2018 Snippets from Letters & Things to Share - 60th Reunion

 

 Renate Wenzek Behnke

 

  

We live in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, which is very similar to Wisconsin, with dairy farms and landscape. We don't have Lake Michigan, but the state is situated between the North Sea on the west coast, the Baltic Sea on the east coast and up north we have Denmark. A really nice region. Elmshorn has a population of 55,000. It is only about 20 minutes away from the wonderful city of Hamburg.

I am not able to attend the 60^th Reunion. My husband is doing fine again. We are happy and thankful for this. Our family is pretty big. Our eight grandchildren range in age between 8 and 26. Five are studying in different colleges.

It has been 60 years since I left the states—a long, long time.  

                               Peggy Rollings Cloud

Thank you for the info on the Elmhurst reunion this September. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend due to some health problems which limit my mobility. I hope to improve, but time will tell!

I really enjoyed seeing so many of our classmates at our last reunion and look forward to the news which results from this year's reunion. Please pass on my best wishes to all who are in attendance. Know it will be lots of fun. Thanks to the committee who worked to make it all possible. Blessings.

Jim Diss

 

One Hundred Years

We have lived in some of the most interesting times in history. One hundred years ago our grandmothers were marching to get the right to vote. Sixty-five years ago my mother was telling my sisters to marry a man that would take care of them. Thirty years ago we were sending our daughters to college to get a career of their own as their job. Now one of my daughters heads of Turnstone's pre-K education program, changing children's lives, and the other works in a cardiac cath lab as a technician saving lives of those with complicated heart problems. Now our granddaughters are getting their educations to lead to working in major corporations.

Recently I learned about the Space X Corporation and the New York Stock Exchange are now being lead by women. Women are joining men as equals in leading companies and governments. Whether it is in medicine, law, engineering and any other career in which our daughters and granddaughters have an interest, women are joining men in making a better world for all of us.

At no time in history has a good education meant more to the advancement of all people in the world. In America the first major advancement came after the second world war when returning soldiers took advantage of the GI Bill and went to college. Now there are more women in college than men.

Facts are facts, throughout most of music history the greatest composers have been men. No amount of digging through scores of archives is going to unearth a female counterpart to Bach or Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert or Chopin or Brahms.

Now the #MeToo movement is allowing women to breakout of stereotyping and succeed everywhere. It's easy to see the progress from the movie “Hidden Figures” based upon the true story of three African American women skilled in mathematics that figured out the correct numbers to send men to orbit the moon.

What a great world we live in now.

I AM A SEENAGER (Senior Teenager)
I have everything that I wanted as a teenager,only 60 years later.I don't have to go to school or work.
I get an allowance every month.
I have my own pad.
I don't have curfew.
I have a driver's license and my own care.
The people I hang around with are not scared
of getting pregnant and they do not use drugs.
And I don't have acne.

LIFE IS GREAT!

 
Ann Bredemeyer Doyle

Unfortunately, we will be leaving for a four month RV trip out West, leaving Naples in June and probably arriving home sometime in October. We are driving from Naples to Vancouver and the wine country and continuing on down Hwy 101 to Tijuana (but not going into Mexico). It's a trip Morrie wanted to repeat before we're too old to drive. Next year we will be traveling east of the Mississippi and will be in Fort Wayne. I regret not being able to attend the 60^th, but I know it will be a great success.

 

(a postscript regarding Ann and Morrie)

I received an email from them telling their friends that they had to return home after only being on the road for about a month. After being in the high elevations of Colorado for a brief time, Morrie started having problems with A-fib and heart failure. He was in a medical center in Pueblo, Co about a day, and then Ann drove them the 2100 miles back home, where he is being treated my his own doctors.

Diane Jackson Farber 

 

As I only attended my Senior year at Elmhurst, I didn't have time to

get to know anyone very well. I am sorry to see my Elmhurst being

demolished. It had a friendliness and charm that a lot of schools of that era did not have.

 

I was married 56 years to Norman Farber of Central Catholic. We have three sons, eight grandchildren and four great-grands. Tell my classmates it was a pleasure to be among you. May your memories be as sweet as mine.

