Grandfather's Clock and Grandma's Gazebo

Mom died 2 weeks ago today, and as scheduling and Wifey would have it, it was time to visit my father in law at Miami Jewish Home. The Ds were together on Brickell, and out with friends, so we toted the dogs along with us. We drove to MJH and brought the pups to my father in law's room. He was having lunch, and happily shared with Mads and Vienna, who snuggled with him as he sat on the edge of the bed. I took the dogs and told Wifey to wheel her father to the gazebo -- our usual outside meeting spot. Ah, the MJH gazebo. Mom loved her time there. First, there was an ice cream machine, and I would always treat her to a chipwich, which she pronounced the "best ice cream she ever had." We spent the lion's share of our time together in the gazebo -- looking out over the lawn and ancient trees of the courtyard. Mom's final Rosh Hashonah and Passover dinners were there. We pushed the patio tables together, put on a vinyl table cloth, and shared our final family meetings there. It was lovely. And I walked up to the gazebo today, and it was GONE! It was roped off with caution tape, and was a pile of demolished lumber! I had noticed some of the roof decking had rotted. I guess the administration decided to simply replace the structure. Their timing was perfect -- Mom never had to go outside and see the most significant structure of her final year in ruins... I recalled one of the favorite songs from my early childhood -- Burl Ives's "Grandfather's Clock." I remember singing it with my parents when I was 4 or 5 -- about a big clock that lasted as long as the 90 year old owner -- until it "stopped short, never to go again when the old man died." Mom outlived Yankee Stadium. They built the stadium when she was a child, and it seemed it would be there forever. Mom, too. Wifey wheeled her Dad back to his room as I waited outside the reception area, watching the gathering storm clouds of a Miami late Spring afternoon. We took the dogs to Berries in the Grove, and then to the UM campus for a walk around the lake. The dogs loved it. So did I. On the drive out of campus, I passed my old apartment site -- a place I lived and loved living for 3 and 1/2 years. The UM administration deemed it fit for demolition. So now I just have the memories. Dust in the wind -- or, a