| Biographical Non-Fiction posted June 21, 2021 | Chapters: |
...125 126 -127- 128... 
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An end and a new beginning.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Christmas and the New Year,1992
by BethShelby
.jfif)
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
As Christmas drew near, we continued to have a lot of company. Jimmy, your sister Helen’s son, had remarried in the summer and he brought his wife up to meet us. Becky was an airline stewardess. She was his fifth wife. He’s gone through a college sweetheart, a Proctor-and-Gamble heiress, a school teacher, and one who only lasted a couple of months. Jimmy had been a bank vice-president, but he'd lost his job a few years back when there was a financial crisis and many banks went under. Since then, he'd had trouble finding anything permanent. The couple would be living in Nashville, where Becky would work as an executive for a major hotel chain. She had two young children. Jimmy hadn’t had children before, and he seemed crazy about the little girl and boy. Since Jimmy was Helen’s only child, she was becoming attached to the children as well, so we all hoped this marriage would last.
Your other siblings, Rhomas and Maxine, also came up just before Christmas and stayed a few days. With so much company, it was very hard to get the necessary shopping done and get ready for Christmas. We bought another blue spruce tree, for which we had to pay $70 on sale. It was late in the season, and it was reduced from the original $100. I decided this would be the last year for a real tree. They don’t last long, and they shed needles everywhere. The tree was about eight feet tall and beautiful under our 27 ft. ceiling in the great room. Connie and Lenny decorated it for us.
******
A few days before Christmas, my friend, Joy, called from Florida. Joy is also my cousin, who I met for the first time at a family reunion in Mississippi when I was fifteen. She and I lived a few towns apart, and we became almost as close as sisters. After she graduated from the same college which I attended in Mississippi, she taught for a year and married an airman she met in training in Pensacola. We didn’t see as much of each other after she moved away. She lost her first child like I lost Susan. He was eight months old, and it was listed as a crib death. After she moved to Florida, we lost track of each other, but we had both been trying to get back in touch. Our letters kept getting returned, because we had the wrong addresses. She finally managed to get my phone number, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
Joy was mentioned quite often in my earlier chapters. From this point on, she would be back as a major part of my story. It had been at least 27 years since we’d been in touch. Like me, she now had four grown children. Her marriage to her husband, a lawyer, had failed after twenty-five years. Recently, she had met a much older man and had remarried. They were living in the Jacksonville area of Florida and were in the process of building a house in Ponte Vedra near the beach.
*******
Carol came for Christmas, without Glen. Christmas was fun. We didn’t eat until late on Christmas Day, because Don and Kimberly couldn’t come until late. Christi couldn’t get Denny to come, because he seemed to be uncomfortable around us. He went to Alabama to be with his family. Lenny came late, as well. He’d been with his dad and stepmom for Christmas. Lenny’s mom was spending Christmas in Brazil. Lenny’s family treated Connie like one of their own, so she always got nice gifts from them.
Kimberly and Don were having a hard time financially, so they made their Christmas gifts. Don had been very unsatisfied for a while with his job at a home for delinquent boys. When they refused to let him off for Christmas, he decided not to go back. We hoped he would be able to find something else and hadn’t made a big mistake by leaving without giving notice. Kimberly made us a beautiful wreath for our door, and she was making a needlepoint picture for my wall. Don was in the process of making a large birdhouse, which was a scale model replica of our unusual house with a rock chimney, decks and all.
After Christmas, Don, Kimberly, Connie and Lenny went ice skating and later snow skiing in Gatlinburg. We took Carol and went up to watch them ski later that day. We rode the ski lift up the mountain to where they were skiing, and I took camcorder pictures of the skiers on the way up. We enjoyed the trip. Carol left the next morning, going home by the way of Glen's parents’ home in Georgia.
Later that week, Connie went with Lenny and his dad to Memphis, to spend a few days and be there through New Year's Day. They visited Lenny's grandparents who lived there, but they all stayed in a motel.
