Happy Birthday to John B. Van Sickle.
Our mother Marian and his father John R. were siblings.
Emeritus Faculty in Classics and Author of Virgil’s Book of Bucolics, the Ten Eclogues Translated into English Verse
Why the years are in Roman Numerals!
Click the bold to see Granddaughter Maura’s (15 seconds video of Lightning in the Clouds ) as she flew to Arizona
Here is a still shot below
Twenty five years ago I’d driven 548 miles from Pittsburgh to Rockford, Illinois on September 10th. My sister flew home to New York City from Chicago that same day. We couldn’t plan an overlap although I’d asked if she could wait and fly back the 11th. So I was asleep in my father’s room at the Wesley Willows Assisted Living as he was in the hospital with surgery from a broken foot. My cousin Christopher called on my dad’s phone. The old desk phone kind. Time is Central, an hour earlier than NY. He informed me that the World Trade Center had been attacked. It was only when I got to the hospital in my father’s room and the televisions were on everywhere. It took time to comprehend the magnitude of destruction and loss of human life.
My sister Mary photographed this 9/11 Cross a Symbol of Hope. It was a blog post in September 2020.
It’s “located near St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church near the 9/11 memorial. This statute represents the wreckage of the twin towers forming a cross from the aftermath of 9/11. The original cross was moved in the 9/11 Museum. This cross was sculpted by Jon Krawczyk. Cardinal Egan picked him to sculpt the new cross.”
2011 blog post of FDNY Fire Engine in the Fire House across the street
Carrying the empty water bottles. Grandson Ananda (3 in November) uses them as a drum until we take them to get credit for new water.
The day Marian Van Sickle was born in Durand, Illinois.
My eldest son Mark told me on his last visit home that we’re all just a generation or two away from being forgotten. I’ve been thinking about that fact and wanted to remember my Mother on the anniversary of her birth.
Our mother had her 88th birthday in a Rockford Illinois hospital and passed away 6 days later on September 9, 2000.
Look he said A rainbow! We were at a Toy Lending Library Play place in a church basement.
The windows were covered in translucent contact paper so the rainbow is muted.
The deer come in the night and eat the lilies. They missed one. How Shanti (6) saw the praying mantis astounds me because it looked so much like the color of the lily stem.
Grandson Michael celebrates his Golden Birthday.
May your birthday be the start of a happy new year!
Love, Froo
I was bringing my grandson Charlie back to Pittsburgh from Ohio for a visit. Charlie got out of the car as he said he likes the smell of gasoline which was a surprise. Me? not so much. I especially don’t like the smell on my hands after filling the tank.
The total on the pump seemed astronomical. we wondered who filled up before us!
