Week 28 - Parents

I am the daughter of Bertha Melaine Reppel and Eli Fount Gates. Both of my parents were born in Arizona.

My mother Bertha Melaine Reppel was the daughter of Bertha McDowell and Robert Leo Reppel. My grandmother, Bertha McDowell Reppel was born in Greenland, Colorado in 1906. My grandfather, Robert Leo Reppel was born in Mussig, France in 1900. They met it in Gunnison, Colorado where they were both students at Western State College.

Mom was named after her Grandmothers. Her maternal grandmother was Bertha Knowles McDowell a native of Colorado. Her paternal grandmother was Melanie Breitel Reppel, an Alsatian born in the village of Saint-Hippolyte.

According to her birth certificate, Mom was the third generation Bertha, but except for official documents she has always been called Melaine. Melaine is a beautiful and unusual name. You may notice that her name is spelled differently than her grandmothers. Perhaps Papa Reppel couldn't spell, or perhaps Melanie spoken in his Alsatian accented English sounded like Melaine.

My maternal grandparents were married in 1926 and soon after left Colorado by train. The money ran out in Arizona. They settled in Phoenix and soon had enough money to buy land. My mother's childhood home was on McDowell road and 34th street in what was then called Creighton. She attended local schools, but being a child of the depression, my grandparents would leave their home and move to where ever work was available. So her education also included schools in Tombstone and Miami. Her family moved to Mexico for a year, although Mom stayed in Arizona that year. She graduated from North Phoenix High School. In 1947 she attended the University of Denver for a year before returning to Phoenix and returning to school at Arizona State College (now ASU). My mother has written extensively about her childhood. When time permits, I will incorporate her life story as an attachment to this post.

My father Eli Fount Gates was the son of Maude Gertrude Powell and Herbert Ellis Gates. My grandmother, Maude was born in Collinsville, Illinois in 1904. Maude moved to Arizona in 1922 to attend Tempe Normal School.

My grandfather, Herb was born in Atascosa County, Texas in a small ranching community. His family moved to Kyrene, Arizona in 1918. The met when Maude took a teaching job for Kyrene Elementary School. They were married in December 1924.

My dad, born in Chandler, Arizona in Feb, 1926 was named after his paternal Grandfather, Eli Fountain Gates, who was known as Fount.

My father was educated in Arizona. He graduated from Kyrene Elementary school in 1940. He graduated from Tempe High School in 1944. He attended Colorado Agriculture and Mechanical College (now CSU) from 1 year before returning home to work on the family dairy farm.

My dad with the help of my sister Shirley has written about his family and early childhood. I will link his story as an attachment to this post.

My parents met at the Tempe Wesley Foundation - a program at the Tempe Methodist Church for Christian collage age adults. After a short courtship, my parent fell in love.

On May 28th, 1948 they were married at the Creighton Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

My parents had a lot in common. They were the eldest of three children in their respective families. They were both members of the Methodist church. They had both spent a year attending college in Colorado before returning to Arizona. Both of their mothers were well educated working women.

My father was very supportive of my mother's desire to become a school teacher. After giving birth to 4 children, she returned to school and obtained her B.S. in elementary education from ASU. She later obtained her M.S. After many years teaching in the Roosevelt School District she became a school administrator and worked as the vice principal for many years before taking early retirement. In her spare time she also was a 4-H leader and sang in her church choir.

My father worked on the family dairy farm. My uncle Bill was in charge of the animals and my dad was in charge of the mechanical equipment. Somewhere along the line Daddy became interested in "Junk". Much of the unused desert land surrounding the dairy slowly and surely became covered by junk car and trucks. He bought himself a baler and the cars would be crushed into square bales and then sold. After the family dairy business was sold, the junk yard business evolved into Gila Recycling.

Dad also had a few other small business ventures. He started a Napa auto parts store and a generator and alternator rebuilding business. Besides his business ventures, he served on the Kyrene School board for 16 years, was a 4-H leader and the Democratic precinct committee chairman for many years.

After 26 years of marriage my parents divorced. They were able to be civil and respectful of each other after the divorce and that says alot. Like most parents, mine weren't perfect. We had some ups and downs and the years just prior to their divorce were particularly hard for me as I was approaching adulthood. One thing was also certain, my parents loved me and would support me no matter what.

