Tag Archives: Tuba City (AZ)

The Hana Chronicles: Month 7, Day 13

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

August 3, 2026- Hana has taken to kneeling and looking at the camera that is above her crib, when she wants someone to come to her. She will start babbling, in a sensible cadence, so I know that she is thinking about what to say. Her appetite has also increased, since her upper incisors have come in.

She comes to me, in the playpen, when she wants to practice standing. It is easier to grab onto Papa than onto the play pen lining, and besides, I will both hold her up and cheer her on. Although “I am Baby” is one of her latest phrases, she has a quite elevated agenda, for a seven-month-old.

HANA’S NOTE- I like it when Daddy calls, because then Papa lets me listen to the phone call. Any other time, the phone is off-limits.

YEAR IN REMEMBRANCE-1986 This was another seismic year. Late on a January night, I took a call from South Korea. A Baha’i friend there, who knew that Penny was getting her Master’s Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language, called to ask whether she would be interested in taking his position: Visiting Professor of English, in the Department of English Language and Literature, at Jeju National University. Her half-conscious response was: “Sure, why not?”

Despite a lot of internal back and forth on the matter, she took the position and we began to uncouple from Tuba City. We made arrangements to move ourselves, and our household items, in August. We left Tuba in June and spent two months at NAU, in Flagstaff. I was taking courses towards a School Administrative Certificate, and had 12 credits left to earn. Six of those credits were covered that summer.

It was only two weeks into the summer session, when I got the phone call that my father had passed away. On a Sunday morning, his heart failed him, as he prepared for a routine visit to my youngest brother’s residential facility. I made flight arrangements, almost immediately, in rather a foggy state of mind, and called one of my professors, to explain the situation. He promised to tell my other professor. Penny was unable to join me, as her key exam was the following Saturday. We went to get her food for the week, as I would have the car to drive to Phoenix. Then, I was off. I got to Boston around 11 p.m., meeting my brother, Dave at Logan Airport. A short time later, I was holding my mother as tightly as I had when her mother had passed, thirty-six years earlier. It was a week of remembrance, giving and receiving solace and yard work. I enlisted the help of a few uncles and cousins for my mother, before I left to go back to Arizona.

We arrived in South Korea, in mid-August. A week was spent with American friends in Osan, outside of Seoul. Acclimating to Korean life in Metro Seoul was a bit like assimilating to American life, by living in New York or Los Angeles, It was a bit of a Boot Camp, though, and we were in fairly good shape, by the time we went down to Jeju. A few weeks later, we were in our Teacherage, Penny began her teaching work and I spent my days tutoring a few Korean students and getting to know the coffee houses of downtown Jeju. Penny and I also went to the southern island town of Seogwip’o. As it happened, the area had just been hit by a typhoon, and we saw lot of clean-up going on.

My own work as a Visiting Professor of English would start, early the following year.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 7, Day 12

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Hiking and Nature, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

August 2, 2026- After yesterday’s frenetic activity, I stayed close to home all day today. Hana was fairly quiet, as well, just being glad to be with her parents, sitting in the playpen and talking softly to her Mom, then taking an hour’s nap on her Daddy’s shoulder.

We did go to a couple of stores, buying some small household items and a few more groceries for the week’s meal planning. Both of Hana’s parents worked very hard today, to get all of her meals ready and preparing lunches that they can take with them, without a lot of last-minute preparation. They even baked chocolate chip cookies together, this afternoon, once we got back.

Papa did back-up work, but my day was not all that hard. Being an extra pair of hands, when Hana needed to be changed,and when she was done being bathed, holding out the towel and wrapping her in it, was enough. I cleaned up a fair number of items that were in boxes, and have enough space to set aside paintings that are lying about the common room, outside my bedroom.

HANA’S NOTE- I want to grab anything I see, these days. Today, I figured out how to unlatch the clasp on my bouncy chair. Daddy caught me, though, and refastened it.

YEAR IN REMEMBRANCE-1985- My parents visited Penny and me, and we took them around Arizona-to Grand Canyon, Sedona, Prescott, Flagstaff, Montezuma Castle, the Hopi villages and Phoenix. We enjoyed a day or so in Tuba City as well. It would be the last time I saw Dad, so I’m glad they seemed to enjoy themselves. Penny’s parents also came out for a visit, in September. They were faithful, in making a yearly visit, while we were in Tuba City.

This was a year for gardening, as we had no out of state trips planned. We grew squash, tomatoes, peppers, melons and corn. It was a healing exercise for both of us. I also focused on Baha’i teaching activities, while Penny was in Flagstaff, working on her second Master’s Degree. When she felt lonely, I left the Baha’i activities and stayed with her at the University. Re-setting priorities was something on which I did not always excel. Things worked out, though,and we had a fairly good Fall and Winter.