******
The calendar turned over to the year of 1992, and I didn’t bother making resolutions. I hoped it would be a good year, but I had doubts as to what might happen with my job and also concerns about my children, who all seemed to be struggling with relationship problems.
Christi and Denny continued to have problems. He worked before Christmas delivering for UPS, but again he was without a job. They decided to break up, and Christi dated a boy from Canada for a while, but it was Denny she was really crazy about, and she was depressed over the breakup. She'd been wanting new carpet for her room. Although it needed changing out, we were unwilling, because she was getting makeup all over the carpet, and she had a shedding cat and an overflowing litter box in her room. We told her if she wanted new carpet, she would need to buy it herself. She did just that, so we got her furniture out and put it down for her.
******
Connie and Lenny went to Atlanta to pick up his mom who was getting back from South America. They went to see Don and Kimberly while they were over that way. The next day, they both had to get back to their college classes. Lenny’s mom was planning to take a sabbatical from teaching to do a lot more traveling, and she decided to close her house. Gina, Lenny’s sister, was married for several years, but she and her husband broke up, and she and Lenny decided to get an apartment together near the mall. Connie seemed to think she lived there too, because she was going over there almost every day after school to do her homework.
******
Connie's friend, Amy, tried to kill herself again. She ended up in Valley Hospital, which is a hospital for people who are having mental problems. Connie said Amy's problem was because her mother died just before they moved to Chattanooga. Her father remarried right away, and the father and step-mother didn't act as if they cared about Amy. She’d been on antidepressants, but she didn't like the way they made her feel, so she kept getting off of them.
*******
We had an extremely cold January and we kept putting off visiting Mom and Dad because of the bad weather. We finally went to Mississippi near the end of January and celebrated a late Christmas with them. You and I spent one night in Brandon with your sister, Maxine. Your other sister, Helen, was having some serious health problems, and part of it was brought on by the fact that it looked as if Jimmy and wife number five were going to be getting a divorce, already. We didn't understand why all of his relationships seemed to fail. Helen always blamed the women, but I'm sure there was more to the story than what any of us were aware of.
Evan is 63 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 54 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working with a local printing company.
Carol is 30, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 27 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 29 and attending Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical plant and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta near Don's school.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is eighteen. She is a freshman in college.
Lenny is Connie's boyfriend. He is a sophomore in college. Gina is Lenny's Sister.
Denny is Christi's boyfriend.
Rhomas, Helen, and Maxine are Evan's siblings.
Jimmy is Helen's son and Evan's nephew.
Amy is Connie's friend.
Joy is Beth's close friend, who had been out of her life for while.
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
As Christmas drew near, we continued to have a lot of company. Jimmy, your sister Helen’s son, had remarried in the summer and he brought his wife up to meet us. Becky was an airline stewardess. She was his fifth wife. He’s gone through a college sweetheart, a Proctor-and-Gamble heiress, a school teacher, and one who only lasted a couple of months. Jimmy had been a bank vice-president, but he'd lost his job a few years back when there was a financial crisis and many banks went under. Since then, he'd had trouble finding anything permanent. The couple would be living in Nashville, where Becky would work as an executive for a major hotel chain. She had two young children. Jimmy hadn’t had children before, and he seemed crazy about the little girl and boy. Since Jimmy was Helen’s only child, she was becoming attached to the children as well, so we all hoped this marriage would last.
Your other siblings, Rhomas and Maxine, also came up just before Christmas and stayed a few days. With so much company, it was very hard to get the necessary shopping done and get ready for Christmas. We bought another blue spruce tree, for which we had to pay $70 on sale. It was late in the season, and it was reduced from the original $100. I decided this would be the last year for a real tree. They don’t last long, and they shed needles everywhere. The tree was about eight feet tall and beautiful under our 27 ft. ceiling in the great room. Connie and Lenny decorated it for us.
