This was a year with a lot of ups and downs, but the three of us have arrived at the end of the year healthy and happy.
The new year started quietly. Brian’s Akron Aviators basketball team was in the middle of a bad season marked by a couple of coaching changes and the retirement of a key player. Chris found out in January that he needed surgery for a significant chronic problem. Pam continued teaching a basic accounting course online for the University of Akron and she hasn’t taught on campus since before the Covid year in 2020.
Early February was quiet except for a Valentine’s Day party held by some friends. Then, in late February a work crew showed up to clear a 40-foot-wide swath across the back of our yard. There is an easement for a natural gas line and a petroleum line on the rear section of our lot. The crew took down several trees including a couple of tall spruce trees that blocked the view of our house from a parking lot for a nearby bike-hike trail.
In early March, Chris had his surgery and spent several weeks at home recuperating. Fortunately, there were dozens of March Madness games to keep him occupied and he continued to work on his first book that he released in July on Amazon.
The book is titled “First Alumni”, and it is based on Chris’s experiences attending a brand-new high school in the 1960s and being a member of its first graduating class.
By May, Chris had recuperated enough to attend a couple of Akron Rubberducks baseball games and we began to plan for a trip to Europe in August to celebrate our 50+3-year anniversary. We also took Pam’s brother Jeff and his daughter Veronika to a special exhibit from the Tudor dynasty period in England at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In June we had a beautiful quartz countertop installed in our kitchen. We also entertained Chris’s niece Angela and her husband Kevin as they traveled to New Hampshire to visit their son Braden who is attending law school at the University of New Hampshire.
On August 7, we flew to Paris to spend eight days in the “City of Lights.” We also planned to visit Copenhagen for another five days before returning home. We celebrated our Anniversary on August 8 with brunch at a sidewalk café, a walk through the Jardin d’ Tuileries and a stroll along the Seine River. We had dinner at another sidewalk café. During our week in France, we went to Giverny to visit Monet’s house and garden, toured the Musee d’ Orsay and visited the palace and gardens at Versailles.
After a week in Paris, Chris was not feeling well, and we went on to Copenhagen. Once we arrived there, we both tested positive for Covid. Following the CDC guidelines, Chris self-quarantined at the hotel while Pam found to a nearby grocery that had prepared foods for meals that enabled us to eat in our room. After five days, we both masked up and flew home.
In September, Chris hadn’t talked to his brother Ed in over a month and Ed’s best friend in the Dayton area contacted Chris saying he couldn’t get Ed to answer the phone either. Chris called the local police to do a well-being check and they found that Ed had passed away. We held a private graveside service and Ed was buried next to his grandparents in Columbus.
In October, Chris shaved his goatee and went to a Halloween party as Johnny Carson’s dowager Aunt Blabby. Other holiday events included a tour of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron and a holiday music concert by the choral groups and brass choir of the University of Akron.
And finally, a crew from Ohio Edison arrived this week and dug an eight-foot-long trench in our front yard to repair an underground electric line. So, we began and ended the year with excavation, and I’ll need to get some grass seed next spring.
We hope all of you have a great 2024!
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