Regena Larrabee Seehausen, my mother,  looking out over the ocean a few months (around February 1964) before her death in July 1964.    My mother was travelling with her friend Lillian S, who had trained with her to be a nurse.    People were congratulating her on her pregnancy.  She was 48.  In reality she was retaining fluid in her abdomen because of her deadly cancer.

At that time, I was sixteen years old, and was delighted that she was going on a little trip.  I helped her prepare.  I remember some special moments in the “playroom” of our house in the evening, but I cannot remember their content.

Upon her return, she brought this gigantic mortar and pestle.  They had stowed it in the front of the aircraft.  In those days they did not have as many regulations.    I have been unable to find out anything about it online.

 The giant carved wooden mortar and pestle which Regena Larrabee Seehausen carried back from the Bahamas in late winter, 1964.