1971

Mary McMunigal Burland
610-733-4009
mburl5@verizon.net

Mindy Laighton Wilcox
619-462-6230
mlwilcox3@gmail.com

Debbie Walton Sheaffer wrote that, after many years of teaching remedial reading, she decided to return to the classroom. She was offered a kindergarten position and found her favorite grade! Debbie retired in 2012. She and husband Ray have been married for 45 years. Son Scott lives outside of Ocean City, MD, and loves being at the beach. Son Chris and his daughters, Alexa, 16, and Caylee, 13, live with Debbie and Ray. Five years ago, Chris’s wife died of cancer, and he and the girls had a really rough time. Debbie and Ray were happy they wanted to move in with them and that she finally gets to help raise girls! They take turns driving the girls to dance, helping with homework and helping to parent. They camp with the family as often as they can. She said they wouldn’t trade it for the world and life is still fun! Diane Miller Jackson reports she is still “blissfully happy” in retirement. She and Drew moved from PA to a home they built in ME and are getting to know more people as they settle in. They marvel at their view of the mountains of Acadia National Park and the lobster boats passing by. She says they are still quite active and that Santa brought them snow shoes this Christmas. Daughter Jennie and her husband will spend Christmas with them. Alice Paul McGinnis wrote to say son Drew and his wife, Kris, had their third son last April, born at home. Also last spring, Alice and Richard traveled to Scandinavia visiting Norway, Sweden and Iceland. They spent a month in ME last summer, and in the fall took a 7,000-mile road trip out west which included stops in CO, ID, WY and Glacier National Park. In October they attended the wedding of Steve Dukenski, son of the late Carolyn Perry Dukenski. Serendipitously, the daughter of Nan Loader Calabretta was also there as she is married to one of Steve’s best friends. I, Mary McMunigal Burland, have had an exciting, busy year. In May, Bill and I took a Viking River cruise from Amsterdam to Basel with friends we had met on a previous river cruise followed by a week at the hotel our friends own in a ski resort in the Austrian Alps. Our biggest event was the wedding of our son, Brendan, and his wife, Kristina, in Philadelphia at the end of August. It was hot and humid as Philly tends to be in August, but everything was lovely. Once again, I must close with a request for email addresses so that Mindy and I can contact you. Without your news, there is no column!