Season's Greetings Christmas 2014
What is easily the major event of 2014 for my family is my son, Johnathan, and his wife, Carissa, welcoming into the world their second child, Kennedy Ellen Jarboe ('Ellen' being the middle name of Carissa's mother, Mari), on July 24th at 2:57 a.m. PDT, and weighing 7 lb., 1 oz. & 20.5 inches in length. Kennedy was also warmly welcomed by her 3-year-old brother, Hunter. To introduce 7-week-old Kennedy to both sides of their families in the Midwest, Johnathan and Carissa made the trip to Illinois (where Carissa's father lives) and Missouri in September and everyone agrees that Kennedy couldn't be a sweeter or quieter baby girl. And her 3-year-old brother, Hunter, also acquitted himself quite well for everyone, being a very well-behaved and very bright young man. Holly also made the trip to Missouri at the same time and is proving to be a special aunt for Hunter and Kennedy. We all (plus my ex-wife, Mernell, and my children's half-brother, Brett) took in a Cardinals ball game vs. the Brewers on Sept. 17th and we watched a pitching duel involving Cardinals' ace, Adam Wainwright, in which the Cardinals were no-hit through 5 2/3 innings in a scoreless contest with 'Waino' getting the Redbirds' first hit in the 6th. In the bottom of the 7th, the Cardinals scored two runs and Wainwright pitched a complete game shutout, winning 2 - 0. (Oddly enough, Holly and Dave watched the Cardinals win their only game of a 4 game series against the Mets in NYC in April and Johnathan, Carissa & Family and Carissa's father watched the Cardinals beat the Cubs at Wrigley in Chicago in the only game of their 3 game series in September, with Wainwright also winning each of these games.) Many from my family also had a great visit with Johnathan's family and Holly at a Golden Corral in Columbia while they were here.
Johnathan and Carissa still live in the Seattle, WA area with Johnathan getting close to earning his MBA degree and Carissa still works as Lead Sonographer at Swedish Medical Center, with 12 weeks off for Kennedy's birth. Holly and Dave still live in New York City with Holly teaching at three dance schools and many master dance classes throughout the Tri-states of NJ, NY, and PA this past summer and danced for a burlesque/flapper group. Holly is also still managing catering events and parties on Saturdays. And Dave is still working as the head chef at a French bistro, Petit Poulet.
I did see my 60th birthday on June 11th. Quiet day. Many cards and phones calls. Just extremely happy to be here to witness it. My mother turned 82 in August and she had a very good year, healthwise, for which we are all very thankful to God for after Mother's health challenges of last year. I am also very thankful to God that my health is holding its own.
2014 witnessed the end of an era for all families resulting from the marriage of my maternal grandparents, Pollard and Beryl Woods (who passed away in 1972 and 1990, respectively) of Maud, MO, as their home (which we all simply called "Beryl's") changed ownership in September to Tom and Emily Bowden of Huntsville, MO. Tom told us that he has loved this house for many years whenever he drove by it and I do not think that our family could have found better stewards for this home as Tom and Emily plan to do MUCH work to refurbish it and make it their new home. To spend time in this home one last time (of many times over the years), there were several family get-togethers this summer with my Aunt Ferne and her son, Gary, and her daughter, Beverly, and also, my Aunt Jane and her daughter, Rachel, and her son, Lance. My sister, Diane (now in Texas with her husband, Mark), and her daughter, Trish, also made it up for a get-together. When this home was built in the 1920s (only 3 miles from my childhood home where my mother still lives), it was seen as quite a showplace at that time in the Maud area.
As I write this, Holly and Dave will be visiting us in Missouri in mid-December when Holly is coming to see her close friend, Brooke, getting married and it will be my first chance to meet Dave, which I am looking very forward to.
After 30+ years of living an enjoyable and productive life in Oklahoma City, OK, my sister, Angela, moved to Jefferson City, MO in October. No doubt, living much closer to me was a major consideration for Angela when she contemplated making this move. But Angela decided to move back to Missouri, anyway.
The Cardinals had another very good season and made the postseason, beating the Dodgers in an exciting NLDS, but it was déjà vu all over again, losing against the Giants (à la 2012) in the NLCS, who went on to defeat our other Missouri team, the Kansas City Royals (who had an amazing season) in an exciting seven game World Series.
On the celestial front, 2014 was one of those rare years that included two total lunar eclipses, both visible from Missouri in the wee hours of the morning and, rarer yet, the sky was crystal clear for both of them. The Hannibal newspaper published a rather simple photo that I took of the "blood moon" in April and, in October, my mother shocked me by leaving me a message on my answering machine at 5 a.m. (while I was outside watching it) to let me know that she woke up and walked outside to look at the eclipsed moon. Despite an overcast sky all day, I was lucky enough to have a break in the clouds on October 23rd to see a few minutes of the partial solar eclipse just before sunset.
