Category: Family

Ruth and my first look at death as a married couple took place on April 30, 1979.  I got a call at work in Addison from Ruth’s Aunt Casey.  She told me Ruth’s dad, Lou, had a heart attack.  Lou was sixty-five.  Ruth and I were thirty-two. David was four, Elizabeth two, and Michael nine …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

Eva is a high school freshman this year, and Brady is a senior. Eva will experience a series of firsts and Brady will have several lasts. That’s how growing up works. Both are bittersweet. Having a family and raising children is not for the faint of heart. It takes patience and dedication. You raise them …

Young Jackson James is learning to speak.  He’s got an extensive vocabulary for a seventeen-month-old.  Kate and Michael interact with him much like Ruth and I did with our three as they were growing up.  We never used “baby talk” to speak with the kids.  We held normal conversations using our adult vocabulary.  Mike and …