RECENT EVENTS AND FAMILY NEWS 

Late May 2008

It has been a long, tedious winter and spring but things are finally looking up, weather- and otherwise. Ginny and Rachel were kept busy transitioning Aline from her Clarksville apartment into Hillcrest Centre in Jeffersonville. She had been declining in function noticeably since last year and had finally reached a point where it wasn’t safe for her to live alone. She was hospitalized in early April with an infection which seemed to aggravate her condition from forgetfulness to dementia. We had hoped that with more consistent nutrition and medication she might recover some function, but she remains only vaguely aware of her situation. She is comfortable and really enjoys the food, which is tasty and ample. Her vision has also deteriorated to where she needs bright light to see anything, so she has been placed in a nice, sunny room. She was able to keep her television and favorite chair, but doesn’t pay much attention to either anymore. She is not bedridden but for safety’s sake is kept in a wheelchair most of the time to guard against falls. Rachel and Ginny visit her a couple of times a week, and Jesse came out from California to see her over Derby week. We could not tell that she ever understood who he was.

In other sad news, we had to say Goodbye to our faithful buddy of ten years, Jaster the Golden Retriever.  Now the fort is held by Wizard and Jake, with feline sidekicks Wickett and Chainsaw (few of you will have seen Chainsaw, who is much more retiring than her name would suggest).

Rachel was working on the housekeeping staff at Hillcrest, but showed such a gift for working with the elderly patients that the management and staff convinced her to take a Certified Nursing Assistant course so that she could be better employed working more directly with the residents.  She will have accomplished this by late June.

Things are busy for Jesse’s family. He is still working for Safeway. Glendon has graduated and is working for NexTag, a price-comparison website headquartered in San Mateo. Alan will be a senior at Berkeley next fall. Chigusa’s father passed away in February, and Chigusa is visiting Japan for a few weeks in June to spend some time with her mother.

Ginny is still working for the musicians but will try to retire this fall to spend more time on the house, the genealogy and the grandkids. We did get an Anna fix at the end of February, when we drove to Cary to babysit for a few days while Jessie and Dan took a break in Las Vegas. Then we just had a return visit over Memorial Day weekend, when the three of them flew out to drive the Sterlings’ Volvo wagon home with them. Bruce and Melody took the Prius with them to Germany but wanted to send the wagon where it could be useful. Bruce and Melody are settled into a rental house in Germany, and just completed a short trip to Florence, where they were appalled to realize the dire condition of the U.S. dollar on a tourist budget. Jess and Anna are leaving soon to spend a few weeks with them, and Dan will join them at the end of the visit.  Ginny and Rog are still hoping to make a trip too ... Melody's fluent German would be very helpful on our planned side trip to Bern, Switzerland to look for Bettler origins.

We enjoyed May with lots of visitors this year. Besides Jesse’s visit, Scotty and Phil and the kids came for Derby weekend. Philip and a friend braved the infield, and the rest of us enjoyed the annual party hosted by Ginny’s boss and his wife, Joe and Linda Spain. Then the next day Rog fired up the grill and made a huge pile of his special chicken, and we hosted as many of the family as could make it. We brought Aline out for the day, and besides our houseguests also hosted Alan, Christopher and Carrie, Matt and Mora, Pat, Bob and Tess, and Joe and Linda.  Check the Photos pages.

In other family news, we enjoyed hearing about Bud's 200th marathon, the Boston Marathon this past April.  And he sent some great photos of the family reunion in Hawaii in April, check the Cousins page to see a few. 

Tom and Mario have been enjoying their time in Portugal, but plan to return next month in time to observe the celebration of Charlestown's 200th birthday.  Tom has created a photo album on Flickr and posted many beautiful photographs of Lisbon. 

And Alyssa Rowe posted another great song on Total Pop Star ... I think it's too late to vote but check it out here!
 

January 2008

We had a nice Christmas and got to enjoy a few more days with Jess and Anna.  Dan had used up his vacation days but was hosted for Christmas by friends in Raleigh.  Everyone else but Rachel enjoyed a fine Christmas dinner at Scotty and Philip's house.  Rachel was on duty at Hill Crest Nursing Home in Jeffersonville, but enjoys her work and caring for the seniors there. We made sure to bring her a nice plate of dinner!

Dan's parents Bruce and Melody are getting ready for their next big adventure, relocating to Germany for several years.  To give us a taste of what they are looking forward to, they hosted us to a fine lunch in a little German cafe in Radcliff that they find to be very authentic.  And Jess and Ginny managed to spend a day hitting the after-Christmas sales before Jess and Anna had to return home. 

