Past travels with old friends

Recently, I've been thinking about my new Air Companions venture and I started remembering several disabled people I have accompanied on trips. One of my fondest memories is of Ed Haskell. I took care of Ed in my home for a little over 2 years until he passed away. He was a brother of Henry Haskell. Henry was the founder of the Blueberry Cove Camp in Tenants Harbor, ME. Ed was about 80 years old when he came to live with me. Before that he had been living on his own in New York City. Unfortunately, he had a stroke and was no longer able to live alone. Henry wanted Ed to be near him as Ed was not married and had no children. And, that's how Ed came to live with me.


Ed was a very interesting man. He was a scientist. He literally wrote text books! (Can you imagine?) He also wrote one novel named "Lance". He could speak 7 languages fluently. He grew up in a missionary family. His father was American and his mother was Swiss and they raised their 7 (I think) children in Bulgaria as missionaries. Ed was a world traveler and a very politically minded person. So were all his brother and sisters. I had the privilege of meeting several of them. Unfortunately, when Ed had his stroke he was unable to talk. He could still understand what people said (in all 7 languages) and he could sing, but he could not talk. Nevertheless, each week Henry would come to visit and they would have "libations", as Henry called them, and talk to each other in Bulgarian. I thought it was very cool.


Ed loved the outdoors and nature. He walked long distances every day when he lived at my home until he became too confused to find his way. Ed also loved to swim. In the summer I would take him to my parents home in East Union and he would go for a long leisurely swim in their pool. Daily I would read to Ed as he had lost his ability to read (although he denied this and I went along with it). Everything I read to Ed had to do with animals and nature.


I was in my early 30s when Ed lived with us and my children were school age. My whole family has always been close. I'm talking about parents, siblings, etc. Several of us decided to go on a camping trip to New Hampshire. Ed wanted to go so we took him. Henry certainly didn't care as he was quite an outdoors man himself. My husband, my 3 kids and I slept in a tent. Ed slept in a bed I made up for him in the bed of the little pickup truck we owned. Other family members slept in their tents around the sight. My parents brought along their camper. Dad slept in the camper and Mom slept in a tent with my daughter, Rachael; at first. Vinny slept in a tent with my sister Stacey and her husband and their kids. By the way, Ed was very fond of Stacey's son, Victor. Victor was just a toddler at the time and Ed just took a shining to him. You can see Victor standing beside Ed at the edge of the picture I posted. Victor is now 22 years old.


Everything was going well...for a while. After we all fell asleep it commenced to rain buckets, which it always does when I go camping. (This is the reason I no longer like camping :) My mother had a "star gazer" feature in her tent. The star gazer feature means that there is a hole manufactured into the top of the tent so you can look up at the stars at night. Great if it isn't raining. One can cover this hole with a piece of canvas made especially for that. But, my mother did not do that. She and Rachael woke up almost drowning in water because, as I said, it was raining buckets and I mean buckets! Needless to say Rachael had to sleep with us and my mother went into the camper with my father. Things settled down....for a while.


My son, Vinny, walked and talked in his sleep and had night terrors. We don't know why, but he had it bad. Shortly after we all fell asleep again Vinny must of had a nightmare and he started screaming at the top of his lungs that someone was trying to kill him and he wanted me to save him. When he did this sort of thing he was very convincing although he was fast asleep and never remember any of these incidents. Anyway, until we could finally wake him up he continued to scream in terror about being killed. Needless to say, after he was awakened he came to my tent to sleep with us. It was crowded.


Somehow Ed slept comfortably in the pickup and never woke up through all of the goings on. However, when we got up in the morning we noted that all the other people camping in the sites around us had left in the middle of the night. At the time I was thankful no one called the police.


Oh, I almost forgot. Ed knew the Wright brothers; the guys who started all this air travel stuff.