The Spirit works in strange ways. I had just written, in the story of my life, Chapter 20 - A Time of Discovery and Renewal, the story of finding the identity of my birth parents and of course meeting for the first time my big brother Jim and my other surviving siblings. Thoughts of him and all the events that had transpired were fresh in my mind. He had, on several occasions, traveled from Cleveland to Chicago to visit and each time has stayed in my home. I had gotten to know Jim better than any of my other siblings and perhaps that was by God's design, knowing that we would have so little time together. We mourn our loss and it is indeed a loss. His (Cecora) family was able to celebrate a lifetime or substantial parts of lifetimes of knowing and loving him. I celebrate also and am grateful for having him in my life for these four years. Knowing him has been both a revelation and a privilege. We are kin as well as kindred spirits. Our lives were very different and yet we shared the same values. He has touched my life and left a warm feeling and more. On October 16 Anne Marie, Tom and I attended the Memorial Mass for Jim. It was a trip to Cleveland that I would have preferred not to have made but one that I would not have failed to make.

I had known that Jim was baptized in the Catholic Church as a new born infant when his parents were living with his Italian grandparents in New York. But our mother was  originally Lutheran and after her divorce he attended church in several protestant denominations when he went to church at all. Peggy of course is Irish Catholic and Jim had attended Mass on occasion. I also know he read a great deal of G K Chesterton the well known Catholic author and admired his way of thinking. He once told me that he "Thinks the Catholics have got it right". He received his First Communion at the age of 86  in the hospital shortly before he died. 

I had most of the windows in the house replaced in 2009 and the remaining living and  dinning room windows as well as the sliding patio door replaced this fall. Part of the cost was again recovered by Economic Recovery tax credits for install energy efficient glass. In November I brought in a painter who stained and varnished all the wood trim around the new windows and door. He also removed the wall paper in the two upstairs bath rooms and painted them. Also painted were the downstairs bathroom ceiling and the family room ceiling. He also repaired the wall paper in the kitchen where I had replaced the microwave above the range some years ago. I plan to be living here for a while and you have to keep up if things are to remain pleasant and attractive. I like pleasant and attractive! Speaking of attractive ... Bella was two years old in November of this year. How could I have a two year old great granddaughter?

It was in 1998 that I had my bypass surgery and the doctor wanted to know if my heart was still functioning according to specifications, I had an Ultrasound imaging of my heart and a Nuclear Stress Test done. They showed that my heart was functioning OK. The blood supply to the heart was good. Thank you God. That goes right along with my plans to be around for a while. In addition, my endocrinologist is doing a good job keeping the diabetes under control by adjusting my insulin dosage and other meds as needed. Again ... Thank you God.

I added a Blog to my web site and followed that by delving into social networking on the internet. I wasn't looking for new friends ... but you never can have too many friends ... and I though that from over 79 years of living and learning I had something to say, hopefully something worth while. I got a Facebook page! I soon got into the swim of things and found it to be fun and rewarding.

It has been another eventful year and another good year. There were family gatherings for birthdays and at Thanksgiving and Christmas and for no reason at all except to gather. We do that.

2011

The 2010 - 2011 winter started colder than normal but without severe cold. It also had more snow than normal but without any exceptionally heavy snows, that is until the first week of February when we were hit with the Blizzard of 2011. We got over 20" of snow, high winds accompanied by thunder and lightning. It was rated as the third most sever storm to hit the area in recorded history. We were better prepared for this one due to improved weather forecasting but there were people stranded in their cars and the cleanup went on for several days. There was a 3' drift in front of my house but neighbors dug me out followed by Nick who came the next day to finish the work.

Just before the storm we had a small family retirement dinner for Dom. He got a part time job as an assistant baseball coach at the local high school and so would be doing what he loves while supplementing the family income. My only question is ... Am I old enough to have a retired son-in-law? ... I guess I must be.

Spring of 2011 came wet and cold. But it was Spring none the less and I was glad to see it. With it came an invitation to attend the 50th Anniversary celebration of my cousin Diane Simousek. The photo at the left is my Uncle John Simousek and Aunt 'Tony' along with cousins John and Diane. My uncle was my (adopted) mom's half brother. Aunt 'Tony" was realy Aunt Antoinette but that didn't roll of the tongue too well.  This photo was probably taken in 1944 or 45. The last time I had seen my cousins was probably between '46 and '48. They lived on a farm between San Pier and North Judson, Indiana and it was always an adventure to visit there. She was now Mrs. Ed Lambert.

