I thought about grandma & grandpa's orchard in Cashmere all day today.  It's the day of your birth, my wonderful father.  I'm sure it was a sunny, eastern Washington spring day.  The trees had lost their blossoms as the buds began their journey to become fruit in my grandpa's apple orchard.  I can imagine your mother, my grandma Alma so anticipating your long awaited birth. And so, a baby boy, John Robert Gerry arrives to join his waiting family, my grandpa & grandma Gerry and his big brother William.  Two darling boys, Billie and Johnny growing in the orchard in the Cashmere
valley in the loving arms of a beautiful little family.  As I stopped to soak in the presence of the farm house, the yard full of flowers and old trees, I could see you all in that lovely home and feel the warmth of the nurturing in my life that began that day with the birth of my much loved, always missed father.  As the farm house remains on that Flowery Trail hill in the Cashmere valley, so also the memories of my family, Grandpa Bill, Grandma Alma, Uncle Bill and you, my father, in the beautiful apple orchard in Cashmere---