My folks both remarried. Mom married Andrew "Andy" Corrao. Dad married Alma Cowen Morgan and became a step father to her daughter Carla Morgan. They welcomed the arrival of a son Patrick Thomas in 1977 although they were a bit surprised when they first learned of his conception.

My dad is now gone from this world. In 2005 he left his earthly body behind and went to join his maker. Alma and Carla have both joined him. I still miss them all.

My mom is going strong - She may outlive me. She recenty had this five generation picture taken.

Week 27 - Cars and Transport

My family lived out in the country. A car was essential a link to society. My parents were Ford people. So most of the cars that spent time in our driveway were Fords.

The first car I remember was a green 56 Ford sedan. I hunted the Internet looking for a picture that came close to the family car. This was the closest I could find. Sometime in the early 1960s, my family bought a new car, a Ford station wagon that mom used to drive back and forth to work and to haul all us kids around. I have no clue what the color of it was, perhaps a light blue. In any case, the green sedan became my Dad's car.

Living in Phoenix, summer time temperatures get mighty hot. My parents took the station wagon into Phoenix and had an after market air conditioning unit installed. It sat under the dash in the middle of the front. It wasn't near as efficient as today's factory installed air conditioning. I believe most of the cars my parents bought after that came with factory installed air conditioning.

The farm was just under a mile from our house. The Gates' boys were expected to work on the farm from a fairly young age; my brother "Gatesy" and my cousin Herbie drove tractors in the fields and ran the farm equipment necessary to harvest the alfalfa and make hay. I can still picture them picking up the bales of hay and loading them onto a wagon.  When his legs were just long enough to reach the pedals, my brother was given an old pick-up to drive back and forth to the "ranch". Technically we wasn't old enough to drive on the public roads; but the road between our house and the farm was dirt with little traffic. My mom was very happy about it, but Daddy had the final saw on Gatesy's truck.

When my oldest sister Elaine got her driver's license, she was given the old 56 Ford Sedan to drive. When she was a senior in high school, she and my sister Shirley drove the car back and forth to school. One day they were turning a corner and the passengers door flew open. This was in the days before seat belts. We were lucky that Shirley didn't fall out. Later on Dad bought a used car for Elaine, it was a blue Ford Fairlane. One day Elaine had a small fender bender with the car. Dad replaced the front panel with one from a wrecked red Fairlane. The car stayed two toned for many years.

When I got my drivers license many years later, the two toned Fairlane became my car. The first day I drove it to school, I was pulled over by a police officer. As I pulled out my temporary driver's license, the office made a comment about my driving skills - or perhaps the lack there of.

My boyfriend Van was embarrassed to be seen in the car. One Christmas he took it Fairlaine to Earl Scheib's and had it repainted in a metallic blue for $ 99.95.

When I graduated from high school my parents bought me a brand new 1972 Chevy Malibu. It was the prettiest copper exterior and cream colored interior. I loved that car. Unfortunately I totaled the car while I was in Monterrey, California. The car and I took a slight tumble down an embankment.

I was young and stupid. My parents had paid for the insurance. The didn't pay for collision, only liability. This taught me 2 very valuable lessions - the value of good insurance and the value of a good vehicle. I was without a vehicle of my own for several years.

In 1975 I was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland. My husband and I were living in an apartment in Glen Burnie, MD. Bruce was working on the base, I was working offsite at an annex located near the Baltimore-Washington airport. Since we only had 1 car, Bruce took the car to the base and I caught a ride to work with two office mates who lived near by. It worked out well until they were discharges and I had to find another ride.

So I started riding with another office mate. One snowy winter morning, I must have been a few minutes late. I waited outside in the cold for the longest time and my ride didn't show. When I called to find out what was the story, he said he came by and I wasn't there so he left.  I was so pissed and I realized that I coudn't count on other people to get me to work. So from then on Bruce would drive me to work and then head south to the base. When I finished work, I would catch the bus from the annex to the base where I would meet up with Bruce for the drive home.

Week 26 - Technology 

What technology changes did your ancestors see?
What technology changes have you seen?

One of the offshoots of my genealogy hobby was an interest in history. When you truly try to understand the lives of your ancestors you have to understand what life was like back then.

