Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T15:11:00.000-05:00

With this special edition of the Walton Mountain News and speaking for our entire family, Pat and I extend to you heartfelt wishes that this Holiday Season is marked by love, laughter and joy in your household and the start of a wonderful New Year.

This month marked the completion of our eighth year as residents of the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Our oldest child, Mary, a single mother raising grandson, Daniel age 11, resides in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Our oldest son, Mark, a single father raising our granddaughter, Zoe 14, lives in Salt Lake City, UT. Closer to Connecticut, Daniel, our second oldest son and his wife Betsey, are inhabitants of Bennington, VT where their son and our oldest grandson, Nathan 16, is a 3rd year high school student. In Wayland, MA, our youngest, Michael, and his wife Vicky are raising their twin boys, Owen and Cooper, soon to be age three. Granddaughters from Michael’s first marriage, Jennifer, 15, Lauren, 14, Alyssa, 13, and Caroline, 12, are regularly present to share love and laughter with their half brothers.

As lifetime residents of a continuing care retirement community Pat and I take comfort in the knowledge our children, pursuing their own lives and responsibilities, are not being burdened with attending to our welfare as we age and become frail.

Fortunately, though firmly past our 80th birthday our health remains good. It is sustained by Seabury’s vibrant community life that provides stimulating social, intellectual and cultural events shared with old and new friends, world class exercise facilities, convenient health clinic services, fine-dining orchestrated by creative chefs, and opportunities for inspiring volunteer work.

In addition to assisting at funerals conducted from our church, Sacred Heart in Bloomfield, Pat devotes some of her time to Seabury’s Flower Committee, the Village Store that produces revenue for charitable causes, reading to residents with physical impairments, and helping them to make their way to chapel services.

I continue to give to St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA, now mostly time directed to raising money for students in need of tuition support. Additionally, I serve as a Resident Director on Seabury’s governing Board, a member of its Health Services and Finance committees, and various standing committees associated with Seabury’s Resident Council. More recently, I accepted responsibility to function as VP for the Connecticut Continuing Care Residents Association and Treasurer for the national association. This work is particularly challenging and interesting. In the current economy, decline in retiree fiscal resources, and the downturn in house sales is exerting a negative impact on the Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) industry.

The most important aspect of our continuing well-being is regular contact with and visits to and from our children and grandchildren. Among such events: A late March ski trip to Salt Lake resulted in a reunion with Mark and Zoe. In June Pat and I were thrilled when Zoe, accompanied by her Wayland, MA girl cousins and their father, visited us for a tour of the historic Mark Twain House. Mark and Michael stopped here in September for Seabury’s charitable golf tournament. My attendance at a national CCRC meeting in November at Los Angles produced an opportunity for dinner with Mary and Daniel; Mark, on a business trip to California, was a surprise addition to this gathering. Later in the month, Pat and I traveled to Massachusetts to see Jennifer’s magnificent performance as a member of her school’s production of Chicago and a reunion with her extended family. Just before this Christmas Dan, Betsey and Nathan joined us for Sunday brunch. Among other good things, this provided an opportunity for Nathan to complete an honors course assignment to interview an elder to determine the single historical event that most influenced their life. My answer, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. At the time, I was 15, unable to comprehend how that event would spectacularly change my life forever.

Simply stated, we are blessed with a loving close-knit family, dear friends, and good health to do what we do to reap the benefits of enriching our lives and the lives of others.

A final note: A busy schedule precluded publication of the regular year-end edition of Walton Mountain News. Please be patient. God willing and the creeks do not rise you will have it soon. In the Internet age, circulation now is by email or blog, http://waltonmountainnews.blogspot.com. This works for most readers, those with an on-line computer, or access with assistance from an understanding family member or friend who does. For others it is an inconvenience. I apologize.