Wow, and I thought COVID years were bad!  After going through a very sad and depressing Christmas, we were hoping and praying that 2023 would give us some relief.  Unfortunately, that was not to be had!  On the way back from Lee’s funeral, our Jeep started giving a warning light.  Joseph had it checked and…

I’ve been in such a morose state lately.  I haven’t been able to write, think or act.  I was in the middle of a seriously cheerful “I love Christmas” blog when the world came crashing down. I’ve told you of our children.  They were 12-year-old friends when they introduced my husband and me to one…

My father was a tortured soul. He seemed to live tragedy to tragedy with little happiness in between. Some of my fondest memories of my Daddy were after he fully retired and lived alone. I lived either in Portland OR, Kent WA or Allen TX during those years. I would come home for a week…

Well, the family reunion is over. It is hard to believe, all those months of planning, digging up addresses, sending out info letters, designing the tree, preparing a spreadsheet for research, getting DNA records from Ancestry.com, digging in the old picture boxes and albums, getting photos emailed and texted to me, trying to figure how…

Story 3 Ma was the last child of the family of eight. She was born in 1898 in Crenshaw County, AL. She would always say that she was the last child born on the last day of the last month of the next to last year of the century! She has always told us all…

My Uncle Awford Nathaniel Cook Awford, what an unusual name! Where my grandmother got it, I’ll never know. His full name is Awford Nathaniel Cook. Since I lived with my grandmother (Ma) and Grandfather (Pa) after my mother’s untimely death, Awford was around a good bit. He was their youngest son. I tormented him by…

            I am preparing for a family reunion for my father’s side of the family. I’ve been creating a family tree scrapbook.  This scrapbook includes photos for every step, adopted, in-law and outlaw of our group.  I scoured Facebook for hours; I hounded cousins to drag out their old picture boxes – doesn’t everyone have…

June 11-12, 2011 – days 16 and 17 (Two Sea Days)                We were scheduled for Kotor, Montenegro on Saturday, June 11.  Our ship’s anchor was dragging because of the heavy winds, so we could not stop there.  I was disappointed because I wanted to see many cats roaming freely there.  People feed them and…

This is June 8, Day 13 – Sea Day             Well SIR! This is June 8, Day 13 of this vacruisation. We got a good night’s rest – after we had a hunting expedition for Joseph’s C-Pap Machine chin strap and the TV remote. Apparently, they got bundled up with the sheets when they were…

Day 9 of the epistle – June 4, 2022, Florence/Pisa             We started the day early with room service at 6:45 and were out the door at 7:15. We loaded up in two Mercedes Vans, six in one and eight in the other. We headed to Florence. Along the way, we stopped at a vineyard…