December 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

As for most of the world, this has been a year that none of us could have predicted. When we heard from our friends in China that they had to stay in their apartments for 8 weeks (except for one family member allowed to shop for food twice per week) we could not imagine such a thing! But now we have been home (with outings only for medical care, a socially distanced and masked outdoor 100 th birthday party and a drive or two) for 9 months. Amazing!

The year started off with a visit from our French friend Claude. I have known her since my studies in France when her family “adopted” me. We 3 also spent one month camping around the U.S. in 1978, but she hadn’t been here for a long time. Claude and I drove up to Hearst’s Castle for a couple of nights, did a bit of wine tasting and then headed to Santa Barbara and to our condo in Port Hueneme. Jenk met us there. It was a great start to the year!

On February 12, Jenk and I boarded a ship for a 15 day round trip cruise to Hawaii to celebrate our 44th anniversary. It was our 50 th state! We loved the time at sea and truly appreciated visiting Pearl Harbor and the Missouri. We have wanted to go there for years. We also saw the Kalauea Caldera, went underwater in a submarine, tried shaved ice and saw Kauai from a distance only because the weather was bad. We were scheduled to go to Maui with our friends Don and Maria in March, so we just walked in Maui. It was a great and relaxing trip. We returned home on March 4.

In March Jenk’s sister Carolyn needed a heart procedure so I dropped him at the airport heading to Lubbock on the 12 th. Thankfully all went well and Carolyn is much better, but by the time Jenk was ready to return getting flights was difficult. Then he had to quarantine away from me for two more weeks, so we each spent Easter alone, but connected by the phone. Luckily for me Marc, neighbors and students brought in groceries – the most important being the food for our tortoise, Fred. Since that time we have used Instacart for all groceries and shopped on-line.

In spite of staying home I managed to get sick in late April and had a couple of miserable weeks, but didn’t go to the hospital. We later learned that I had COVID but thankfully Jenk never got it. The recovery is on-going.

During these months we have developed a rhythm to life. Jenk has been working out in the “back 40” as he calls our backyard, cutting down trees nearly every morning. I have been going through closets, working on my vegetable garden, baking bread, cooking and reading. It has been the first time ever to have the time to watch the seasons change – from the budding of plants, to harvest to fall.

We did get to see Beth, Nathan and Monte twice this year. They surprised me when they showed up masked at our front door in May. They stayed at the condo but we had many wonderful evenings in the back yard with them, Marc and Leslie. They also returned in July for a few days for the BIG 100 th birthday “party” of our friend, Evelyn. The kids said that the evenings in the backyard were some of the best ever!

While we haven’t done all that we planned for this year, we believe that we are so blessed to have a home, sufficient income, our health and the internet. We have developed a virtual life with church on Sunday, daily meditations for me, happy hour with our friends in Dallas on Friday evenings and Zoom events with our family and friends. We celebrated Jenk’s 75 th birthday on Zoom with party attendees from 3 states. Beth and Nathan have both been working at home during these months while Marc has continued teaching virtually. This semester he goes to school daily, but teaches to an empty room. I think all teachers are working overtime to try to educate their students, but it is challenging.

We are thankful to have you in our lives, even if it is now over the phone or internet.

Merry Christmas and may 2021 bring health and peace to our world.

Love,

Jenk and Patty