The first aha moment came for me back in 1978. While in Denver I went to visit my great Aunt. During the visit Aunt Edith got out some old family pictures. I still remember her talking about riding the bus to school. When I question her, she explained it was a horse drawn bus. I had no idea there was such a thing.

I have done extensive research of the lives of John Roberts and his wife Miriam Irish. They were born in Maine in the late 1700's. Around 1815 the family moved "west", first to West Virginia, then to Ohio and finally to Iowa. 3 moves, each into the wilderness. With only manual tools they cleared land, built shelters, and grew/hunted/gathered sufficient food to feed a large family. Their granddaughter Miriam Donegan Fonder wrote extensively about settling in Iowa. She spoke of the tools her father made. She spoke of her mother spinning wool into yarn, weaving yarn into cloth and hand sewing the cloth into clothing.

When my great-great grandparents Vincent and Rhoda McDowell moved from Kansas to Colorado, they traveled in a covered wagon. Their son, Frank McDowell was a teamster. A newspaper article that I found described injuries he sustained while on the job. As the picture shows below, he actually worked with a team of horses before he evolved into a truck driver.

I personally don't remember not having a TV. That being said, my family's early black and white TV is a far cry from today's 52" flat screen high definition models. I also don't remember the wringer washing machines, but my mother hung all the wash on the line because until the middle 1970's she didn't have a dryer. My sisters and I washed many dinner dishes and there was no dishwasher in our house. We also didn't have central heat and air.

I take for granted many items that were luxuries for my parents and grandparents. washers, dryers, microwave ovens, dishwashers. Technology improvements in my grandparents and parents generations were generally things that made their physical lives better, automobiles, planes, clothes washers, dryers, dishwashers, sewing machines, etc.

Technology improvements for the younger generations, seem to make their life styles better. Music, TV, VCRs, cell phones, computers, etc.

Look how music has evolved. When I was a kid, we had a record player. My parents had some 78 rpm vinyl records, but mine were 33⅓ and a few 45 rpm singles. By the time I was graduating from high school, audiophiles were flocking to reel to reel tape decks. The less well heeled kids moved to 8 track tapes and then to cassette tapes. I never had an 8 track player but when Bruce and I were first dating in 1974, he had an 8 track player.

The Walkman debuted in 1979 the first portable wearable audio device. It revolutionized work out routines. But when Sony introduced the first compact disc (CD) player in October 1982, it spelled the end to the cassette tapes and the Walkman. Around 1980 I received a promotion at work. I rewarded myself by buying a CD player for my car.

Enter the MP player in 1997. It wasn't until Apple released the iPod in October of 2001 that MP players really took off. I have never owned an iPod, but around 2005 Burt bought us matching Phillips MP3 players. In June of 2013 Burt bought a new Buick Encore, he plugged the MP3 player into the USB and listed to his tunes on the car's audio system.

So what is the greatest technology impact of my lifetime. It is probably the Internet - it has revolutionized how people communicate and obtain information. Just one example is genealogy. As more and more records are digitized and put on-line, I can search, access and keep copies of records I would never have found otherwise. 

Week 25 - LOVE 

Love comes in many shapes and sizes. We love people, places and things. So what are the things that I think of when I think of love.

First is my family - these are the people who taught me how to love.  My parents although not perfect did have an inordinate amount of love to share with me and my siblings.

Things I love - I love to garden; pulling weeds is so mindless, I can think about the things that are bothering me, I can bitch and moan and carry on and get it out of my system. It is also the time that I feel closest to God.

I love the computer. I remember my first computer class. It was 1982. It has been a big part of my life every since. It was so logical, it made so much sense. I felt right at home. In 1983 my husband Bill and I bought our first PC. It made writing my college papers so much better, I could concentrate on the content, move paragraphs around instead of retyping endless pages to remove the typos.

I love Mexican food. After living in central Florida for many years, it is always the first thing I want when I arrive at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. There have been times, I went straight to Rositas after landing and met my family there.

