My father (June 19, 1911-January 30, 1998). Auto Mechanic Extraordinaire and Best Dad in the World, today is your 111th birthday!
Dad in his twenties
Dad, in his sixties, is on the left.
Dad's personal appearance changed little at all since he reached0 his sixties, never mind that he lived to be over 86 years old. And because Mom died over 10 years before Dad did, I got to know my father so well. Overall, those 10 years were wonderful years.
I miss you, Dad — even though these words so apply to our relationship:
"Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still -- real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever" (fromHow Green Was My Valley).
I don't know what Dad's favorite song was, but I do know that the award-winning 1941 movie How Green Was My Valley was his favorite film. When Dad and Mom were dating, this film was the one movie which he took her to see at the cinema when the film was re-released to theaters in 1950:
Happy Mother's Day, Mom and Wawa. I miss you both every day.
Family photos below....
Unfortunately, I don't have any photographs of the women on my father's side, probably because they came from the Church of the Brethren. I do, however, have quite a few photos of the women on my mother's side.
Mom's grandmother, aka "Ma" (circa 1860-circa 1945), whom I never met. She gave life birth to five sons and two daughters:
Mom's mother, whom my and subsequent generations called "Wawa"(1898-1981). Wawa was a mathematical and computer genius, with only an 8th grade education back in the hills of East Tennessee; she was a master seamstress, as well. After she no longer care-gave Ma, Wawa went to Washington, D.C., for employment toward the end of World War 2. Because of her intuition about how to keep those big-frame computers running as efficiently as possible, IBM trained her—never mind her age. A redhead, she was a force to be reckoned with everywhere she went. Example: Wawa held off the power company at rifle point in Northern Virginia because the power company wanted to put high-tension power lines over her cow barn. Because of what we today call bad optics, the lines got moved elsewhere!
Mom (1916-1987). She went to Washington, D.C., to get a job during the Great Depression. A whiz at mathematics, she took various accounting courses and became a statistician for the federal government. She loved her job at the Federal Trade Commission, but kept getting bumped back to the Internal Revenue Service, a place that she hated to work. She met Dad on December 24, 1950, when she was thirty-four, and fell in love with him at first sight. Mom was never in good health during my lifetime; she had serious heart and kidney problems, and had a series of eight heart attacks between 1960-1964. Mom was the most patient person I've ever known! The photo below was taken a few years before Mom met Dad:
Four generations on Mother's Day, circa 1979. Left to right: my dearest cousin, the daughter of Mom's brother's son (1942-1992), at age 12; yours truly at age 27; Mom at age 63; Wawa at age 81. This photo was taken in the living room of my maternal family's last "homeplace," which I sold in 2021:
PS: I still have that loveseat and that side table!
As a result of seeing I saw this particular 1981 episode of The Tonight Show live, I had Mr. AOW get a signed copy of Jimmy Stewart and His Poemson September 19, 1989, while I was at work (no personal leave at the private school where I was working):
Recently, I reread the little volume Jimmy Stewart and His Poems by Jimmy Stewart—as good now as when I first got the book.
As of September 3, 2020, after decades of having only cats as household pets, I have a dog named Callie, pictured left. To my chagrin, she is as disobedient as Jimmy Stewart's Beau. But she's a pretty face—and a crazy clown!
Soundtrack from the 1990 Penny Marshall film "Awakenings" with Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Penelope Ann Miller & John Heard. Based on the true story of Dr. Oliver Sacks who, in a Bronx hospital in 1969, used a new drug in order to revive patients who had been catatonic for decades.
My father's sister, only seven years old, died of "the aftereffects" of the Great Influenza of 1918-1920 — even though flu deaths in her age group were quite rare. Therefore, long before COVID-19 came along, I've had great interest in the award-winning film Awakenings, which depicts part of the story of institution-confined patients suffering from the 1915-1927 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, one of the aftereffects believed by some scientists to have been caused by the Great Influenza.
My family never discussed exactly the specific "aftereffects" that killed Dad's sister, and I've always wondered if she, too, had encephalitis lethargica. Perhaps Dad's didn't know; after all, he was only eight or nine years old when his sister died.
The family story I heard several times was limited to Dad's unforgettable and blunt words:
"Because of the flu outbreak, the undertaker came to the house to embalm Chrissy — and dumped the blood behind the barn."
I have always wondered if Chrissy slipped into a Parkinsonian-like catatonia similar to that shown in the film Awakenings, one of those rare films better than the book.
This Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for finding love again. At my age! A year ago, who'd have thought that I'd be "starting over" in such a beautiful home in a quiet city in Indiana with my beloved Warren.