For those who may have missed it, check out Alyssa Rowe's lovely Christmas song on YouTube ... hard to believe it was just a few years ago she was playing dress-up upstairs in the costume room.
 

December 2007

Merry Christmas, folks!  We have put Thanksgiving behind us but have some snapshots to share.  Bud and Barb made it this year, bringing photos of their grandkids and travels, plus yummy sweet potatoes, peanut brittle, and our old favorite, Cherry Crunch.  Not a bite of any of it went to waste!  This year Roger's parents Zelma and Linden joined us too, bringing farm-fresh onions and sage for the dressing, the year's last home-grown tomatoes, and of course dill pickles.  Jess, Dan and Anna, Scotty, Philip, Katie and Adam, Rachel, Tom, Mario and Aline, Bob, Pat and Tess, Bruce and Melody, Larry, and of course Matt and Mora and the mashed potatoes rounded out our party.  We missed Alan and Kathie, Bill and Donna and Chris and Carrie, who had all gone to Orlando to spend the holiday with Annie.

Jess and Dan are moving into their first house this month.  After browsing through many of Raleigh's neighborhoods they settled on an attractive two-story home in their favorite area, Cary (despite learning it was actually an acronym:  Containment Area for Relocated Yankees).  So for the second season in a row, Christmas will include unpacking boxes, though this should be the last time for awhile. 

We look forward to getting everyone's Christmas photos and newsletters and will share some of them here after the holidays.  So keep in touch!

 

October 2007

It has been a long, full summer and fall! 

Our biggest news is, after 32 years at the TV station, Roger decided to retire.  Not exactly to a life of leisure, though ... he has been busier than ever finally being able to devote full time to his real estate investment career.  We had originally hoped to make a long road trip this Fall, exploring Route 66 and meeting up with some kinfolk out West along the way, but there have been some other matters come up and that will probably not happen until next spring.  Here are a few pix of the retirement festivities.  Ginny is still working for the musicians but will probably wrap that up by next year and try to get back to genealogy and visiting grandkids.

Jessie and Anna came to town to visit for a couple of days in August and take in the State Fair with us and Roger's parents.  Then all the Sterlings headed for a week at the beach in New Jersey.  The Sterlings' big news is, Dan's dad Bruce applied for and won a posting to Germany for several years.  Bruce and Melody had lived in Germany for some years during the 1980s and are looking forward to a second sojourn, and the rest of us look forward to visiting!

Exciting news from South Carolina:  Alyssa Rowe, who is an 8th-grader at Rollings Middle School of the Arts in Summerville, was accepted to attend the first-ever Idol Camp in Massachusetts, an offshoot of the American Idol show.  For ten days in July she got to practice her singing and songwriting with 150 other kids, and was written up in the local newspaper.  Big sister Alex, a junior this year, is also musical ... both the girls sing and play guitar. 

Nanny and Bop's little house on Brent Street was knocked down this summer, and most of the lots on that side of the street have been cleared.  We presume the garage fronting on Barret has plans for the space, although in the meantime half of the driveway next to that lot (which always used to be full of cars undergoing repairs) has been fenced off and is used by Barkstown, a doggie daycare.  When Ginny got out of her car to snap pix of the house, fifty dogs took strong exception.  (Fortunately, it's a high, strong chain link fence).

In other sad news, Jaster's dad Alex finally passed on, having attained the age of fifteen, a very respectable age for a Golden Retriever.  Otherwise things are fine in Scotty and Philip's household.  Philip is still at Ford and Scotty has resumed her social work career now that Katie and Adam are both in elementary school.

We can't believe it is nearly time to send out the Thanksgiving invitations!  But time for everyone to start thinking about whether you can join us this year.  We even have a new doormat to show you all.  So, y'all come!
 

May 2007
It has been a long, happy spring!  We have just enjoyed a long weekend visit with Dan, Jess and Anna and a lot of other family to celebrate Anna's first birthday.  A couple of weeks before that, Roger and Ginny journeyed to North Carolina to attend Jessie's long-awaited graduation from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.  Jess plans to be a full-time mom to Anna for now, but when the time is right there are many career opportunities awaiting around Raleigh.

Ginny and Roger are looking forward to getting the boat out this summer, after poor Rog spent last summer with cast and crutches.  The lake level at Lake Cumberland has been lowered by 40 feet or more for repairs to Wolf Creek Dam, but there is still plenty of water left to navigate. 

Ginny and Melody Sterling are collaborating to complete Anna's genealogy as far back as possible, and hope to make a visit to Frankfort soon to take advantage of the wonderful resources of the History Center and Barb Vogler's tour-directing skills.

We hope all of you have a great summer!

 

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