******
A few days before Christmas, my friend, Joy, called from Florida. Joy is also my cousin, who I met for the first time at a family reunion in Mississippi when I was fifteen. She and I lived a few towns apart, and we became almost as close as sisters. After she graduated from the same college which I attended in Mississippi, she taught for a year and married an airman she met in training in Pensacola. We didn’t see as much of each other after she moved away. She lost her first child like I lost Susan. He was eight months old, and it was listed as a crib death. After she moved to Florida, we lost track of each other, but we had both been trying to get back in touch. Our letters kept getting returned, because we had the wrong addresses. She finally managed to get my phone number, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
Joy was mentioned quite often in my earlier chapters. From this point on, she would be back as a major part of my story. It had been at least 27 years since we’d been in touch. Like me, she now had four grown children. Her marriage to her husband, a lawyer, had failed after twenty-five years. Recently, she had met a much older man and had remarried. They were living in the Jacksonville area of Florida and were in the process of building a house in Ponte Vedra near the beach.
*******
Carol came for Christmas, without Glen. Christmas was fun. We didn’t eat until late on Christmas Day, because Don and Kimberly couldn’t come until late. Christi couldn’t get Denny to come, because he seemed to be uncomfortable around us. He went to Alabama to be with his family. Lenny came late, as well. He’d been with his dad and stepmom for Christmas. Lenny’s mom was spending Christmas in Brazil. Lenny’s family treated Connie like one of their own, so she always got nice gifts from them.
Kimberly and Don were having a hard time financially, so they made their Christmas gifts. Don had been very unsatisfied for a while with his job at a home for delinquent boys. When they refused to let him off for Christmas, he decided not to go back. We hoped he would be able to find something else and hadn’t made a big mistake by leaving without giving notice. Kimberly made us a beautiful wreath for our door, and she was making a needlepoint picture for my wall. Don was in the process of making a large birdhouse, which was a scale model replica of our unusual house with a rock chimney, decks and all.
After Christmas, Don, Kimberly, Connie and Lenny went ice skating and later snow skiing in Gatlinburg. We took Carol and went up to watch them ski later that day. We rode the ski lift up the mountain to where they were skiing, and I took camcorder pictures of the skiers on the way up. We enjoyed the trip. Carol left the next morning, going home by the way of Glen's parents’ home in Georgia.
Later that week, Connie went with Lenny and his dad to Memphis, to spend a few days and be there through New Year's Day. They visited Lenny's grandparents who lived there, but they all stayed in a motel.
******
The calendar turned over to the year of 1992, and I didn’t bother making resolutions. I hoped it would be a good year, but I had doubts as to what might happen with my job and also concerns about my children, who all seemed to be struggling with relationship problems.
Christi and Denny continued to have problems. He worked before Christmas delivering for UPS, but again he was without a job. They decided to break up, and Christi dated a boy from Canada for a while, but it was Denny she was really crazy about, and she was depressed over the breakup. She'd been wanting new carpet for her room. Although it needed changing out, we were unwilling, because she was getting makeup all over the carpet, and she had a shedding cat and an overflowing litter box in her room. We told her if she wanted new carpet, she would need to buy it herself. She did just that, so we got her furniture out and put it down for her.
******
Connie and Lenny went to Atlanta to pick up his mom who was getting back from South America. They went to see Don and Kimberly while they were over that way. The next day, they both had to get back to their college classes. Lenny’s mom was planning to take a sabbatical from teaching to do a lot more traveling, and she decided to close her house. Gina, Lenny’s sister, was married for several years, but she and her husband broke up, and she and Lenny decided to get an apartment together near the mall. Connie seemed to think she lived there too, because she was going over there almost every day after school to do her homework.