I love my dogs. As a child, our family always had a dog - an outside dog. Our yard wasn't fenced, we lost several dogs that got hit by a car on 56th street. At that time, (before I-10) it was the main road between Phoenix and Tucson. In winter of 1976-77 Bruce and I got our first dog, Tater. Bruce was working as a dispatcher for the Coral Springs Police department. He asked the animal control office to look for a small female dog. Tater was found in a box with several other puppies behind the local Vet. We took her everywhere including Phoenix and Montrose, Colorado. During our divorce, Bruce took Tater and I kept her puppy Radar. I had Radar until around 1994. Sport joined my household in 1987 and he was around for many years as well. Foxy is my current dog and constant companion. I would be lost right now without her.

But I guess these things were not what you were expecting on the topic of Love. According to Linda Sapadin, in her ‘… But I Love Him!’ So What is Love?' Blog discusses three types of Love. I have experienced all three.

1) Romantic love - Excitement rules the day. You are walking on air. He can do no wrong. You are the luckiest woman on earth. 

When I was 14, I experienced "First Love". Mike was a quiet and shy senior at McClintock HS. I was a freshman - although I was not outgoing, I was not quiet and shy. We met at the bus stop. I spent most of my freshman year trying to make him see me. As a freshman, my dating options were limited. I could double date with a sibling, go to a church function, or go to a school function; solo car dating was not allowed. 

Our first date was to the prom; my parents made an exception and allowed him to pick me up in his father's car. We drove into Tempe and had dinner at a local inexpensive restaurant. When we returned to the car, it wouldn't start. Mike had to call his father who then acted as a chauffeur for the rest of the evening. 

We dated for several months; I never wanted a date to end. I was so sad when the evening ended and he left me at the door. But our love didn't last very long. Within months of graduating from high school, Mike joined the US Marine Corp. Our love could not withstand the difference in our ages and distance between us.

2) Addictive love is marinated in desperation. You feel you cannot live without this person. You need him to feel complete. Though you no longer feel good about yourself like you did when you were “infatuated with him,” you, nevertheless, feel you can’t leave him. Despite being constantly criticized, you love him. Despite crying about insults you’ve received, you love him. Despite being afraid of his anger, you love him.

When I was 15, I experienced "Addictive Love". Van was 4 years older than me. He dated my sister Shirley for a short time before we became an item. There were times when Van was very good to me, but more often than not he was slightly mean spirited.  My folks were going through a rough patch, and I was holding on to Van like a drowning person holding onto a life raft. No matter how badly he treated me, I wouldn't/couldn't leave him.

When I turned 18, I realized I had to make a change. I asked my parents to send me a college out of state. I spent 5 months in Dallas at a Fashion Merchandising College. I realized it wasn't the right vocation for me, I had no interest or talent in that area. But I did start to feel better about myself. When I returned to Phoenix, I was able to set boundaries with Van. After a few months I enlisted in the army and soon after we ended our relationship.


3) Seasoned love is marinated in caring, respect, trust and empathy. Differences are respected and conflicts are worked out.  I have been married 3 times - each marriage was longer and stronger than the previous one.

Bruce and I were married in 1974 after dating 6 months. It didn't take long after our marriage to realize it was probably a mistake - the biggest problem was alcohol. I didn't drink much and Bruce drank a lot. We tried to make it work, but finally in 1980 we called it quits. I still hear from him occasionally. He has been more successful in his second marriage and seems happy. I wish him the best.

In the summer of 1981, I joined the East Valley Singles club. One night I was at a local night club with the single club. I saw a good looking man in a walking cast out on the dance floor. It was Bill and I was taken by him. We dated for two years before our marriage in May of 1983. I learned a lot about life and loss from Bill. In 1988 Bill suffered a brain aneurysm which left him with damage to both frontal lobes. It was end end of our Romantic Love, but not the end of love for each other. Bill spent many years in Arizona and during this separation we were divorced in 1990. We remained friends. After his mother died, Bill returned to Florida and I became his guardian until shortly before his death.

In 1990 while working for Martin Marietta, I started a friendship with one of my coworkers who was also going through a painful divorce. Burt and I had worked together in 1987-88 but not closely. Burt and my relationship evolved from friendship to partnership. Our friendship survived a 6 month separation when Burt was sent TDY to Chicago. It also survived my transfer to the Ocala plant. For a year I spent the 4 nights in Ocala before driving home to Burt and my dogs on Friday afternoon. These separations help propel our friendship into a partnership which continued to strength over time. We were married in May 1995. Our love and partnership endured until his death in January.