Diane Abt 1947 with parents & brother John	At the 50th Anniversary in April 2011 Ed & Diane Lambert; me; Gert & Ken Snyder: Lori & Bob Snyder.

What a wonderful event! Diane and I had exchanged emails and had been on my list of Family & Friends the past several years and I was invited to attend this great celebration. Sitting at the table with them was as if we had been having Sunday dinner with them all our lives. This is family. The ties that bind, do bind tightly. I felt very privileged to be there and to meet Ed for the first time and of course their children, grandchildren and even a tiny great grandchild. It was an experience not to forget ... ever. Of course this is a Bohemian family and the Bohemian Crystal Restaurant was up to the task of the celebration. Our private room was perfect and then came the food. I had liver dumpling soup followed by Bohemian roast duck, bread dumplings, sauerkraut, gravy and corn. There were Bohemian pastries and for desert I had a baseball sized morsel filled with popyseed. Needless to say, I over-ate and enjoyed every minute of it.

The event was also an opportunity to meet again with my cousins Ken Snyder and his wife Gert as well as Bob Snyder and to meet his new wife, Lori. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful relatives. We should see each other more often ... much more often to be sure. I came home bursting with the joy of it all.

My diabetes refused to give in to once a day insulin, the Byetta and an assortment of pills so my treatment was changed to supplement the night time long acting insulin with shots of quick acting insulin before breakfast and dinner. The Byetta was discontinued as were several of the pills I was taking. Dr Akbar explained that the pills were to squeeze insulin out of my pancreas but apparently it was like a dried up orange and you can't squeeze anything out of a dried up orange. That seemed to work much better but everything still needed close watching.

In May I arrived at an important milestone. It was my 80th birthday ... four score years of life. There was a family dinner at Rocco's Little Italy. There were four generations there to celebrate including my great granddaughter who is two, going on six. Thanks to Rocco, Patty and especially the very nattily Nattily who saw to it the we lacked nothing to make it a glorious birthday celebration truly worthy of the 80 years on my life.

The photos above start at the Birthday Celebration at Rocco's then continue to my house. Then the photos jump to Mother's day at the Albano house. But, we are ahead of ourselves. After the party at Rocco's we all went to my house where there were gifts and cake. One of the gifts was this video ...

That video was stitched together by Marc from short vignettes made by the individuals and is a tribute that I will always cherish. It tells me that my life has been a success. My 80th birthday was a great and happy event. I just wish that Anne had been there to enjoy it with us ... but then, I am sure she was.

 My 80 years have been an Odyssey, a long journey full of surprises, always changing and evolving. It took a long time for me to learn to go with the flow and to understand that in this life I will never understand everything and moreover to realize that it is OK not to understand everything. It is only necessary to accept what has happened and that, what is, is the only reality there is. I am grateful for my life and believe it has been fruitful. I am grateful to be still relatively independent at this stage in life and yet realize that we are never really independent but that we live only with the help of others and live only to help others. I have come to believe that this was God's plan in creation. He does not need us but He needs us to need others and for us to help satisfy the needs of others. I have found that happiness is found in satisfying our basic needs and not in grasping for unnecessary wants. In my relative independence I have not become a burden to my relatives and it is my hope that I never will. Having said that I do not begrudge life to those who have become a burden to their children or others. It just may be the their reason for living is but an opportunity for others to practice their care and love, for them to sharpen their skills in this regard. Again, it is one of those things of which we lack understanding but of which the purpose will be revealed when we arrive at our heavenly reward. 

I said that my life has been an Odyssey and that is true of all lives. An Odyssey is an adventure not a planned vacation where everything is perfect. There are boring parts, difficulties and even disasters intertwined with peace. accomplishments, great and small, along with triumphs and great joy. To leave out any ingredient would be to try to bake a cake without one of its ingredients ... a failure, flat or tasteless. It is also a time of learning and growing in both wisdom and faith. But to learn anything one must have an open but discerning mind to seek only truth and that which is wholesome and good. One must be willing to discard errors and bad habits in an effort to grow strong and upright. One must also learn to be tolerant of new and strange things even to the point of embracing them when proved to be good.  And so I can truthfully say that my 80 years has been an Odyssey and an adventure. There have been surprises at every turn some of them absolutely astounding. At this juncture I find myself very happy and content. I am at peace with the world and with God. That in itself is a balancing act that is difficult to achieve but I feel I have made it. I am ready for whatever is to follow for the adventure continues ...

