This is a recent picture of Dad and Bill--taken in late January, 2007, when Dad went out to Phoenix to visit his brothers. These guys loved to play golf! The last time I wrote was May 6th. Since then, we all went to Phoenix for Uncle Bill's funeral. What a great weekend. That isn't meant to sound bad and no disrespect is meant for Bill. What I mean is, it was great being with family I haven't seen for 30 years. We celebrated Bill's life. I stayed with Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary.They have a beautiful home  and it was great staying with them. Uncle Joe was full of stories about my grandparents and what it was like growing up. Things I've never heard before! He and Uncle Tom remind me of Dad in some ways. Both of them have mannerisms and vocal similarities.  Uncle Bill passed away peacefully in his sleep. They said he had no pain. I thank God for these things. I did not know Bill all that well, but I loved being around him. He was bigger than life; a real character. I always smiled when I was around him. He made me laugh. I remember when he came to Bedford to visit a few times. He stayed at the house. I really enjoyed his visits. But there's been too much change. Too much sadness. Our family  needs to heal.

 

At the house on I Street, we continue to clean out things. We did buy some ferns to hang on the front porch--just like Mom always had. We're focusing on the attic right now. We found a bunch of old engineering books! Like OLD. From the 1950's. GM training manuals about "radioactive isotopes". etc. Wonder why Dad saved these. The guys are coming in June to work on our new half bath upstairs. Our main goal is to clean out the attic so they can work. We've done a little rearranging at the house. Just little things. But I think it will be good to not keep things exactly as they had it. We'll probably keep the living room pretty  much the same, but that's all. I still get sad when I go over there...just for a few minutes when I walk in. But I also feel like it is my home and I belong there. Uncle Joe was telling us how he put up the ceiling tiles in the Dining Room and Living Room. He said he was like 12 or something. Amazing! I can't believe they never replaced those tiles. The house has so many memories for the Breidenbachs. Ginny, Joe's daughter, thanked me for keeping the house in the family. That really meant a lot. I miss Mom and Dad. Every day I think of them--many many times. I suppose I am still preoccupied with them. I can't help it. Really, I still can't  believe they are gone. Today, I cashed some insurance checks from the Knights of Columbus. I got weepy at the bank. I don't want to cash these checks. I don't want this money. It feels like bad money. I miss them so much.

 

Susie