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Sandra Buckley (Matthews)
I'm trying to help out Sharon by writing on this Message Forum, but am at a loss about what might be interesting to my classmates. So, guess I'll just ramble a little about what Bill and I have been doing since the first of the year.
We celebrated our 46th anniversary January 23rd, with 4 other couples from our neighborhood, Cypress Landing on the Pamlico Bay (eastern North Carolina......think Outer Banks and then come back inland about 60 miles). We all took a cruise out of Miami on the Norwegian Pearl, with stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cancun. After 7 days in a small cabin, with 2500 other people coming and going, Bill and I went directly from Miami to Panama Beach, Florida for a week at a beautiful Marriott Time Share. We had a newly rennovated 2 bedroom condo with fantastic views of the golf course and nice harbor area. We played golf twice that week, but I never finished an entire 18 holes......my lower back still gives me fits.
Our part of North Carolina enjoyed one of the mildest winters since we moved here in 2003, so Bill had lots of opportunities to golf throughout Feb and March. We spent our usual 3rd week of March in Hilton Head, SC, after spending a weekend in Florence, SC, attending a Gymnastics meet that our 6 year old granddaughter participated in. She is growing up much too quickly and her 3 year old sister is right on her tail !!!! The girls are the loves of our lives.........probably the only grandchildren we will ever have, as we don't expect that our older son, Jay, will ever remarry. Joe, our younger son, and his wife Tamrah, and Aila and Tatum, live outside of Charleston, SC on Daniel Island and that's an easy 5+ houir drive for us, so we travel that way frequently. The Charleston area is one of my very favorites for shopping and restaurants.
I don't know what happened to the month of April, other than it seemed to fly by. Bill and I stay busy with our choir at church, and we participated in a 4 church choir presentation for the community this spring......it was actually a Friday night and all day Saturday Workshop, with a director/teacher from Kansas, and then the program was presented on Sunday afternoon. Bill has been volunteering with the United Way of Beaufort County the past 3 years, and his spring has been plenty busy with the Annual United Way Campaign........he is Chariman of the Executive Board for one more year, and then he'll most likely take a break. I had a couple projects this spring that I enjoyed........one was working on our new church cookbook, and I organized and wrote the preface for the segment about healthy eating.....particularly recipes for type 2 diabetics (since Bill was diagnosed with it in 2002).
Also, one of my passions is working with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, since our Jay was diagnosed Bi-Polar when just 15 years old (he's now 40). In June of 2011 I approached East Carolina University administration with a proposal to organize a NAMI on Campus Student Organization. The University is about 28,000 students, with a medical and dental school, and is about 20 miles from where we live. Jay lives in Greenville, so I am there frequently. I had written a grant to the North Carolina NAMI Office and received a $1000 to fund the start up. With cooperation from the Center for Counseling and Student Development at ECU and faculty from the Psychology and Social Work Departments, I was able to engage about a dozen core Master's Candidates in the idea. NAMI is a national organization, with roots back to 1979, who's primary goal is to educate, advocate, and provide support for families who have a loved one challenged by a mental illness. Seventy Five percent of persons who are diagnosed with a mental illness have their initial symptoms in the time frame between 16 and 25 years old. This is why there is such an emphasis at the college level to raise awareness, reduce stigma, provide support, and advocate for better healthcare legislature and recovery programs. Anyway, it has been a satisfying experience and the ECU Chapter is now an officially recognized Student Organization, with a great agenda of programs and presentations for the coming fall semester.
Bill and I are going to Iowa in just a few days..........the Ames area. There is a family wedding on the Matthews side May 19th. Bill's nephew, who was the Ring Bearer in our wedding in 1966, has two daughters and the youngest is being married. I've been in touch with Sharon Philpott Haugen and Sandi Thompson Philips, who both live in Ames, and we'll be able to get together after the wedding festivities for a visit. We'll also come through Fort Madison on our way back to North Carolina, so I can catch up with a couple of my Buckley cousins one evening.
It's going on midnight and this old gal has rambled long enough......sure hope I haven't bored anyone who might be reading this !
Regards to the class of 1961 !!!! Sandy Buckley Matthews
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