Yes,   Coach Lance Erickson and Coach Dale Baker  always had their  comments ready to go with U of Michigan was on the screen... mostly football and basketball.  So this time of year there were several  conversations back and  forth as the BB Big Dance  began and Lance and Dale picked who they thought would win.... UM was always picked as a likely  "final four" participant.... didn't always happen.  If they didn't make it.... there were many excuses and some far-fetched reasons of why they didn't...  Lance might be concentrating more this year as from somewhere  (?) UM Team seems to be getting a little help. 

 OK coaches  ...send those vibes and let's do it...  Love,    Dianne and Helen

Celebrating Micky's 30th birhtday, August 1, 1988, our family set off on a canoe trip. Lance and I agreed to take Mom in our canoe since we had had "more experience". This is a shot taken as we set off on the trip. Needless to say, as it turned out, Lance and I spent more time in the water than the canoe, tried our best to keep Mom's head dry, and learned to never say "more experience" in futue trips! The day was a success, and has been one we often talked about as we recall our adventures together.

PS: Please note the hat: You'll see it on many of the grandchildren as you wander through the pictures in the gallery. Needless to say, it still sits on the shelf in the closet.

For Pa, charades wasn't a game, it was a battlefield. Ever since his infamous "Anna Karenina", I've always tried to follow in his footsteps by coming up with the most obscure and groan-inducing esoterica to baffle the other team.

oh yes... special summer celebration as Pentwater Homecoming Parade goes by with special entries every year.  This may have been one of the  years when our kids were part of the parade with bikes, costumes, and throwing out candy along the way. The rest of the Ericksons, Bakers and Russels are cheering them on. Special games in the morning, this parade and fireworks on shore of Lake Michigan at night... pockets full of  candy and hearts filled with  great memories by the end of the day.

This photo brings smiles on our faces.  For years the three families in Ann Arbor       (Ericksons-Bakers-Russells),  met on  Christmas Eve (after church and  a tour of  "Christmas lights in town")... at different homes but then it became tradition to meet at Ericksons under the biggest indoor Christmas tree in A2 (thanks to Lance and his helpers). I know there are many side stories of getting the huge tree through the door and into the living room.  Three couples happily shared food and memorable good times .. Lance and Helen, Dale and Dianne , and Robert and Mary plus 10 energenic children... who were close friends ( more like "cousins")   and enjoyed many other adventures together especially in Pentwater in the summer.  Special food was always shared as well as exaggerated stories  and the "lounge chair" seemed to be reserved  for Dale's Christmas Eve short nap. These memories will be with us forever!

While I was in nursing school, Lance was burning rubber between Saginaw and Ypsitanti, Mi, often leaving Ypsi right after leaving classes (and classes usually started an hour or so after he got off the midnight shift of work). He would arrive in Saginaw tired and hunrgry, blow his cow horn announcing his arrival at Anderson Hall, and want to go eat. It was during this time of our life that I learned about a greasy spoon not too far from the dorm; so I introduced him to eat. That was 1956. From that day forth, no matter where we lived, we tried to visit Tony's. With great pleasure we learned by way of Nancy (sister-in-law) that a Tony's had openned in St Louis Mi. Thus, nearly every suumer since we have traveled from Pentwater to St Louis to join Nancy at Lance's favorite of all time place to get a really great sandwich and to share an banana split with those who joined us. This picture was taken in Sagainaw when we hauled family along to have the experience. I have noted there are pictures of the banana split in this gallery, too.

So, as you skim throught these pictures and stories, I invite you to experience the zest with which Lance lived his life, the memories we share, and hang on to those to understand what life is really about as you continue your journey.

I know of a story about very young Lance, from the literature on Dr. Erickson, and how he utilized direct and indirect suggestions. I cannot place right now the exact source, but this is a story which caused a profound impression on me. Baby Lance was born with a congenital heart defect; in the early 30s there were no proper medical interventions yet to correct the malfunction. What I know is that Dr. Erickson would walk the grounds of the hospital where they lived in Eloise with Lance, perhaps 4 years old or 5.  Father would elicit in son a keen interest in finding the most robust, most vibrant, tallest trees around (tall obviously, to the child...). Father and son would discuss with meticulous interest how this or that tree survived the harshest storms of the winter; how it survived lightening, and other difficult challenges that trees in the forest normally go through. Dr. Erickson would always emphasize to the young son his ideas on how the tree "healed" from a particular physical challenge to its integrity... The important was to look out for the tallest, most robust, healthy, oldest, long-living trees around. I understand young Lance loved those excursions in the woods; that he would come back home excited, carrying leaves, sticks, and other memorabilia from the 'expedition'... From his father's perspective the essential of the story was: to always aim high, searching for the best outcome ... look for the tallest, most robust, healthy, vibrant, long-living trees.  Lance did.