Week 24 - Favorite Color 

Do I have a favorite color?  I like lots of colors. In my wardrobe, I seem to go through stages. Back around 1985 I went through a pink stage.  I bought and wore lots of pink. I haven't had another pink stage since then.

I also went through a green stage about 1986. Not just any green, emerald green. I bought a green suit and I had a green had to match. The suit is gone, I still have the green hat but I haven't worn it in ages. I still like emerald green and will wear a few other shades of green, but it's not my favorite color.

I went through a fuchsia stage. I especially like it paired with turquoise. I like fuchsia, but you can't always find it.

So what is my favorite color?  If I had to name just one, my first choice through out my life time would probably be red, second is Purple, and third is blue.

The being said, I like my colors vibrant and true. I'm not into mauve, mustard yellow, olive green, or steel blue. I'm into cherry red, kelly green, turquoise blue, and Navy.

When I think of my family, I think of the color red. My self, my two sisters, my mother, my maternal grandmother and many of the women on my mom's side wear a lot a red.  With our dark hair and olive skin, we look very good in red.

When I think about my paternal grandmother, I think about pink and purple.

When I think about the color orange, I think about my sister Shirley. I don't wear alot of orange, but Shirley does and she looks good in orange. In the 1970s after she got her first job, she bought a set of Samsonite luggage in the prettiest shade of orange. She had no problems spotting her luggage at the airport.

Week 23 - Memory Board

What would I include on a Memory board of my life?

What an interesting topic. Last month I put together 4 memory boards to honor Burt's life. One board contained photos and mementos from his childhood, a second contained photos and mementos from high school, college, and the military, a third board contained photos and mementos of his life during our time together, and a fourth contained mementos of his life long passion, bowling.

I put together the memory boards with the help of Burt's sister Patricia. I had gathered up a bunch of goodies, and Patricia brought some photos as well. This is an activity that I enjoy doing, and it gave Patricia and I time to bond and share our love for Burt.

I have redone them in order to save them for posterity on this blog.

The first board is his early childhood.

The second board is his education from junior high, high school and college.

The third board is his military service.

The fourth board is our life together.

The last is Burt's life long passion - Bowling.

So I have completed this exercise for my husband Burt, but this exercise was suppose to be about my life.

When I first got interested in digital photography, I scanned all my photos and created a digital photo/scrap book of my important events. The following link will load these photo slide show of my digital memories.  Slide show

Week 22 - Daily Routines?

Do I have a daily routine? Well I guess everyone has some kind of routine. I probably had more of one when I worked. Get up when the alarm rang, shower, blow dry my hair, wash my teeth, test my blood sugar, pack my breakfast/lunch, drive to work. Work. Drive home. Make Dinner. Wash the dishes. Play. Go to Bed.

After I retired in January 2012, I suddenly realized my lack of a routine was causing me to forget hygiene and health activities. As a type II diabetic, I try to take a fasting blood glucose test every morning.
So I made it a habit to brush my hair, wash my face & teeth, test my blood sugar before I sit down at the computer.

I am a night owl, I will stay up and watch TV until the early hours of the morning. When Burt was still alive, he would come in and wake me if I slept past 8 am. Now that Burt is gone, I have started setting the alarm clock to ensure I don't sleep past 8 am.

My dog Foxy helps keep me in a routine. I used to walk her once a day in the afternoon. During the summer when it gets so hot, I started walking her after dark. When I retired, I began walking her in the morning instead. About 4 months ago, I added a second walk in the afternoon. And believe me, we seldom miss a walk. If Foxy thinks it's time and I'm still sitting at the computer she lays down right next to my chair so I will trip over her if I try to move. And lately she's been doing that about dinner time. Guess she's not sure I'll remember to feed her since Burt and I are not sitting down to dinner every night any more.

I'm also have to learn other routines, make sure the doors are locked, shut the garage door when I'm walking the dog, take my cell phone with me, make sure it's charged. I guess I never realized how much my life and routine revolved around Burt and Foxy.

Week 19 - Who do you Miss?

A month ago if I was asked this question, I would have answered my father, Eli and my grand parents, and my ex-husband Bill. I hadn't lived with any of the above people for many years. So the feeling of loss was dampened by time and distance.

