Christmas 2016
Season’s greetings to all of you!
Greetings to you all, and best wishes for a happy New Year from all of us. This has been a very different sort of year. We have had some joyous moments and some not so much.
Wedding
As you can see from our Christmas card photo, we all gathered for Dave and
Jen’s wedding in August on the cliffs above Malibu.
The wedding had been scheduled at a venue on the beach, but that site was shut down just two weeks before because of neighbors’ complaints. Jen managed to find a new venue at the last minute and transfer all the catering, etc. to the new location. Jen is extraordinary; she found a new (actually a better) place and made it work, and we were all relieved. We really wanted to get that boy married!
Our highlight was that Larry and I registered as marriage ministers and performed the ceremony, making it a very personal experience.
Our 50-Year Anniversary
Larry and I celebrated 50 years of wedded bliss (what else?) in September
and can’t figure out where the years have gone. It’s truly a blessing to
have our kids, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren enriching our lives and
keeping us from doddering.
To mark the occasion, the kids rented a large home and guest cottage near Paso Robles for Thanksgiving last month, and we all gathered for Thanksgiving, our 50th anniversary, and Brian’s birthday. And I didn’t cook anything—perhaps for the first time in 50 years.
Brother-in-law John Kinnear barbecued two turkeys, and all the other folks
cooked interesting side dishes, under the watchful eye of organizing Food
Police Sergeant Cathy.
We were happy that so many of us could be there, including sister-in-law Sue from Chicago, sister-in-law Vivienne from Maryland, along with my dad Jerry Burke (95 years young), sister Teresa, and hubby John.
50-Year Reunion with UCR Roommates
In April we had a group 50th celebration in Solvang with college roommates
Elaine and Cathy, and their spouses John and Tom. Sightseeing, wine-tasting,
and good food were on the menu, and it was great to spend some time catching
up, reminiscing about our days at UC Riverside and what life was like back
in the 60s.
Our Kids
Cathy and Tori are great roommates, and it is fun for us retired folks to
hear about the work issues and realize we don’t have to do any of that any
more. Tori loves school and next year will be in the last year of
elementary.
Jenny still works for the Meyers Nave law firm and cajoles her ancient cats
into needed shots. Brian is still at Adobe and wife Marion is doing graphic
design part-time and herding small children to activities the rest of the
time. A remodel on their 1920s bungalow in Berkeley gave them some
much-needed additional space.
Dave changed jobs and now works for Santa Monica’s Science Inc, which is closer to home and more remunerative. Jen’s doing a lot of national travel for Tuition.io and seems to handle it well.
Larry—Computers Still Keep Him Busy
Larry still does computer stuff for people and may be involved in setting up
several new systems for our church office, as their computers are really old
dogs that prefer to snooze rather than do any useful work.
My Cardiac and Cancer Issues
The second half of the year has been a real challenge for all of us; the
cardiac problems I experienced in the fall of last year turned out to be
damage to the heart probably from the Adriamycin chemotherapy and radiation
I underwent for breast cancer in 1997-98.
Doctors repaired the mitral valve in May, but I have only recovered a fraction of the necessary heart function and can’t walk for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Worse, it turned out that a swelling above the right eye was a metastasis of the original breast cancer, and could possibly be controlled but not cured.
So I’m on a different chemo regimen now, taking pills twice a day. We’re
told that when this no longer works or can’t be tolerated any longer,
they’ll try a traditional infusion similar to what I had 19 years ago. We’re
pretty floored by this development, which makes a mockery of the term
“enjoying the golden years.” We’re hoping that this chemo continues to
shrink the tumor. At one point my eye was completely closed for several
weeks, and it affected my vision enough that I was uncomfortable driving.
I had thought that the cancer I had in the late 90s was gone and forgotten, but now it’s reared its ugly head again. Still, I’m glad I got to see our kids grow into amazing adults and to meet the grandchildren. And I’m hoping to be around awhile longer.
Our Day-to-Day Routine
Meanwhile, I have a great support system here—a chauffeur/servant (Larry)
who takes me to appointments, does laundry, cleans up after meals, and takes
direction on gardening and harvesting (which I don’t have the stamina to do
anymore). The chef de la maison (Cathy) cooks interesting stuff on the
weekends and gets groceries on her way to or from work.
And that speedy little almost-10-year old, Tori, is getting quite good at running to fetch things for Grandma and has learned to heat up her own food in the microwave. She’s quite nimble when it comes to harvesting tomatoes, blueberries, and snow peas, scrambling up the terraces like a little mountain goat.
Then there are our neighbors and the Helping Hands folks from church who
have brought meals and kept us on multiple prayer lists, and are willing to
help out as needed. I’m still painting when I have the stamina and find it
helps my chemo-brain to recharge and regroup.
Think Good Thoughts
We hope you all have a good holiday season, and we apologize in advance to
all of our overseas friends for the political insults that are likely to
come your way in the upcoming months as we navigate our rudderless status in
this benighted and bedeviled country.
We prefer to believe that the evil spirit which has invaded this country will be controlled and contained by all the good people who refuse to hate. Keep us in your prayers and good thoughts, and let’s hope that tantrums on the national and international level are few and far between.