Pat Bean's blog

Pacee and Peaches

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” – Sydney Smith

No Regrets Here

My granddaughter, Patricia Colleen Bean, was named after me, but she has always been called Pacee.

She is the ninth of my 17 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but the only one whom I saw come into this world. I was honored to be in the room with my son and his wife for her birth. That’s because, at the time, I was the only family they had within 1,200 miles.

Very few events in my life can compare with the high I had the day of her birth. One of my greatest pleasures in her early months of life was watching her and my beloved dog, Peaches play together. Peaches, a golden cocker spaniel, would jump into her playpen for the fun event.

Pacee at Easter

But life is ever changing, and soon my son moved his family back to Texas, leaving me in Utah once again without nearby family. I only saw Pacee maybe once a year from that time on.

She grew into a beautiful girl – and on December 13^th, she is graduating from Texas A&M University with a civil engineering degree.

Having just recently returned from two weeks in Texas for a family reunion, I pleaded that I could not attend the graduation. Yesterday, however, I realized that I couldn’t miss it. To do so would leave me with regrets and I’ve promised myself that I would be an old woman with no regrets.

Pacee, today. Oh my oh my. Where did time go?

So I spent most of yesterday making plans for a quick trip that involves an economy (better gas mileage than my RV, Gypsy Lee) rental car, a pet-friendly hotel (Pepper’s going with me) to break up the 900-mile drive into two days, calling family members to say I was crashing at their houses, raiding my savings, and clearing the decks for a December 10 departure.

Don’t you just love it when everything comes together?

Bean’s Pat: Day of the Condor http://tinyurl.com/lde5nlj I have been in love with condors ever since, as an editor, I put the picture of the first captive born condor, on Page 1 of my newspaper.