Jan / Feb 2025

 Dear Family and Friends, Jan/Feb 2025 `     

Are you enjoying your cold weather?  Winter has sure been here, with a few days of figures below freezing, but no snow.  Maybe there is still time for some, yet.  Who knows?

Perhaps you will remember in last month’s letter where I was so surprised to receive a call from Korey, my military grandson serving in Japan, who said he had just brought his whole family from Idaho to live with him there.  Well, I was super surprised to receive a letter from Japan early in January, addressed to Great Grandma Ree.  It was from his 3 year old daughter, Paige.  What she sent was so cute, I decided to share it with you.  The large, rather stiff paper had across the top  “Love you from my head to my MISTLETOE”  Then, under it was some brightly colored mistletoe and her two little feet with its 10 little toes, the image of which had been filled in with paint: red on one, green on the other.  It looked so festive!  I was so delighted that I immediately sat down and wrote a ‘Thank You’ letter to her.  Postage and delivery time is the same as in the U.S.  Remember when our kids would bring home their school ‘masterpieces’ that had to be displayed on the refrigerator?  I am now displaying her beautiful artwork on mine.

Something else that I hope you may recall is my mention in the Oct/Nov letter about the residents of Riviera Mobile Park being able to become the actual owners of the Park.  Well, it involved working through a non-profit source called CASA who had helped with other parks, and was able to arrange for us to obtain the necessary amount of money to buy the Park from grants and supporters of various kinds, and took care of all the details concerning the mortgage and everything.   When completed, we then became known as the Riviera Mobile Park Cooperative.

Because of my almost legendary love of puzzles, I made a very simple word-search using 18 words associated with the occasion.  In fact, it was so super easy that no pencil was needed - just a pair of eyes- to solve it.  I wished everyone could have one, so I made over 100 copies and used them as a reminder of the festivities by placing one in the box of all residents the day before the occasion.  Then I decided to write my own Thank You to CASA and include a puzzle for them too. I arrived early at the party, and positioned myself at a table near the front door.  When a reporter and photographer from the Grants Pass Daily Courier arrived, they began talking to my friend sitting next to me.  Then, noticing my thank you puzzle to CASA lying in front of me, they asked to see it and even to take a picture of it.  I was more than happy to share it with them. 

I know newspaper people work all night, but I was astounded to see the Friday newspaper the next day sporting a picture of the previous night’s gala gathering on the front page!  When I turned to an inner page for a continuation of the article, I was blown away to see a picture of myself included.  It seems that when taking a picture of the puzzle I held in my hand, a full side view of me was captured as well.  Others who saw this picture, especially my Sunday friends at church, began teasing me about becoming a celebrity by getting my picture in the paper.  I took it all in stride, saying to each of them, “Well, at least it wasn’t in the obituary column!”   Because I think you might be interested in seeing the picture and puzzle, they are also being included this month.   

In addition to the surprise of receiving Korey’s call from Japan at the end of December, I was favored with another greatly surprising phone call at the end of January.  It was from Nancy Reid, the daughter of Nettie and Bill Schwartz, and a cousin of mine from long ago.  She’s about the same age as my sister Carol, and has lived for many years in Virginia, but is now alone and living in Arizona.  We had a good long catch-up conversation about many things.  When she heard about my monthly letters, said she would like to be on our email list.  So I sent her email off to Dan right away.  If any of you know of someone else who would like to read my letters, please let us know.

The reason I now tag my letters with both months is because it seems there is always something nice that happens at the beginning of the next month that I feel should be included right away instead of waiting a whole month to share it.  Sure enough, that is very true with this month’s letter.  As I was regretting our lack of snow in January, wouldn’t you know in the first days of February it began to snow!   I was just tickled pink that it had finally arrived.  I was glued to the window watching the fluffy flakes softly drifting to the ground.  The first snowfall of the season is always very fascinating.  Within minutes the grass, the plants, the trees and everything else became covered with snow, and turned the scene into a beautiful wonderland.  It’s wonderful!  I love it!  And one thing different about this year compared to all others I can remember is that it has continued snowing, intermittently, for one full week!  And because of a glitch between my computer and the printer, this month’s letter is a bit late in getting out to you.  So sorry.

Of course I was alone in sharing all of the snow’s beauty.  True figures to be back sometime in February, in order to help take care of Linda when she has a major hip operation around the first of March.  Although I do miss True, I really don’t mind being alone.  I get a chance to do things my way for a while. And as long as I am careful not to do anything unsafe, I feel very confident in being on my own, especially with the safety button (Medical Guardian) hanging around my neck.  

So if any of you have concerns about me, please don’t.  Because besides the neckpiece I have my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with me always to guard and protect me, and give me courage and contentment.  And of course their love.  And I wish these same things for all of you as you continue with your daily lives.  May you be richly blessed!  I send you my endearing love too. 

Marie