Twelve years ago, I was living in a beautifully forested area across the street from a serene, inviting beach in Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast, when my younger son came for a visit. Gorgeous surroundings beckoned every morning and rewarded the early riser with surprising treasures, including a rainbow of agates, perfectly preserved sand dollars and an amazing variety of shells deserted by their inhabitants, now decorating the pristine sands.
My son, Jason, and I were walking along my regular five-mile morning beach trek when he turned to me and said, “Mom, Kathi and I have been talking. You need to be closer to family.”
What he meant was that I should move back to Modesto — where I was born and raised until 1941, when my mother moved us to Salinas when I was 9…