My father (June 19, 1911-January 30, 1998). Today is your 110th birthday!
Dad in his twenties
Dad, in his sixties, is on the left.
I miss you, Dad — even though these words so apply to our relationship:
"Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still -- real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever" (fromHow Green Was My Valley).
I don't know what Dad's favorite song was, but I do know that the award-winning 1941 movie How Green Was My Valley was his favorite film. When Dad and Mom were dating, this film was the one movie which he took her to see at the cinema when the film was re-released to theaters in 1950.
This morning, Mr. AOW (1949-2021) passed peacefully at the hospice facility: end stage renal failure with complications. His passing was expected the past ten days or so. He was at the hospice for eight and one-half days.
I was on my way to the hospice for my morning visit with him when I got the phone call.
The hospice didn't see the usual signs in advance in order to summon me. Just as well. Mr. AOW and I decided years ago that I shouldn't sit bedside for the end.
One moment, he was cracking a joke. The next moment, he was gone.
While Mr. AOW was at the hospice for that brief time, he had more visitors and phone calls than he'd had in eleven and one-half here at home under post-stroke care. What an irony!
I am grateful for the excellent care my husband received at the hospice. This is what end-of-life care should be! I'm also grateful that Mr. AOW was lucid right up to the very end.
Any blog friends wishing to know the arrangements should contact me via email, as shown in the right sidebar.
(Light blogging alert! Comment moderation will be intermittently enabled. And for politics, please scroll down)
Dear Blogosphere Friends,
2020 – the Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. I never thought I’d see the day that Americans were running around in masks! Some are even masked while driving alone in their cars – pure hysteria, in my view. Taking precautions is one thing, hysteria another. One of our precautions has been to postpone our planned moved to Indiana. Both Mr. AOW and I are quite high-risk for this virus. So, here we still sit in Northern Virginia and paying these outrageous real-estate taxes. Thanks, China. **heavy sarcasm**
This has been a sorrowful year for us. Our dear friend Patricia (aka blogger “The Merry Widow”), who helped us so much when I had kidney and other health troubles in 2016-2017 and who was also helping us with The Big Clean Out for our anticipated move to Indiana, died suddenly in Florida on March 29. What a terrible loss! Each of us an only child, Patricia and I considered ourselves sisters. She was planning to move with us to Indiana, too. We miss Patricia so much and on so many levels.
This year, Mr. AOW and I have been having some health troubles – not a surprise for our age group (71 and 68, respectively). As of this writing, he is in Stage 4 Kidney Failure, and the doctors believe that the cause is long-standing diabetes and hypertension. My kidneys have been “acting up,” too; the treatment plan, if any, has not yet been determined. We’re doing our best to slog on. What other choice is do we have? Not much!
Our other big personal news of 2020 is that we got a dog on September 3! Callie is an unruly three-year-old hound and Lab (and whatever else) mutt with poor training on nearly every imaginable scale – and nearly-total deafness, which her owner didn’t recognize before this mutt came to live with us. Her bloodlines and issues aside, Callie is adorable and has brought a lot of joy into our shut-in lives! I’m sure that our kitties Amber and Minxy don’t feel the same, though; they have had to cede to this canine brat quite a bit of in-house territory.
The happiest time for us in 2020, annus horribilis, Governor Northam’s COVID measures permitting, will be another visit from our dear friend and this blog's webmaster Warren. He plans to spend the holidays with us. A wonderful time it will be – even if doing the tourist thing is well nigh impossible with regard to the usual Washington attractions: the Smithsonian and other D.C. and Virginia tourist sites are either closed or have impossibly limited hours during this pandermic. Nevertheless, the Winter Walk of Lights at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, is still, as of this writing, offering their usual dazzling displays; Warren and I hope to take in that beautiful sight. CHECK OUT THESE PHOTOS! GLORIOUS! During the rest of Warren’s visit, all of us will be enjoying each other’s company. A wonderful gift in and of itself, especially during this time of lockdowns and isolated existence!
Celebrating this BlessedSeason and MerryChristmas to all who stop by here,
(Long personal post! For politics, please scroll down)
Welcome, California Sky! Aka "Callie." This sweet girl takes tidbits carefully, never letting her teeth touch your fingers. No doggie smell! No doggie breath!