Barbara Hemlinger Gibson

 

We still live in Auburn, Indiana, enjoying our retirement with fishing and swimming in our private pond, playing cards with family and friends and having lots of cookouts in our backyard. Since my husband is a coin dealer, we still set up at coin shows, traveling all over the country. 

 

We have one son and one daughter with one granddaughter who is a senior at Purdue University. 

And most of all, we just enjoy being with our family, feeling blessed with good health, and making the most out of each day.

Janet Russell Hopkins

Wow. 60 years. That's a long time. It would be nice to see everyone again. I am not traveling so well these days.....hip issues. I will not be attending the reunion but send my love to all. We have three grandchildren, two in college and a little one who just turned seven. Everyone is doing well, and we enjoy spending time with all of them. My husband still loves to hunt and spends as much time in the woods as he can. Our health is generally good, and we thank God everyday for His kindness toward us.

 

Thank you to everyone who works very hard at putting all of this together. It is appreciated and not taken for granted. If pictures are taken, I'd enjoy very much receiving copies. It would put a smile on my face for sure. God Bless.

 

 

Janice Arnos Koenig

It has been a joy and a privilege to hear from so many of you while preparing for this reunion. Time and life seems to be marching on. While I think Jack and I have slowed down some activitiy-wise, the days keep flying by.  

 

In these last five years it seems most of Jack and my volunteer time has been spent helping Burmese immigrant children with their homework and attempting to teach an immigrant woman from Chad/Sudan how to read. New math has given us fits! The “way we used to do it”, the answers were so easy to come by. Now you have to jump through hoops to get there!! Another thing I have been blessed to be able to do this past year was to make paraments for all the different seasons of the church year for our church's altar. I have loved to sew all my life, so this has been pure joy. 

Both of our daughters, Julie and Jenny, and their families live out of state, so our travel, vacation time is spent going to St. Louis, Mo., or Austin, Texas. Fortunately, our son, Jeff, and his family, lives here in Fort Wayne. We still love our little house we built in a forest north of Fort Wayne on the rim of Cedar Canyon almost 51 years ago, and pray we will be able to stay here for many years to come.

 

 

Karen (Wagner) & Steve Lowe

Greetings from South Carolina to all of our cherished classmates: We would give anything to be with you this evening, but unfortunately, a prior commitment has made that impossible. So, in keeping with your celebration, we will raise a glass of wine toasting all of you from the Norwegian Dawn as we round the coast of Maine on our way to Quebec City.

 

Karen continues to spend a great deal of her time as a horticulture volunteer at Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island. Her love of plants and flowers has no limit. I still enjoy playing golf in the golf capital, volunteering with River Keepers, and more recently, got hooked on building the family tree back to England.

We ask of you one favor: if you are of the persuasion, say a prayer for Ross Springer. Ross was a very big influence on our lives, and we suspect he had some impact on yours as well. Again, we miss all of you, and look forward to seeing you at the 65th reunion.

Diane Hevel McMahon

I'm sad to say I will not be attending the reunion and dinner Sept. 15^th. It sounds lovely,, but I would need to be wheelchair assisted for flying, and I use a Rollator and cane at home! We also have a family wedding earlier that day, and would have to choose! It is all too much after sciatic nerve injury and Total Hip Replacement, Nov. 2016. I know everyone will have a great time! Thanks for your efforts!

Tom Strubbe

Since my retirement in 1990, I have fortunately enjoyed reasonably good health. Unfortunately, the only significant occurrence since our last reunion was a sad one, the passing of my oldest and sweet daughter Tracy, three years ago at age 42. My life will never be the same.  

 

But my long-time partner and soul mate, Donna, and I continue to enjoy our life together, especially since I moved full time from the Kansas City area to our place in Marco Island, Florida, that we have had for many years.  

 

My son and good buddy, Patrick, is 42, and he's a partner in a large law firm, and he lives with his family in Charlotte, NC. He and his wife, Erika, have blessed me with my only but wonderfully accomplished grandchildren: Ethan, age 13, Terra, age 9, and William, age 7. 

