day she went into labor about four in the morning and gave birth just over three hours later to:

LIAM ALEXANDER LOWE

APRIL 13^th 2020

WEIGHT: 6LBS 5OZS

LENGTH: 181/2 INCHES

I awoke to a text shortly before the baby was born to let me know what was happening and that Josh would be arriving with Emmy Lou soon. Once again Sarah delivered one month and two days before her due date! I guess we should all place an educated bet on the next baby's birthday!

Emmy Lou stayed with me for a couple of days before her parents came home from the hospital with her baby brother. Emmy Lou refers to him as “THAT” and to date is doing a great job of showing him who is in charge!

At my earliest opportunity later in the week I drove over to Lee's Summit to spend some time with Ava Claire and Owen and to belatedly give them their Easter Baskets! They had made me some beautiful hand painted dollar store ceramic bunnies for my birthday which are now proudly displayed in my garden .Ava Claire was very upset that she couldn't be with me on my birthday but unfortunately she and Owen had been playing with their neighborhood friends and so it was decided to err on the side of caution. Frankly I think Grandma is more likely to die of a broken heart than the Corona virus!

I saw Kay and Richard a couple of times around Easter as they stopped over the weekend before to pick up some masks , insisting on remaining six feet away in the front yard and again the following week when in the midst of moving they dropped off some beautiful plants and a cheesecake for my birthday. So thoughtful and totally unexpected with all that they had to accomplish that day! I am so looking forward to being able to gather with all my Kansas City family and to visit my other family. I was hoping to make frequent trips to Indy this Spring but of course the Corona Virus has most of us confined to our homes!

I think the most stressful part of this pandemic has been watching the President of the United States of America prove that he is totally unfit to lead us. The nonsensical remarks about dousing our internal organs with bleach and somehow finding a way to get a strong light inside of us as a potential cure was so ludicrous that it is hard to fathom that his own party has not said enough of this crap and had him declared medically insane! Of course his thinking is probably affected by all the bleach he pours on his head and the hours he spends in his tanning bed! We can only hope that he tries to shove a plugged in light bulb in one of his orifices!

Hoping we can plan a full family reunion in the not too far distant future! I miss and love you all and hope you all stay safe ! Family and Friends are the most valuable of all in this time although toilet paper is a close runner up! Love from your Mother who's bowels are always in an uproar over something!