Myrtle Joan Perry, known as “Jodi,” married Carl Keatley when she was 20 years old. The marriage was not easy and money was scarce. Through it all, Jodi built and nurtured a hearth for the family. Within four years, she birthed three daughters, Jan, Judi, and Jimmi. Jo came six years after Jimmi and six… Read More Thank You Jodi
It has been almost a month since I turned in my ID card and entered retirement. For the life of me I do not know how I had time to work. The first week I cleaned closets and organized drawers as if there were no work-free tomorrow. The second week, I started to let go… Read More Retirement – The First Month
When I was in my early 20s, I lived in a duplex owned by my father. My mother lived on the other side. A green thumb was one of her attributes, evidenced by the variety of roses that covered one side of our backyard fence. Mama tended those roses every evening, wearing her usual attire… Read More Mama and the Neighbors
Retirement.. a stage of life that, not so long ago, seemed a thing of my far distant future is now something to contend with. I made my “retirement list.” I completed my online application for social security, spoke with our financial adviser, and made the necessary arrangements for my American Airlines and my McClatchy pension… Read More The Last Days
I said for years that, for my 60th birthday, I would buy myself a red convertible. I had not owned a convertible since the red Ford Sunliner that was my first car and I wanted to feel the wind in my hair once again. In 2012, Katherine got her driver’s license and we passed on… Read More Time for a Change
The internet expanded from the status of a glorified encyclopedia to the magic one-stop source for almost everything. Amazon offered an alternative to mall and department store shopping and Craigslist became the place to buy or sell furniture and other household goods. Cars and even houses could be viewed with a few keystrokes and just… Read More Relics and Relocation
I never moved to a part time position after rejoining the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As it turned out, that full-time position was a gift from God. Jon lost his contract in the aftermath of 9/11 and we were blessed to have insurance coverage through my new job. He was recruited by Southwest Airlines within a… Read More Turnovers and Changes
On Sept. 9, 2001, I accepted the job offer from the Fort Worth Star Telegram with a start date of Oct. 1. Two days later, I dropped Katherine off at school and went to McDonald’s drive-through for a routine breakfast stop. “A plane just flew into a building in New York” the young man told… Read More Home Again
Domestic Engineering was not what I expected. Friends, family, and school knew that I “didn’t have anything to do all day,” therefore I was a target for errands, pet care, and school parent duties. For years I dreamed of a freezer neatly stacked with storage bags containing meals prepared days ahead of time, all boasting… Read More Blessings
The Year 2K problem, or “Y2K” as it was known, revolved around speculation of what would happen when software written with dates expressed using only two digits for the year rolled from 99 to 00, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from the year 1900. Most companies had plans in place to avoid disaster by implementing… Read More Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself