Last day in Portugal and a death

Bug- this is happy moma becuase she knows she is coming home to you. By the time you see this, I should be on the plane heading back to you. Baby, right now I miss you. I loved talking to you tonight - thank you for the reminder that I belong at our house. You are more precious to me than anything. See- another happy momma. I took this during our lunch break. It had staopped raining and I was hoping for a dry evening- but it was not to be

Dinner in Cacais (Cash- Ky- Ish). We went into town (about 20 minutes from the hotel) and shopped. I was able to get 2 small presents for Bug, one stocking stuffer for him and nothing else. WE stopped at an Itailin resturant and had pasta- dinner was with teh team from Isreal and the team from Estonia. I also had some time with the team from Malta and the team from Romania. Yep- in one meeting, I have heard quite a lot of new languages. This has been a good meeting, I am very glad I came.

Here is the hotel this afternoon- with the clouds shourding the mountains- I liked it- the rain was not cold, just wet (HAHAHA).

Here is from the morning before the rain started at the hotel- but it was raining up in the mountians.

I was very happy to have the day end and be in my room packing to come home. As I was packing, I was checking emails and I saw I had an email from a friend. Just the title alone told me something was wrong. When I clicked open the email, there was the news- Walt died in a boating accident on 04Dec2008- he was 67 years old and had been married to Katie for 46 years. I am still crying.

Walt was the person who believed in me and helped me come into the industry that I am in now. I was a retail store manager and Walt took a chance in 1994 and hired me to help out temporarily while a colleague was out on emergency medical leave. That 12 week position turned into a 2.5 year contractor position, that turned into 4 years at Parke-Davis as a Data Manager. Though Walt left PD before I left, I still kept in contact with him and Katie. I last saw them in 2006 when I was in NC for training with my current company. They invited me to their house on the lake for the weekend. It was such a good time, such a refresher to see them again and to have a house full of love and peace to relax in. And that is what I loved about Walt and will miss- his ability to put you at peace and to help you settle in and relax. Walt was a generous man, a gentleman, a loving husband, loving father, awesome granddad and a great friend. Walt will be missed by so many people, but most of all, he will missed by his Katie.

I have to go get some sleep now, my plane leaves bright and early tomorrow morning.

Love and hugs to you,

Deb