Our life together was, however, about to head in a different direction, in the year to come.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 7, Day 10

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Hiking and Nature, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

July 31, 2026- We couldn’t go for our walk today, because two of us over the age of 30 forgot to take the stroller out of the trunk, when we got back from the doctor’s, on Wednesday. Hana occupied herself nicely, using me as a support in pulling herself up to a standing position, several times today. This is something she want to do on her own and she will get it accomplished. I would say that, at this rate, she will be standing, pretty easily, by the middle of August.

Her speech is also rapid fire and sounds fairly specific, though much of it is babbling, still. “Mama”, “Oma”, “Apa”, “Daddy”, “Dada”, “Mommy” and “Papa” are all spoken with regularity. “I want”, “I don’t want”, “Yeah” and “”I love” also are clearly pronounced.

HANA’S NOTE- I really, really, really want to walk. I like standing up. I can see so much more.

YEAR IN REMEMBRANCE-1983 My paternal grandmother was someone I thought would live forever. A month shy of her 84th birthday, Nana was choking on something,at a Senior Center lunch. A well-meaning gentleman intervened, and performed a Heimlich procedure on her. It didn’t have the desired effect and she had to be hospitalized. She died shortly thereafter. Nana lived to see 49 grandchildren and at least a dozen great-grandchildren. One of those grandchildren preceded her in death. The rest of us honoured her memory.

Penny and I settled into Tuba City, and into our work. We were regulars at a coffee house that was put on each week, at the Episcopal Church. We had people over for dinner, at least once a week and taught those who were interested, about the Baha’i Faith. One comment, from a video store operator, who was a member of Four Square Gospel, still sticks in my memory: “All religions follow the same God?” That is indeed our story, and we’re sticking to it.

We also traveled around the Southwest: Pipe Spring, Colorado City and Lake Havasu City (for Christmas), in Arizona; on our First Anniversary-Durango to Silverton, Colorado (on the Narrow Gauge Railroad); Chama,Rio Grande Gorge, Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico and several Baha’i-sponsored events, from Phoenix and Casa Grande to Jemez Springs and Crystal, New Mexico. In the Fall, my brother, Glenn, married his sweetheart, Barbie. So we made the trip back to Massachusetts, at the height of foliage season. It was sweet.

We did very well, as a couple, during this first year of wedlock.

The Hana Chronicles: Month 7, Day 8

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Posted by on in children, Community, Education, Family, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

July 29, 2026- Hana, Aram and I visited one of her medical providers this afternoon. The visit brought good reports and five different medical center staff smilingly remarked at how much Hana has grown, since her last visit-three months ago. She has hit all the markers-babbling, sitting up on her own, crawling with her torso raised and high receptive vocabulary. They clearly see a happy, healthy little girl.

Once we were home, and it was play time again, Hana crawled all over her grandfather and at one point, after I helped her stand with both feet full on the floor, she took two steps, while I was supporting her. She looked at her father and said “Daddy”, not “dada”.

These are things for which I have given up most of what I did before she was born. These are the things for which I am keeping myself in good health, for which I want to live at least as long as my dear mother did. I see a great future ahead for this child of the Divine. That we are related is beside the point.

HANA’S NOTE- I usually don’t like going to the doctor’s office. Today felt nicer somehow.

YEAR IN REMEBRANCE-1981- By the time New Year’s had come around, my first housemate had left, and a second, an Iranian student, had been with me for three months. He, too, left, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, as his home area was one of the battle zones. I had him call his family, that night, and he found they were all okay, with a relative in Teheran. Two months into the New Year, I had another pair of housemates, a couple-Chris and Carol. They .were still there when I left in August. I also got a phone call “from AT&T”, two months into the year-asking why I had called Iran. Although it was quite clear that the caller was from a Federal agency, and not the phone company, I was honest as to the reason for the call. I was then told that it was excused, this time, but I was never to do such a thing again. (Calling a nation with which the U.S. does not have diplomatic ties is a big no-no.)

This has broader significance. I had begun a romantic relationship with Penny, who I had met in Zuni, in December of last year. She was living and working in Keams Canyon, on the Hopi Reservation. I would go up there, one or two weekends a month, hitching-as I had no car. She would come down to Flagstaff, on other weekends. This was one huge change in my life.

The other was the Baha’i Faith. Penny had been a member of the Faith for about four years. She shared its tenets with me, and when I read the biography of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, I saw no reason why I , too, should not embrace the Teachings of Baha’ullah. I was put in contact with the Baha’is in Flagstaff, and declared my Faith, in February. The effects were both immediate (I gave up alcohol and gambling) and gradual ( Slowly, almost too slowly, I emerged from the fog of autism.)

I completed my Master’s program in August, by which time Penny had also completed her Master’s, in California, and had both found a job near San Diego and moved on from another relationship that had sprung up over the summer. My feelings for her didn’t go away, and by September, I was making monthly visits to see her in Julian, CA.

With an Arizona School counseling certificate, I was able to get a job at an Intermediate (Grades 4-6) School, in Tuba City, AZ, in the western part of the Navajo Nation, bordering the Hopi Nation. Thus, did a five-year residence, and a long-standing friendship, with these First Nations people come to be.