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Sandra Buckley (Matthews)
Hello to everyone ! It's been so long since I've been on the message forum, but I was glad to read some of the summer messages this morning. Sharon's email about considering a different "destination" for our 55th Reunion prompted me to see what's been happening with everone lately. Gee......your monthly luncheons sure sound like lots of fun and well attended also ! Guess the retired men from our class don't "do lunch"..........too involved with their golf games or other hobbies.........plus, if they are like Bill, they need to work in an all important afternoon nap in the recliner !
I'm a golf "widow" this week. Bill is in Myrtle Beach, SC with another 7 fellows from our neighborhood that he plays golf with regularly here in Cypress Landing. Two of them have Time Share Condos there, so they are enjoying themselves.........6 straight days of golf on 6 different courses. Bill had another steroid injection in his left knee last Tuesday before he left Saturday, to get him through the normal pain. He's looking at a knee replacement this winter, probably after Christmas. We have plans for a Florida trip before Thanksgiving, Marco Island and Key West, so don't want to mess up that. Also, we will be stopping through Jacksonville, FL for 2 nights on either end, as our younger son, Joe, and his wife and our 2 granddaughters moved there this past April. The girls, Aila, soon to be 8 years old in October, and Tatum, going to be 5 in January, are the sunshine in our lives. We've seen them 3 times since the move.......they came up here for Bill's 70th birthday in June, and we've been there twice this summer. They lived in Charleston, SC for almost 10 years, which was such an easy drive.........this one takes 9+ hours........UGH ! Our older son, Jay, still lives in Greenville, NC, about 25 miles from us. He's recently taken a job with the Vidant Hospital in Greenville, in their Clinical Chemistry Lab........we are praying for his success, as he struggles so much with his mental illness challenges.
Bill and I continue to love North Carolina..........hardly seems possible that we have been here 10 years now ! We are fully immersed in our community and have no regrets our our retirement choice. Bill stays very engaged.......golfs at least 3 times a week, sings tenor in our church choir (even solos on occasion !), is Chairman of the Beaufort County United Way Board of Directors, and plays bridge with me in a couple neighborhood groups. I sadly gave up golf 2 years ago, due to stenosis and other issues in my lower back, but stay active in other ways. I'm also in our church choir (alto, but NO solos), active in an EMMAUS WALK Sisters' Reunion Group in the area, play in 3 different bridge clubs, and volunteer at the Department of Social Services in Beaufort County in the Foster Children's program, as a community Guardian Ad Litum for the foster child. Some of the cases in such a poor county here in eastern NC, really break your heart ! Children are the innocent victims of their parent's choices, yet the goal is always to rehab the parent and reunite the family......it's tough to know when to terminate parental rights.
I've written more than I intended and hope everyone isn't bored by my ramblings. We don't have any specific plans to get back to Fort Madison in the near future, with all of family in the area deceased, except Bill's sister Jean Hoffmeister. We may try to next summer and go on down to Kansas to see Bill's sister, Trudy Hesse, and my sister, Barb Buckley.
Everyone stay healthy and enjoy each day we wake up on the green side of the grass !
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