Back in August, Ruth and I discussed a plan to establish a scholarship fund with a portion of our annual required minimum distribution funds. Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are amounts that U.S. tax law requires one to withdraw annually from traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans. Ruth and I began the process of withdrawing money …
Author: Robert
The Business of Dying
My parents took a trip to Hawaii while I was working in Addison. I’m not sure of the year, but they left in the fall. I was at a conference in Dearborn just prior to the trip, so I stopped in one evening to see them. They were excited, shared some minimal trip details, and …
Something More
The day Ruth died was like any other day we shared. She was up earlier than me, so she ate early, and I ate late. We spoke like we did thousands of other retired mornings. If I wasn’t out golfing early, we talked, played a game of Euchre, and reviewed our individual days. Golf was …
Sorry For Your Loss
There’s no easy way to start this next series of blogs. I’ve struggled with the words, but none seem to work. Ruth was involved in a car accident last Tuesday evening and she died. This is the first time I’ve used the word. It’s too final. If you’ve read her obituary, you may think I …
No Words
Mom Was a Deltiolgist
Mom was a Deltiolgist. I don’t think she knew it and I didn’t realize it until she gave me the brown tweed suitcase that housed her treasures. It contained a large collection of postcards from the late 30’s through the mid 40’s. Most were written during the “war years”. After she married my dad in …
The Brown Tweed Suitcase
Late in life, Mom gave me the brown tweed suitcase that housed the treasures of her youth. She passed it on about twenty years ago. I knew of the suitcase because I examined its contents several times while I still lived at home. My first look took place when I was in the seventh grade, …
Tegestology
Ruth is a Tegestologist. She hasn’t always been one. Her compulsion began like most. She had one and then another. She could have walked away, but she chose not to. Addiction is difficult to handle on your own and there are no support groups for Tegestologists. She came down with the affliction twenty-five years ago …
Family Pictures
Lots of families take family pictures. For Lindsay, David, Brady and Eva, it’s a yearly event. They meet with a photographer each fall and have a formal photo shoot. Lindsay is in charge of selecting a location and the crew’s attire. I always look forward to seeing the new batch. It’s a great way to …
51
Ruth and I started our fifty-second chapter on Monday. Sunday was our fifty-first wedding anniversary. The years just keep clicking by. We didn’t have our sights set on fifty plus years when we began our life together. We just lived as best we could. You experience a ton of things over that much time, and …