But today my loss is acute. On Tuesday January 7th, my husband and best friend died of lung cancer. Burt had been my companion since the fall of 1990.  I will write Burt's story on my genealogy blog in the near future. Today I'm writing the story of Burt and Margaret.

I first met Burt in 1987. We were both employees of Martin Marietta assigned to a software modernization project. The project scope was huge, and included an MRP system written by Arthur Anderson and an off-the-shelf Shop Floor Control System, both of which were modified to work with other Martin Marietta written software including Work Measurement System, Financials, Operator Instructions, etc.

Burt was assigned to work the interface between the MPR system and the financial systems. He was responsible to ensure the final design met government compliance rules. I was assigned to the implementation team by the Industrial Engineering department - I had a much smaller scope of work.

In the fall of 1987, the team was struggling to find a way to capture and pass operator clockings from the Shop Floor Control Systems to the Payroll and Work Measurement Systems. At this time, I was bored and didn't have enough work to keep me busy. I asked if I could take a stab at the task and successfully found a way to capture the data.

In January of 1988 my then husband Bill suffered a brain hemorrhage. As a result, I was on family leave when the final software testing was done. My friend and coworker Cathy performed the software testing with Burt in my place. Later that year when I had my performance appraisal report (PAR), I asked Burt to submit an input to the PAR, which he did. He rated me average - and for those who know me, I'm NOT average. 

Around 1989 Burt and Cathy were working on a project and were co-located with Information Systems at a different site. While attending a meeting at that site, I made arrangements to have lunch with Cathy. She asked Burt to come with us. Burt got tied up in a meeting and after waiting quite awhile for him my toes were tapping with my need to get to lunch so I could get back to work. When Burt finally got free, we jumped in my car and drove to a diner across the street. After driving once around the parking lot, Burt commented, "Are you ever going to park this car?". After I parked the car and got out, I said to Burt, "You know Burt, I'm NEVER going to have lunch with you again." It would later become our private joke.

In 1990 my marriage to Bill was over and I was struggling to put my life back together. Burt came into my cube one day to see Cathy who was then my cube-mate. I noticed that the seam of his slacks near the pocket was coming unsewn. I suggested that he might want his wife repair the seam. He replied sadly that he didn't know if he had a wife. I then told him "If you ever need to talk, give me call". Never in my wildest dreams did I believe he would call, but several weeks later on a Saturday morning, my phone rang.

Our first real date was to Light Up Orlando 1990. Accompanying us were my step children, Mary & Jim Sasser. Jim was living in Cocoa Beach at the time. Mary was living in Kansas. She was in Florida to visit her father Bill who was flying in to Orlando on the following day. This would set the tone for our relationship for years. Burt made room in our relationship for Bill and for Bill's kids.

Since I wasn't yet ready to make any commitments, I kept pushing Burt away. We kept up the push/pull relationship until 1992. In January 1992, Burt was went to Chicago for 6 months on the temporary duty assignment. While he was gone, I realized just how much he had wormed his way into my life. When he returned in June, he moved in with me.

We lived together in Orlando until 1994. In 1994 Martin Marietta transferred me to the Ocala plant. For the first month, I tried driving back and forth, but 3 hours on the road a day was more that I could take. So I asked one of my coworkers if I could rent a room from her. So for about a year I drove up to Ocala on Monday morning and drove home to Orlando on Friday afternoon. It was during this period that Burt and I decided that we wanted to make a long term commitment to each other.

On May 26th, 1995 Burt and I were married in Orlando, Florida. It was the third marriage for both us.

Using our marriage as leverage, Burt was able to persuade Martin Marietta to assign him an office in Ocala. In the spring of 1996 we moved into our home, a 4 bedroom 2 bath home we had built on a vacant lot in the southeastern part of Ocala.

In 2000, Burt retired at the age of 55. I continued to work full time for a year or so before I went part time and began working 4 days a week.

In 2003 Bill's sister Betty was feeling overwhelmed; with the death of their mother, Betty became the primary care taker of her twin brother Bill.  I volunteered to assume his care. I moved Bill to Ocala and placed him in an assisted living facility that was located 7 minutes from the house. I also went to court and became Bill's guardian. Although we had a few bumps in our relationship when I assumed Bill's care, Burt made room in our relationship for Bill.