My lovely daughter, Christina, is age 33. She was happily married in February of this year, and I couldn't be more pleased with my new son-in-law, Scott. He's a gentleman, he adores my daughter, and he and Christina are enjoying notable and satisfying business careers in Boston. They look like a promising source for more grandchildren.  

 

We can't wait to see everybody.

Andrea Smith Croft

I will not be attending the Class Reunion. I am doing well—in good health.

A big “Hi” to all classmates. Wish all a good time, good health and much happiness. Enjoy!  

Miss the good old school days. Lots of fun and many friends.

Linda Berg Walda

I will not be attending the class reunion. I have been dealing with a sciatic nerve problem. I have two lower vertebrae, one going forward and the other going backwards. We finally got them straightened. The doctor sent me to pain management, and I ended up having a steroid epidural shot in my spine. I was still in such pain they sent me to physical therapy. I am having it for 12 weeks. We are hoping to get the pain level to “0”.  

 

In October, 2017, we were in Fort Wayne for our Great Niece's wedding; and on the next day, I broke my right foot and was in a boot for 7 weeks. George had to drive me around because it was my right foot. Then last April, 2018, George had a seizure from a heart skip at 2:30 in the morning. Due to having a seizure, it is Arizona Law that you can't drive for 90 days. His 90 days was just up, then two days later he took a fall in the bedroom and has a fractured compressed vertebrae. He now has to wear a custom made, molded back brace several times a day.  

We have taken 3 Viking River Cruises. The first one was October 2012 from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam. In November 2014, we took the European Sojourn Cruise from Amsterdam to Bucharest, Romania, Rhine River and Main-Danube Canal. In August 2016, we took another Viking River Cruise, this time the Waterway of the Tzars, St. Petersburg to Moscow, Russia. The people were very friendly, and the city was very clean. You think back to the Stalin years, when it was a communist country, and we were very afraid of Stalin. We really liked the Viking River Cruises. We have no more trips planned at this time. Just trying to get our health back to the best it can be.

 

Sorry I won't be at the reunion in person, but I sure will be thinking about you all. I wish everyone good health and happiness. Most of all have a great time reminiscing.

 

Rosie Springer
Wife of Ross Springer

August 8, 2018

 

It is with sadness that I am writing you today. Ross passed away, Monday, July 16, at St. Vincent's Hospital in the early morning. While not unexpected, it was fairly sudden, as he had not seemed physically ill. The certificate said pneumonia, and the underlying cause, sepsis. That was probably due to the sores they were treating.

Services will be Saturday, August 18, at Cornerstone Lutheran Church, 4850 E. Main Street, Carmel, IN. Visitation will be from 10 AM to the start of the service. Interment will follow in the church Columbarium.

In place of flowers: Lutheran Child and Family Services, 1525 N. Ritter Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46219, or Lewy Body Dementia Association, Inc., 912 Killian Road S.W., Liburn GA 30047. 

                                                          Thank you, Rosie

Kit Payntor Meeker

We have had two children of our own and adopted one. Our oldest is 49 and teaches elementary school at Warren Township in Indianapolis. She is married and has three children. Her oldest girl graduates High School this year and will be off to college. The 14 year old girl is playing soccer with the FC team in Carmel, IN and will be an 8th grader. The youngest (12) is entering Middle School and playing soccer for the farm team of the Chicago Fire. They are all excellent students.

Our second daughter (45) is living in Durham, NC she is a social worker, and her husband is a nurse for the VA in Durham. Their daughter is a straight A student. They are close enough for us to go to her meets at times. Their oldest son is graduating from Univ of Central Florida this coming year with degree in Sports Medicine.

Our adopted son (Honduras) is married living in South Georgia and has three children. The last two have been home schooled. Simon is a High School teacher of Spanish as well as an ordained minister, working toward his masters in theology. Their oldest boy lives in NJ and is working there full-time. The 16 year old boy will be off to college next year and is interested in the ministry. The youngest son is home schooling and doing extremely well.