Katy, Lance, Nick, Christopher all scratching the other's back. Kahiso waiting to get his turn.

From the first date to the last few hours of his life Lance loved backrubs, backscratches. This is the "group" back scratch parties that became the "thing" to do on his 85th birthday.

This picture was taken March, 2016 in Sedona, AZ during a Spirit-Steps drumming ceremony.

As our 85 and 80th birthdays approached our children asked how we wanted to celebrate. I decided that a trip to Sedona would be a wonderful way to usher in our next and last phase of our life-journey. Lance, as usual, agreed. Generally, when we take these trips, we have a few group activities, but in the most part family constelations or subgroups go off on their own adventures. I decided that I wanted the entire family to join me at a drumming ceremony. Again, good natured as he is, he agreed. This is a picture as we prepare for the drumming ceremony. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for both Lance and myself. Members were invited to speak their heart or simply share the love and connectedness that they experienced. We often talked about it afterwards. While one member, our Jakob, was off on a school trip and was unable to join us, we held him in our heart that day.

Lance liked John Denver's songs and certainly shared the spirit of John's poetry. Here is a photo from the John Denver Sanctuary in Aspen, Colorado.  Mark

We all came.   How is it that coming together found its way into your day of celebration, and yet was skipped with all of the other siblings?   Weird.  But true.  

You had it right.  I should have paid more attention and brought it forward. 

I word a pale lavender organdy dress   (what I envisioned to be the most heavenly fabric on earth) with little white cotton socks, and shoes with a jeweled buckle.   Kristi and I got to wear our hair down (which Mom rarely tolerated) and each carried a little plastic blue purse .  We puzzled over what to put in our purses.   I finally inserted a hanky with an embroidered Airedale dog on it  (I had never seen that breed in real life) and a dime in case I needed a phone call.   The tradition of carrying a dime for a phone call lasted for many years, but I don’t know that the emergency phone call ever arrived.  Eventually I gave away the little plastic purse, but think I still have the hanky.   I met a real life Airedale a number of years later, and it brought back all of the recollections of the wedding day.   

We stayed in a little cabin like motel, rustic even for those days    Mom Dad, Robert and Allan, Kristi and I all crowded into this dark little room with insufficient lighting---all focused around dressing properly and being there on time. We had to go outside once dressed, to stay out of each other's way. 

And when the ceremony came,  it surprised me with being kind of short, and what I remember (beyond the glitter of the rhinestones on my shoes) was that the way Grandma and Grandpa stood up with you.  It was so easy to see the generations---- Grandpa and grandma, small people, wiry and old, in contrast with  the two of you, adult and strong, at the peak of beauty.   Yet the commitment between the two of them,  Grandpa and Grandma, and the two of you -- Lance and Cookie echoed the same tune.  Kristi and I   young,  Robert and Allan, half grown and awkward,  -- the four of us looking to Mom and Dad for guidance as to how to conduct ourselves on that occasion-- while BA squeezed in for some special photos of her. 

That was a special day.   And it was the two of you   --- Lance and Cookie_--- that brought us together in Love.   Thank you for those precious moments. My heart and head are filled with special moments of you.  Thank you.  Love Roxie  

In the very early hours of September 12, 2016 I had an encounter with Lance at a soulful, energy level.  I came out of a deep sleep into a meditative state.  I immediately knew that I was communicating with Lance in terms of his transition.  I sent him energy of peace, love and acceptance.  I repeated this communication in various ways for a while.  I communicated thoughts that his presence in my life is deeply loved, while being complete, and that I accepted his transition in peace if that was his choosing.  I thanked him for his love to me, Christel, Nick and Katy.

The space in front of my meditative eyes was dark and dense (not in an unpleasant way).  I could sense my hands and forearms in that space.  As well, I could sense his hands in that space and his grasp, sometimes on my hands and arms; at other times just in that space generally.  The rest of his energy was floating outside of that space.  As I was sending my love and acceptance of his transition, I no longer sensed his grasp on me.  However he stayed in that space.  Since he was still present, I thought that space was possibly the essence of all his other loved ones that he was touching.  I visualized his other loved ones holding helium balloons representing him.  As they accepted his transition, they released their balloons to float up and away.

Then I became a little more awake and aware of my physical body.  Involuntarily, my lips pursed tight and flat; then the ends started curling up; which became a full smile; then my mouth opened slightly to take in long breaths and slowly exhale.  My mind’s eye was now seeing a white and airy space in place of the formerly dark and dense space.  After some time, involuntarily, my hands rose and pressed palms together with the top of my index fingers against my mouth and my thumbs touching the bottom of my chin.  I held this state for a long time while reflecting peacefully about the experience. 

Then I became fully awake.

Mark