******
Connie's friend, Amy, tried to kill herself again. She ended up in Valley Hospital, which is a hospital for people who are having mental problems. Connie said Amy's problem was because her mother died just before they moved to Chattanooga. Her father remarried right away, and the father and step-mother didn't act as if they cared about Amy. She’d been on antidepressants, but she didn't like the way they made her feel, so she kept getting off of them.
*******
We had an extremely cold January and we kept putting off visiting Mom and Dad because of the bad weather. We finally went to Mississippi near the end of January and celebrated a late Christmas with them. You and I spent one night in Brandon with your sister, Maxine. Your other sister, Helen, was having some serious health problems, and part of it was brought on by the fact that it looked as if Jimmy and wife number five were going to be getting a divorce, already. We didn't understand why all of his relationships seemed to fail. Helen always blamed the women, but I'm sure there was more to the story than what any of us were aware of.
Evan is 63 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 54 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working with a local printing company.
Carol is 30, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 27 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 29 and attending Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical plant and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta near Don's school.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is eighteen. She is a freshman in college.
Lenny is Connie's boyfriend. He is a sophomore in college. Gina is Lenny's Sister.
Denny is Christi's boyfriend.
Rhomas, Helen, and Maxine are Evan's siblings.
Jimmy is Helen's son and Evan's nephew.
Amy is Connie's friend.
Joy is Beth's close friend, who had been out of her life for while.
As Christmas drew near, we continued to have a lot of company. Jimmy, your sister Helen’s son, had remarried in the summer and he brought his wife up to meet us. Becky was an airline stewardess. She was his fifth wife. He’s gone through a college sweetheart, a Proctor-and-Gamble heiress, a school teacher, and one who only lasted a couple of months. Jimmy had been a bank vice-president, but he'd lost his job a few years back when there was a financial crisis and many banks went under. Since then, he'd had trouble finding anything permanent. The couple would be living in Nashville, where Becky would work as an executive for a major hotel chain. She had two young children. Jimmy hadn’t had children before, and he seemed crazy about the little girl and boy. Since Jimmy was Helen’s only child, she was becoming attached to the children as well, so we all hoped this marriage would last.
Your other siblings, Rhomas and Maxine, also came up just before Christmas and stayed a few days. With so much company, it was very hard to get the necessary shopping done and get ready for Christmas. We bought another blue spruce tree, for which we had to pay $70 on sale. It was late in the season, and it was reduced from the original $100. I decided this would be the last year for a real tree. They don’t last long, and they shed needles everywhere. The tree was about eight feet tall and beautiful under our 27 ft. ceiling in the great room. Connie and Lenny decorated it for us.
******
A few days before Christmas, my friend, Joy, called from Florida. Joy is also my cousin, who I met for the first time at a family reunion in Mississippi when I was fifteen. She and I lived a few towns apart, and we became almost as close as sisters. After she graduated from the same college which I attended in Mississippi, she taught for a year and married an airman she met in training in Pensacola. We didn’t see as much of each other after she moved away. She lost her first child like I lost Susan. He was eight months old, and it was listed as a crib death. After she moved to Florida, we lost track of each other, but we had both been trying to get back in touch. Our letters kept getting returned, because we had the wrong addresses. She finally managed to get my phone number, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
Joy was mentioned quite often in my earlier chapters. From this point on, she would be back as a major part of my story. It had been at least 27 years since we’d been in touch. Like me, she now had four grown children. Her marriage to her husband, a lawyer, had failed after twenty-five years. Recently, she had met a much older man and had remarried. They were living in the Jacksonville area of Florida and were in the process of building a house in Ponte Vedra near the beach.
*******
Carol came for Christmas, without Glen. Christmas was fun. We didn’t eat until late on Christmas Day, because Don and Kimberly couldn’t come until late. Christi couldn’t get Denny to come, because he seemed to be uncomfortable around us. He went to Alabama to be with his family. Lenny came late, as well. He’d been with his dad and stepmom for Christmas. Lenny’s mom was spending Christmas in Brazil. Lenny’s family treated Connie like one of their own, so she always got nice gifts from them.