Life, indeed, continues. We continued to discover more about our ancestors, both mine and those of our in-law's families. Notable was finding a link from my father to James Cudworth an early settler and his connection to English Royalty among whom are  Edward I, Henery I, II & III, The House of Wessex,  William the Conquer, Charlemagne and several saints, including Saint Margaret of Scotland, a Bishop ...Bishop Metz Saint Arnulf (582-640AD). He was married to Saint Doda and his son was married to St Begga. We date back to Cerdic (from the early British name represented by modern Welsh Caradog) was probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534, cited by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founder of the kingdom of Wessex and ancestor of all its subsequent kings. We also count as an ancestor Rollo (c. 846 – c. 931), baptized Robert and so sometimes numbered Robert I to distinguish him from his descendants, who was a Norse nobleman of Norwegian or Danish descent and founder and first ruler of the Viking principality in what soon became known as Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy. All of this, of course, and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee at an average Greek restaurant. But ... it is exciting and fun to discover these things.

In June Anne's Aunt "El" died. Alexandria (Montym) Kalabus was more of a cousin to Anne since they were only 10 years apart and the families were very close. I tried my best to maintain a relationship with her after Anne died. Ellie's death marked the end of an era. She was the last of her generation to survive of all of Anne's parents, aunts and uncles, and for that matter, mine as well. It is a sad thing when an entire generation disappears from the scene. There is no longer anyone to ask about family matters of the past unless they have been recorded in some way. In spite of all that has been recorded, there is much that has not, the little things, the unimportant smiles and tears which, in reality, constitute our lives and live in our hearts.  We say farewell to El and we pray that all her anxieties be washed away in Heavenly love. She will join all those she loved most from her generation, the ones before it and those of us from this generation who have left us too soon and she will do so in perfect understanding. She joins all those others who will be there to greet us when we are born to Eternal life. United at last, never to be parted and in perfect joy and communion. Our differences and misunderstandings will either be gone or will have shriveled to absolute unimportance.

The world continues to change and I along with it. The garden evolves with help from my family. New plants replace old and some are just added. This fall I added the St Francis Corner. A plot of grass in the nook at the NW corner of the house is now the location of a lilac bush and several new day lilies as well as a statue of St. Francis which was relocated from the main garden area. I always wanted lilacs.

I was gifted with a Web Cam and have become fascinated with it and some new software. I can now do things like this ...

I have done many more videos, some using the web cam and some like this to announce special events like this one ...

Yes, on the 9th of December 2011 Anthony and Joelle Zarzana became engaged. It was a great Christmas season. The family continues to grow. Another video shows this ...

This was another in the series of Christmas gifts from my sister Marilyn Copeland. She makes one for each of her siblings. Having the web cam also enables me to make Skype calls via the internet. Remember the big deal about Picturephone? It was touted as the latest and greatest by AT&T in the 1960's who predicted that everyone would be able to see the person they were talking to on the phone. It wasn't realy practical until the advent of the cell phone equipped with a camera just in the last couple years and now I can do it using my computer and web cam. 

When I bought my new Buick in the spring of 2000 I envisioned it as the last car I would ever buy. It was now over 11 years old and although it had never been in the shop for anything more serious than an oil change or new tires (2) and it only had 41000 miles on it, I was afraid it would be due for possible major problems. And so, in the last week of the year with the aid and advice of Dan and Tom I went to Ray Buick. I came home with a 2011 Lacrosse with all the bells and whistles installed. It was my Christmas present to myself. Of course it was actually free. I wasn't spending my money. It was my children's inheritance. Sorry guys!

It was another beautiful and glorious year. This old dog is learning new tricks and my endocrinologist is threatening that I could live to 100. 

2012

I will add to this time period from time to time ...

Ana graduates from high school

The wedding of Anthony Albano and Joelle Zarzana ... A to Z ... is planned for the end of summer.

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