2014 was the fifth time that a most unusual family coincidence occurred. This past year, Holly's 29th birthday fell on Mother's Day and, five weeks later, Johnathan's 33rd birthday fell on Father's Day. Over the past few years, I have shared this odd anomaly with many women and it is true that I have embellished this happenstance with them, ever so lightly, by telling them that this required very careful planning on my part in that I had to take into account the air temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure and---most importantly---the remaining hours of sunlight. And I haven't had a woman yet who hasn't been, at least, a little amused by my 'story'. I have told Johnathan and Holly to enjoy this unusual alignment of their birthdays in 2014 as it will not happen again for another 11 years, in 2025, due to a leap day 'skip' in 2020.
In memoriam, my mother's cousin, Elizabeth Evans, passed away in May at age 96 and she will be missed by many as she was mentally sharp throughout her life and was known by many through her many, many contributions in the field of education. My dentist since moving to Hannibal in 1991, Dr. Ervin W. Harder, passed away in February and was highly regarded by many as a noted leader in Hannibal and in his profession. We were saddened when Glen Meinert, the father of my sister's, Diane's, sons, Shawn and Eric, passed away in March. Glen provided our family with our first glimpse of how "the other half" lived. My favorite Catholic priest, Father James Seyer of Cape Girardeau, MO, passed away in October, 2013 and was beloved by very many. He gave a sermon that I heard in the late 1970s that will always be my favorite sermon that I am enclosing with this letter in his memory. And my first friend in life and neighbor, Billy Brewer, sadly lost his brother, Dr. Kevin Brewer, who was a family doctor in Rolla, MO.
In May, I met a high school classmate, Nancy Meals (who I have always thought very highly of since she moved to Madison to be a part of our 8th grade class), for coffee in Moberly. Nancy is now beginning her 45th year of marriage to her husband, David, and is a very busy and successful business owner and Nancy really loves her grandchildren. Because Nancy and I really didn't know each other in school, I had always assumed that such a get-together as being in 'The Realm of the Impossible'. Nancy and I have been pen pals and exchanged Christmas cards since I moved to Hannibal in 1991, which I also thought of being something that would not be possible when I graduated from high school in 1972. It was a great deal of fun for me to make up for lost time with Nancy as we both had a very good two hour visit that day.
A few of you may recall that I ended last year's letter with a humorous story about a young woman who worked at the Hannibal YMCA, Brooke, who finished her degree in elementary education at HLGU and she moved back home in May. Because I had come to very much enjoy my visits with Brooke (about 6 times/month), I took her leaving the 'Y' particularly hard. Some may see this as a little odd and unusual that this should happen between a 60-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman who found a way to form their own 'Odd Little Friendship' (which is what Brooke called it)---and they may very well be right---but these things happen from time to time.
And this is my amusing story of the year to close on: During their visit here, Johnathan, Carissa, and their two children, Hunter and baby Kennedy, and I enjoyed eating out at Country Kitchen here in Hannibal. While Johnathan and Carissa were seating their children, I visited with our waitress a few feet away, who I found out was about age 22, attractive, a few months along 'with child' (but not yet showing) and hoped to go to cosmetology school one day. With our menus in front of us, I noted that Carissa was not looking at hers too closely and I found out that Carissa's mind was preoccupied on something else and was not able to think about what to order and when our waitress came by our table, she asked us, "Are you ready to order?" and Carissa quickly assured her, "No." We then visited some more and 10 minutes later, our waitress came by and asked us again, "Are you ready to order?" and I looked up at her and told her, "I think that some of us are." I then glanced at Carissa, who was sitting across from me, and Carissa gave me a "wide-eyed look" with her Scarlett Johansson smile on her face. I could not help but laugh and I told our waitress, "This is my daughter-in-law and she is a very special person." Our waitress replied, "Well, I thought either that or she was your daughter." I pointed to Johnathan and told her, "No, this is my son," and Johnathan told her, "Yeah, he owns me." We placed our order and had a very good time visiting while we ate, with Hunter doing what 3-year-old boys enjoy to do, climbing under the table and walking around a bit, but overall, Hunter was a very good boy, doing a little coloring before our meal. And baby Kennedy was quiet, as she nearly always is. Towards the end of our meal, our waitress came by and asked me if I wanted a refill on my water and I initially declined and then told her, "Oh, you've already got it here with you. Well, since you've got it here, sure, I'll take a refill..........I wouldn't want you to hate me," causing our waitress to laugh in a rather uncertain way. Before our waitress walked away, I turned towards her and explained to her, "One thing that you need to know about me is that when I tease a woman, that means that I really like that person." Our waitress light-heartedly replied, "Well, I really feel liked," causing me to laugh. And in a very dramatic voice, Carissa strongly implored our waitress, "R-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-N!!!!" causing me to laugh even harder.
I hope that you and your family have a prosperous 2015! Greg
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