In 2006 Burt was diagnosed with Congestive Heart failure. One day when I came home from work Burt told me he thought he had a heart attack earlier in the day. I took him to the ER and 2 days later he was the proud owner of an ICD (implantable cardioverted-defibrillator) or to the common person a pacemaker with a built in defibrillator. The device saved his life at least twice that we know of.

In January 2012 I retired from Lockheed Martin. At the request of Bill's children in the summer of 2012, I moved Bill to Hendersonville, North Carolina. Bill's son Jim became Bill's primary guardian.

In December 2012, the battery of Burt's ICD was wearing out, so in an outpatient procedure the ICD was replaced with a newer model. Within a couple of weeks the device detected some abnormal rhythms and twice it shocked his heart back into a normal rhythm.

Burt was referred to another cardiologist who specialized in arrhythmias. He was prescribed two different prescription drugs, one of which was Amiodarone. 5 % of patients taking Amiodarone develop adverse lung problems; Burt was one of the 5%. He was referred to a pulmonologist who treated the Amiodarone toxicity with steroids, his lung problems didn't improve. Further tests revealed Burt had incurable lung cancer.

The oncologist said the mean survival for Burt's type of cancer was 4 months. I had hoped for a longer time as the PET scan showed it wasn't yet in his major organs. We had a mere two months to say of lifetime of goodbyes - I would have liked a bit more time. Burt told me he would be waiting when my time comes.

I am an optimist - We had more than 20 years together. That's a great outcome for a pair of two time losers.

Week 20 - The Feeling of Home

I'm not much of a touchy feely kind of person, I deal more in facts. When I first saw this topic, I thought I'd write not about the "Feeling of Home" but about my current home.

It is a nice home, my husband Burt and I contracted with a builder in 1995 to custom build a house on a treed lot in Ocala, Florida. According to the tax office it is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2275 square foot house on a third of an acre of land. It was completed in the Spring of 1996 and we moved in. I have lived there every since.

So what make this a home instead of a house? When I travel, I often can't wait to return to my own home. So it must have the "Feeling of Home" for me. Is it the things I have filled the house with? Or is it the person who lives there with me?

Since I'm recently widowed I must change the tense and say was it the person who lived there with me? Now the only occupants are my dog Foxy and myself and we both are missing Burt. The house feels lonely - way too big and full of stuff that is now meaningless.

I'm in the process of going thru the stuff, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. I will be selling the house later this year. I plan on finding a smaller home that Foxy and I will learn to call home.

Week 21 - Hobbies

     

Stamp Collecting

My mother was a stamp collector. When I was young, she got my siblings and I started on collecting stamps. My mother was a working mother, and she didn't spend much time on her stamp collection. Papa Reppel would buy her nice expensive stamps for her collection. She would put them in the desk. Later after she retired she worked her collection. Before I moved to Florida in 1985, I went to several local stamp shows with my mom.

My stamp collection is rather like my mom's was when I was young. It has been years since I placed any stamps in an album or organized my collection, but I seem unable to stop my practice of putting stamps aside for my collection.When I go to the post office to buy stamps, I also look for a attractive multi-design collection and buy enough to use for mailing and to keep some for my collection. The stamps below are the most recent ones I bought for my collection. I have 2 stamps on the otherside to use before these get put back with the "collection" stamps.

Sewing

When I was around 6th grade, my school required all girls to take home economics. In this class we spent half the year learning to cook and half the year learning to sew. I took to sewing and was soon making nearly all my own clothes. When I was about 8th grade, my mother bought me a singer sewing machine for my birthday. I had this machine for years before it finally gave up the ghost and I had to replace it.

When I moved to Ocala in 1994, I didn't have a place to keep my machine out. Out to sight, out of mind. I basically didn't sew for years. When I retired in January 2012, I wanted to start working on some crafts. So I carved out a space in my laundry room and started doing craft projects and a few sewing projects. My first project was a bag that I made using an old pillow case for the lining. My next project was making a purse from an old pair of blue jeans. Here are pictures of the final product.

Christmas Ornaments

One of my favorite crafts is making Christmas ornaments for my family and friends. I have made them on and off for many years. I like making them because they are inexpensive enough that I can make one for everyone, Aunts, Siblings, Nieces & Nephew, and Friends. Here are a few of my favorites from over the years.