My baby brother, Randy's daughter, Erin graduated from high school this year. She is also my goddaughter and asked me to be her confirmation sponsor too. So she is special to me. She will be going to UW Green Bay next year and got three scholorships. They are rightly very proud of her.

Found out that she is quite an artist. They had several of her paintings displayed around the garage. A self portrait, a three set (Hard to discribe) and a very thought provoking picture of a crouching blindfolded man with his shadow being a standing man. It also involved a comment on mankind in general.

I signed on the the prayer chain at church. It seems that I am always calling with a request and decided that I started to return the prayers. Sickness and
Death seem to be all around us these days. Age does that I expect. I am
less worried about it the older I get. I think that the experience of
being physically with Tim when he died erased a lot of my fear. I
feel that death is but a pause and that eventually we all end up,
Hopefully, in the same place. A place where we can catch up and enjoy
each other under God's smile. FINALLY LIVING in peace with no more
cruelty or fear. I also see my Mother living so beautifully. A
couple of weeks ago, she said to us that one of these days, Dad was
going to come and say that it is enough - and take her hand and lead
her to heaven. I know she misses him but she is enjoying her life to the
fullest as it comes to her. What an example she is.

Love

Mary

Been thinking of the reunion a lot today. We are an unusual group. There are some classes that seeme to just be good together and we were one of them. Both as eighth grade graduates from St. Mary's and then as part of the larger group that incorporated both St. Mary and the public school kids in to a solid unit. Some groups of people just belong together. We even send invitations to students that moved out of our group at some time during those six years. Even some that didn't graduate. And they come and we hug and catch up and enjoy each other.

I have a friend who is not part of this unit that finds that an amazing thing. It is actually. I know of one other group that is that cohesive. My Dad's graduating class met for over 70 years and just stopped a couple of years ago. Of course these people are now over 90 and most of them are gone. My Dad and his friend Frank Holden, (who is also my brother, George's wife Betsy's Father) ( Does that make any sense. Read it again.) planned the last ten years or so. They would meet every year then. Frank would send the invitations and Dad would write a poem.

Mother says that in the beginning they met every 10 years and stayed out til dawn. In later years they met on a Sunday at about noon so everybody could get home before dark.

Life is nothing but change. It is sure good to find that old friends - real friends- don't.

Love

Mary

Yesterday, I was not home from my eighth grade reunion until too late to do a blog. So here I am a day late.

50 years ago, I was a member of the very first class that graduated from St. Mary's Grade School in Sheboygan Falls. We started there in 6th grade. At that time there was no middle school. So the school has been in existance for 53 years. I remember the building of it and how proud St. Mary Parish was and still is proud of the school and its mission. It is the only alternative to public education in Sheboygan Falls, which makes it an even more important mission. I hope we will be able to keep it open. The enrollment needs to be increased to do that. We have a principal who seems to be really working on that. When I went, all of the teachers were nuns. Now, not one works at the school. The decline in the number of nuns is as dramatic as the reduction in the number of priests.

Anyway, there were about 8 of us there plus several of the class behind us. At that time we had combined classes. Can you imagine. There were about 50 of us in the class with ONE teacher. And we learned.

We met about 1:00PM and people wandered in for the next couple of hours. We ate at about 5:30 or 6:00. Visited and then sat around a campfire until the mosquitoes got too bad. Ken came up with a campfire game. We had to think of one truth and two lies about our lives and then everyone guessed the truth. Do you have any idea HOW hard it is to think of a lie about yourself. I fooled everybody. I told these lies. 1. I had a poem published in a national anthology. 2. I shoot trap and am pretty good. My hightest score was 24. My truth was that I sideswiped a car when I was taking my drivers test.

That really is the truth. I took the test three times. The third time the two examiners were both trying to get out of testing me. I had taken a class or two by then. I just went and paid for two classes. I did a parallel park that was textbook. AND I never did one again.

The Kids, Bart and Barb, are safe in Lawton.

Yea

Mary

When Dick and I went to Cashton earlier in the year, I went out shopping at some of the Amish Farms that are in the area. At one of them they were selling large gourds in very interesting shapes. The ladies had let them dry, hollowed them out and painted the white. Then they put a wire for hanging. I sprayed it with sealant to keep the paint from running and hung it in the big tree in back of the house. We will be able to see it easily when we sit out there this summer. I believe that it has been "occupied" by a lovely bird family. It will be fun to see it as the summer goes on.

I HOPE we will be able to sit out this year. With all the rain we are likely to have a bumper crop of mosquitos.

I spent the day watering my indoor plants,grocery shopping and reading. Tonight I will do some sewing on a quilt. Dick and I are planning a trip to the Sault Ste Marie in July and are kind of planning that. We intend to visit his niece Theresa in Medford on the way. We haven't seen her for a couple of years and do look forward to the visit. She is a darling girl and her family is so nice.

Tomorrow

Mary

Bart and Barb postponed their leaving until tomorrow because of the awful weather through the midlands from here almost all the way to Lawton. So. We need to worry and pray tomorrow instead of today.

Today was very busy anyway. The Bible Study Group met. We were short three of our regulars but gained a new one. Bev Stangel told her friend Josie about us and she came for the first time today. We had a lively discussion about lack of vocations and whether it would be proper to go to another denominations service if you couldn't get to a Catholic Service. HMM!!! Such a dillemna.

Then this afternoon was the monthly Writer's Club Meeting. We didn't have too many readers, so Jane introduced a little game. We all wrote three words on a little piece of paper. Then the papers were placed in a plastic bag and each person picked one, not their own, and wrote either a poem or short paragraph using the three words.

I got HOOKER _ MAJOR _ WORLD and came up with;

The world is bright
In the city at night.
The hooker is right
Neon light
Enhances sight.

After we were done Sylvia Green, who gave me the words, laughed and said that she actually meant hooker in the rug hooker sense of the word. This makes sense when one knows that Irene Luedtke, one of our fellow writers, is completing her second book. The book is about rug hooking, one of her obsessions.

Have a great Tuesday.

Mary

The scattered thunderstorms and patches of rain predicted for today turned into heavy fog this morning and one shower. It is rather hot and muggy out there. I have been following weather REALLY close the past couple of days because Bart and Barbara are leaving for their drive to Lawton Oklahoma today. I know I mentioned that earlier but some people may not have logged in. Besides I am really rather worried. That is a long drive and they are my kids and I do worry about everything. Dick says I am very good at that.

Well, we should be done with Reagan's funeral rights. It was a long week, a nice tribute to a man of history but a little too much at one time. Saturation makes a person become numb. There was one interview I found quite amusing and I think a nice picture of the man's humor.

Tim Mc Carthy was a secret service man assigned to President Reagan when Hinkley shot him. Tim Mc Carthy was also shot, in the chest and spent some time in the same hospital as Mr. Reagan. When he was checking out, he, his wife and their two children were invited up to Reagan's room to say goodbye and receive his thanks. When the visit was over, Reagan called Tim over to his bedside and said something like. "Tim, This guy shot a Mc Carthy, a Brady, a Delahanty and a Reagan. Do you think he has something against the Irish?"

I will finish with my daily reading from Cadfael's Book of Days. A kind of comforting thought for the start of a week.

"Leave agonizing too much over your sins, black as they are, there isn't a confessor in the land who hasn't heard worse and never turned a hair. It's a kind of arrogance to be so certain you're past redemption."

Mary