My epic reunion trip all started with the 80th birthday of my sister, Judy on June 10th. My oldest sister, Jerri, turned 80 in February of 2014 but, because it was during the school year and because it was before my son-in-law started working for American/U.S. Air which affords travel privileges to parents (and parents-in-law), I was not able to attend that celebration. I DID, however, scan a ton of old photos of Jerri so her kids could put together a slide show of her life. So, I was sort-of there in spirit. Anyway, Judy's birthday was much easier to attend so I contacted her kids to find out when and where it was to happen and the first weekend in June was decided. Then the ball got rolling......
The last few years, I have been working on locating and connecting with various cousins from my mother's family. I knew I had cousins living in the Phoenix area and, after a bunch of e-mails, I was able to round up most of them for a mini-reunion at an Olive Garden in north-west Phoenix. Here we all are:
(l-r, standing: me, my sister Juli, my brother Jim, my sister Jerri, my cousin Dave Fraedrich (son of Doran, my mother's brother)
(l-r, seated: Kay Winfield (daughter of Cleo, my mother's sister), Shelley, Dave's wife)
The only cousin unable to attend was Harriet Dimon (daughter of Edward, my mother's brother)
But, a few days later, I was able to visit her mother, Jane, (Edward's wife - the only one of that generation still alive) who is 95 years old.
She was amazingly spry and, although she didn't remember Juli or me, she could tell us about her courtship with Ed back during the WWII.
On the way to the Olive Garden, we drove past the new Phoenix Temple.
The Fraedrich cousin reunion was Thursday evening. Juli and I went up to Payson that night and left the next morning for Mojave, California and Judy's gathering.
She fed us dinner and we stayed in a nice Best Western in town (well, if you can call Mojave anything but a wide spot in the road! - boy it sure is barren up in that part of Southern California). Before going to Jill and Carl's place for the party, Judy took us to a big cat wildlife sanctuary called Exotic Feline Breeding Compound Feline Conservation Center located in Rosamund, just south of Mojave. Temperatures were a bit warm so most of the big cats were out of sight sleeping but we did see one leopard
and a very gorgeous peacock
Judy and Juli at the "cat house".
Then, it was time for the birthday celebration. Judy has five children: Jan, Jill, Jack, Judy, Joni. Jill and Joni have passed away, but the other three were there.
l-r, back row: Sarah-Ander's wife, Anders (son of Jill) (holding their adorable dog, Poppy), Sandy- Jack's wife, Jack, Carl - Jill's husband, Jill, Noah (son of Judy), Juli, April (daughter of Joni), Kristen (daughter of Joni) holding her daughter Mackenzie, Luke-Rachel's husband, Rachel (daughter of Judy)
middle row: Kevin (son of Rachel), me, Lilli (daughter of Kristen), Big Judy (birthday girl), Little Judy, Ray Saniger (son of Judy's late husband, Eber)
front row: Kaylin (daughter of Kristen), Kaia (daughter of Noah)
not in the photo was Gwen holding her little sister Soleya (both daughters of Rachel). Here she is sitting next to Judy.
Judy getting ready to blow out the candles
A photo of Carl's studio in his back yard, which also has two almond trees, two pomegranate bushes, a fig tree, and a Thompson seedless grapevine, and tons of other plants. Quite the green thumb in the family, which he passed on to son, Anders, who teaches horticulture.
Juli and I left Jill and Carl's at about 4:00 to drive down to La Habra in north Orange County. We were pleasantly surprised that La Habra hadn't become run-down in the 40 years since we lived there. The home on Ryan St. looked pretty good....
we stayed in a nice little motel in neighboring Whittier, across the street where I believe our doctor's office used to be, and we had fun driving around town visiting our former schools.
this is Juli at El Cerrito Elementary School where she entered into 4th grade after we moved from El Paso.
Here I am at Imperial Junior High, which we both attended.
Here is where we ate lunch every day. Keep in mind that weather is always pretty mild in Southern California so lots of activities are outside. I don't remember where we ate when it rained, though. I guess in a classroom since there was no gymnasium.
Then, on to La Habra High School.
Home of the Highlanders
All the halls were outdoors
As were the entrances to the classrooms. This is the art wing where I spent many happy hours in the photography class.
And, this is the instrumental music wing of the fine arts building. The choir room was behind, the little theater to the left.
Juli and I attended our old meetinghouse for church on Sunday. It is pretty much the same but we didn't recognize a single soul. Evidently, our old seminary teacher, Marilyn Middleton, is still in the ward but she wasn't in attendance that day. Darn!
After meetings, we returned to Ryan street where Leon and Mary Ann Getz still live across the street. Their daughter, Susan, and another school friend, also named Susan, fed us lunch and we had a great time visiting and reminiscing.
l-r: Susan Lendroth, Susan Getz Lyon, me
Susan's 85 year-old parents, Mary Anna and Leon Getz
We drove back to Arizona Sunday afternoon/evening and stayed in Payson, again. We had a relaxed Monday morning in Payson. Juli took me by the school where she teaches, we stopped in a little souvineer shop, and drove by Jesse's home which is near where mom and dad used to live - so we drove by there, too. Oh, it is sort of in sad shape. The yard has gone to weeds. Sniff.
Then, back to Phoenix one last time for a Young cousin reunion. There are a whole lot more individuals living in the valley on my dad's side and we had a HUGE turn-out.
Much larger than I expected. A nice surprise. And, we are going to do this again next year in a more official capacity because it was so noisy and crowded in the banquet room of Tia Rosa that it was hard to visit with anyone.
Here is my Uncle Ralph - 90 years old - who was married to Iris, my father's sister.
Here are Cade and Colby Ellsworth, twin sons of Cory and Amy (Jerri's daughter)
Rob (Jerri's son) and his girlfriend, Joanne seated across from his son, Tyler and his girlfriend, Taylor
Brent Bowden (Jerri's son) talking to Sam White (Lillian's husband - she is Thelma's daughter)
I couldn't get photos of all the cousins who were there - Lillian and several of her children, Mona and Belinda (Ralph's daughters), Michelle Cooley - daughter of Gwen who was Everett's oldest (Everett is my dad's brother). Jim and Jerri and Juli were there, of course. Juli's son, Jesse came. Many of Rob's kids were there. All of Amy's kids were there. It was glorious.
Tuesday, I flew back to St. Louis. My flights were all stand-by and coming to Phoenix was not a problem. I was not able to get on my preferred flight back, though. I had to wait for the 6:50 flight. Thankfully, I got a seat or I would have returned to Amy's and tried again on Wednesday.
This was my view as I waited for 6 hours. Thank goodness for wifi and Netflix. I started into the Sherlock series while I sat.
Wow, this is very long and I have a cello student coming soon. The End!