Around September 1, 2020, this photo, which appeared on our online neighborhood network, appeared with a desperate plea of needing to rehome a niece's three-year old hound mix (b. August 19, 2017). She likely has Labrador Retriever in there, too:
Callie, with her favorite toy, on Mr. AOW's hospital bed:
The original owner was told that Callie is a Pocket Beagle. Clearly, she is not! But she was very small when first adopted — because Callie was taken from her mama dog at 3.5 weeks:
My beloved "second mother" Aunt Elma (January 10, 1916-November 10, 2010) and Mom (January 2, 1916-November 8, 1987) — at their 60th birthday party here at this old house:
Not the case for those accustomed to homeschooling.
For example, a few weeks in my homeschool literature class online, we read aloud from and discussed Chapters 1-2 of Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times and Robert Frost's poem "Death of the Hired Man." We also went over some writing assignments, those completed and those due in a few weeks.
In other words, class as usual!
Yes, I prefer in-person teaching. But I am adjusting to using Google Hangouts, FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom — even though I find using these platforms for 1-2 hours quite exhausting, probably because I can't move around much. Nevertheless, I see that I will have to use these platforms well into the future, possibly until there is a vaccine for the Ripley (COVID-19).
(For politics, please scroll down. Active thread one post down)
Patricia here on our wheelchair ramp in 2010.
My dear friend Patricia (former blogger The Merry Widow) went Home to the Lord suddenly on March 29, of an apparent heart attack in the emergency room.
Warren's words when he heard the sad news: "If anybody was right with God, it was Patricia."
Her last three posts on Facebook, the second two from the ER:
Please take a few minutes to watch the two short videos below:
Below is the most-watched YouTube documentary on the topic of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic — if you have time to watch (over 4 million views):
Now for my family's own stories.......
My father's younger sister, about age 7, died of "the aftereffects of the flu." Something like the 1990 film Awakenings? Full movie HERE at YouTube, albeit poor quality. I highly recommend the film! It is available via Amazon Prime Video.
Dad occasionally spoke of what happened when his sister died: "The undertaker embalmed Chrissie at the house — and dumped the blood behind the barn." The funeral service and burial were private. The influenza didn't stop until everything was shut down: schools, funerals, churches, etc. And the government refused to believe that something terrible was happening with Americans' health. Until, that is, bodies began piling up on the sidewalks and in the streets of Washington, D.C.
My maternal grandmother (1898-1981) had a robust immune system. It fell to her to take care of her brother Walter, who brought influenza to their remote location in the mountains of East Tennessee when he was discharged from the US Army, fell ill himself, and gave the flu to his brother-in-law Fred, my grandmother's husband. My grandmother sent her two children, one born in 1916 and the other in 1918 to her parents' farm and took care of Walter and Fred.
My grandmother related the story of those days in this way: "I got almost no sleep. I went back and forth between the river for cold water and the menfolks' foreheads. They were out of their heads with fever. My sister brought food, called to me, and set the food down about 25 feet from the house; I fetched the food from there. I don't remember how long all this went on. Seemed like forever. But Walter and Fred got well, and life went back to normal."
I asked Wawa how she stood those weeks of hard work as a nurse. Her response: "Life isn't about what you want to do. Life is about what you have to do." She also told me of a particular safely measure she used: teetotaler though she was, she gargled in moonshine morning and evening. And she swallowed that moonshine, too.
When I say that I have "too much stuff," I mean it! Blogging continues to be too much effort at this time. Thanks to my food friend Silverfiddle for taking up the slack here during my absence.
In the process of The Big Clean Out in preparation for our move to Indiana (move date not yet determined), former blogger The Merry Widow and I found the ultimate family heirloom in the cellar crawlspace of this old house, which has been in my family since 1947:
Yes, I know to whom this treasure belonged: my great-grandfather, who died in Tennessee in the 1930's or 1940's after being bedridden for some ten years after a stroke. Apparently, this bedpan was important enough for my great aunt to bring to Washington, D.C., when she moved here in the 1950's! I can't throw it away now.
Our beloved alpha kitty, Minxy (b. September 8, 2017), a gift from a former piano student, who was fostering a mama cat and her five kittens during the aftermath of Hurricane Irma:
Minxy is a force to be reckoned with! We, including Amber, are grateful that she is so good-natured.
L to R: my beloved second cousin, whom I regard as my daughter (b. 1967); me at age 25; my mother (1916-1987); and, Wawa, my maternal grandmother (1898-1981).
The above photo was taken here in the living room of this old house, built circa 1935.
Like Cameo, Minxy (b. 9-8-2017) is not camera shy:
January 23, 2019
Minxy is a troublemaker. One of her recent escapades, at 5:45 A.M., was knocking off the bowl of dried beans which had been soaking overnight in preparation for ham and bean soup.