Kimberly and Don were having a hard time financially, so they made their Christmas gifts. Don had been very unsatisfied for a while with his job at a home for delinquent boys. When they refused to let him off for Christmas, he decided not to go back. We hoped he would be able to find something else and hadn’t made a big mistake by leaving without giving notice. Kimberly made us a beautiful wreath for our door, and she was making a needlepoint picture for my wall. Don was in the process of making a large birdhouse, which was a scale model replica of our unusual house with a rock chimney, decks and all.
After Christmas, Don, Kimberly, Connie and Lenny went ice skating and later snow skiing in Gatlinburg. We took Carol and went up to watch them ski later that day. We rode the ski lift up the mountain to where they were skiing, and I took camcorder pictures of the skiers on the way up. We enjoyed the trip. Carol left the next morning, going home by the way of Glen's parents’ home in Georgia.
Later that week, Connie went with Lenny and his dad to Memphis, to spend a few days and be there through New Year's Day. They visited Lenny's grandparents who lived there, but they all stayed in a motel.
******
The calendar turned over to the year of 1992, and I didn’t bother making resolutions. I hoped it would be a good year, but I had doubts as to what might happen with my job and also concerns about my children, who all seemed to be struggling with relationship problems.
Christi and Denny continued to have problems. He worked before Christmas delivering for UPS, but again he was without a job. They decided to break up, and Christi dated a boy from Canada for a while, but it was Denny she was really crazy about, and she was depressed over the breakup. She'd been wanting new carpet for her room. Although it needed changing out, we were unwilling, because she was getting makeup all over the carpet, and she had a shedding cat and an overflowing litter box in her room. We told her if she wanted new carpet, she would need to buy it herself. She did just that, so we got her furniture out and put it down for her.
******
Connie and Lenny went to Atlanta to pick up his mom who was getting back from South America. They went to see Don and Kimberly while they were over that way. The next day, they both had to get back to their college classes. Lenny’s mom was planning to take a sabbatical from teaching to do a lot more traveling, and she decided to close her house. Gina, Lenny’s sister, was married for several years, but she and her husband broke up, and she and Lenny decided to get an apartment together near the mall. Connie seemed to think she lived there too, because she was going over there almost every day after school to do her homework.
******
Connie's friend, Amy, tried to kill herself again. She ended up in Valley Hospital, which is a hospital for people who are having mental problems. Connie said Amy's problem was because her mother died just before they moved to Chattanooga. Her father remarried right away, and the father and step-mother didn't act as if they cared about Amy. She’d been on antidepressants, but she didn't like the way they made her feel, so she kept getting off of them.
*******
We had an extremely cold January and we kept putting off visiting Mom and Dad because of the bad weather. We finally went to Mississippi near the end of January and celebrated a late Christmas with them. You and I spent one night in Brandon with your sister, Maxine. Your other sister, Helen, was having some serious health problems, and part of it was brought on by the fact that it looked as if Jimmy and wife number five were going to be getting a divorce, already. We didn't understand why all of his relationships seemed to fail. Helen always blamed the women, but I'm sure there was more to the story than what any of us were aware of.
Evan is 63 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 54 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working with a local printing company.
Carol is 30, a nurse at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She is married and living in Florida.
Glen Egolf is Carol’s husband. He is 27 and soon will get his nursing degree from Southern College in Orlando.
Don is a twin. He is 29 and attending Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical plant and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta near Don's school.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is eighteen. She is a freshman in college.
Lenny is Connie's boyfriend. He is a sophomore in college. Gina is Lenny's Sister.
Denny is Christi's boyfriend.
Rhomas, Helen, and Maxine are Evan's siblings.
Jimmy is Helen's son and Evan's nephew.
Amy is Connie's friend.
Joy is Beth's close friend, who had been out of her life for while.
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