Dear Family and Friends,
I am truly late with my letter this year – for a good reason as you will soon learn. A growing number of cards with wonderful notes and news have already arrived, plus 2 light snow falls and extra cold weather — all tell me the time to share with friends has come.
In my letter last year I spoke of a more uneventful, stable life. No wonder!! As I revealed to some of you in written notes added later to the letter — I suddenly discovered last Nov, ’94 I was in a fairly deep clinical depression that had been insidiously growing stronger since the beginning of that year. Once discovered, it took me a month to get a doctor’s appointment in Dec. Good thing it wasn’t acute appendicitis –and I wasn’t suicidal!
December to May was completely consumed with therapy and medication to get well again. I taught my UC speech class Monday nights, took voice lessons (truly my saving grace) & sang in church choirs Thursdays, attended music & theater events — and that is ALL I did for 6 months. The breakthrough to normal energy and motivation in life evolved in Apr. & May as I started to take charge of my life by effecting some changes. At the end of March, Immanuel choir gave a concert of Bach’s Contata BWV# 4. After that concert, I left the choir. Immanuel Presbyterian has completely changed. Their new minister is taking the church on a course too fundamental for me. Several other choir members left soon after I; in Aug. the choir director left for a full time teaching job in Georgia; and their excellent organist also moved on to another job. I joined the Westwood First Presbyterian Choir, only 5 blocks from my home.ยน Ann Marie Koukios is an excellent choir conductor & we do very exciting music — Elijah, 3 concerts in May, Messiah today and Christmas Eve, & Bach’s St John Passion this coming April. All these with various joint choirs. Very exciting.
Once recovered and well, I made huge strides in developing my voice over the summer and truly ‘found’ my vocal sound. In Sept. I sang 3 programs: a solo, A duet w/ a tenor at a church, and a 30 minute program for the Phi Beta performing arts fraternity of which I am a member.
My Indiana farm closed in sale to Doug Kern in Feb. While I no longer own it, I still have all the hiking and fun privileges I did before with none of the work, taxes, or headaches. In May I purchased a small cabin on the camp grounds (next to the farm). At 7′ x 12′ , I joked last summer that OJ Simpson had more space in jail than I. So I spent a lot of the summer commuting to Indiana, fixing up the cabin, and getting a wonderful builder to add a great deck to it in August. I hope by next summer to also add another 5 feet extension to the cabin itself giving me some breathing room inside.
My cousin Fred & family were here the end of June and we spent several days house hunting. They hope to put their Las Vegas house on the market by February, get it sold, and be able to move back to the Dayton area by next summer.
Cincinnati held their 3rd Tall Stacks Celebration for 5 days in October. The next one will be 1999. I signed up as a volunteer worker – and got free admission, discounts on merchandise and, best of all, 3 free riverboat cruises working as a “Boat Ambassador” – including one dinner cruise. The parade cruise was the most thrilling of all with 19 paddlewheel type boats from the huge American Queen to the tiny Andy Ann all traveling down river & jockeying for parade position at one time. Yes, I got some great photos.
In Nov. I totally tore down my dining room, had it painted then rebuilt it as a combination dining/computer room. It took 10 days to assemble 3 furniture pieces for desk and storage — and Friday I DID IT– I bought a whole computer system. My Xmas present to me. It’s an IBM Aptiva minitower w/ everything – 16 RAM, CD-rom, phone & fax modem built in, color printer and a color scanner, and loads of built in software. Yes, Jerry Herbner, I’ll be in contact as soon as I get my own internet address. Any one else that has E-mail or internet addresses, let me know. My word processor is nearing the end of its expected life – and, as a UC instructor, I can have free access to the internet, etc. – for life! I decided the time to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity is now. I had hoped to be able to use this letter to initiate the system – but there is just far too much complicated material to learn & not enough time. So this is the swan song letter for my word processor and you can expect a “prodigious production” as I have fun scanning photos, using different fonts and any other festive fun things I may learn during this next year.
Finally, in Jan. I start a 2nd new class at UC as a moderator/leader for “The Play’s the Thing” in the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR). During 8 weeks the class will read aloud & discuss issues and ideas in 3 or 4 plays. Another reason I need my computer. I’ll be able to create papers & handouts at home, send them from my computer directly to UC ILR office computer. They’ll make copies & have them ready for me before class. Isn’t that amazing! Like Tall Stacks, this, too, is a volunteer position, which didn’t turn me on, but I finally decided the enjoyment of the class itself and especially the new people I’d meet would be worth it.
Hecuba, age 11, and Tootsie, age 16, are truly old ladies. Most of the time Hecuba walks like a 90 yr old on a walker, & Tootsie, tho pretty perky, can hardly see. In spite of huge vet bills, they are wonderful companions and I dread that time when I must lose them.
So that’s my year. No big adventurous trip to exotic places this year, but smaller, perhaps more important, journeys — into next year with a 2nd new class and discovering the whole new world of cyberspace; thru last year with my singing, to Tall Stacks, to my new cabin and deck in Indiana; but most of all, back to health and happiness. I hope you and yours also have health and happiness now, and throughout the New Year, as well as the joy of love from family and friends in this Christmas Season.
- Note, January 2022 – Little did I realize at the time I wrote this letter, that I was starting a lifelong friendship. Annette Roth was with me in the Immanuel choir, but her life centered around her young children, working at the EPA with her PhD in Chemistry, and Immanuel Choir. One day at 1st Presbyterian choir practice, she walked in and sat down beside me. She had left Immanuel for the same reasons I had and so we began, going forward, a lifelong friendship. We went to operas, symphonies, and other musical productions until I ended up in Long Term Care at Twin Towers.