HOME AGAIN! I seem to have this recurring theme, only this time I really am home for awhile. We had a wonderful weekend in WI. Ron's 50th High School Reunion was great. We took the day and puttered around Chetek eating lunch at Bob's Grill and driving by the home where Ron grew up, where his mom lived after she remarried/retired, where some of his grandparents lived and so on. Some of the places rated a photograph, others landed in the memory bank...because they look better there than they do now. Ron was full of stories about growing up that day. It was fun to hear them again.
We ended at the cemetery. We haven't been there since his mom's funeral three years ago. The headstone had been cleaned up when it was engraved with the date of her death. She lived over 50 years after her husband died, raising her sons (the oldest in college, youngest in kindergarten) finishing her college degree in the summers (she had gone to normal school) as she taught during the school year. She scrimped and saved, put her three sons through college, saw them all marry and have a total of eight daughters. One became a high school principal in CA, one a minister (my husband) in FL, TX and now IL, and one a junior high english teacher in WI. Best of all, they became really great people (in character). In her 94 years, she buried a stillborn daughter (whose grave is also at that family plot), a husband (age 48) and her oldest son (age 56). The men both died of heart attacks. Her second husband who she married about the time she retired from teaching, she also buried after a few short years of a happy marriage. She was a really neat lady. With all of her saving, she still had some money left over to leave her kids! (I don't think I'll be able to do that if I live to be 94.)

We went to several of the family plots there getting dates off the headstones that we might want. We did find a person we hadn't heard about, so we are checking with a family member about her since we haven't seen any photos in the family pictures even though she lived to be in her 20's.

The reunion was fun. I have been to enough of them to have met a few of the people so I didn't feel like I was totally among strangers. Since this was a small town, most of these people knew each other all the way through school. Fortunately, some of the people Ron had known very well were there so we got to visit and catch up. Of course, the evening flew by and even though we weren't at church and didn't have to lock up the doors, we were still in the group that stood around and visited and was the last to leave! I guess it is hard to break some habits:)
Sunday afternoon, we were at Ron's brother's home in Menomonie. Their two daughters live in the twin cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) in MN which are about an hour away. Their older daughter is single now and is a social worker, their younger daughter is married with three children ages 10,6,3. She was born the same year as our oldest daughter. The children are lively enough that you know the "lights are on" (as one friend puts it) but not so wild that they are uncontrolled. They were a lot of fun. The youngest boy was born the same month/year that our older granddaughter was born. He is quite a little imp. It was fun to visit with the girls and catch up with their lives between the antics of the kids...and eating of course:)
Once again, I have two photos that go with this blog. I may have figured out how to do that too:) Wow!