Sara (“Sally”) Zimmerman
revsaraz@gmail.com
Liz Decker Rogers: “Seems just like yesterday that the call went out but maybe it was 6, 9m ago? Anyway, had I been to Peru? It was fun & just enough of a challenge to let me know I am still alive & better than I thought. That was end of Nov ’16. Traveling with family which includes a resourceful, Spanish speaking D-I-L, is the best! Best news is the 6y home makeover is finally done, well except for a couple of little things. Next challenge is sorting all the stuff in the middle of the basement, covered by tarps. That could take more time! I am leaving that to the sons. They can do it now or later when I am in assisted living. I’m hoping to be around here for awhile to finally enjoy it, however. Underlying annoyance is neuropathy on the left quadrant of my head due to having had shingles last year. The shot is not full proof protection. It’s almost a year & I am thinking this will be with me forever as it doesn’t seem to be dissipating.I am anticipating a trip to Oregon to hopefully view the solar eclipse in August with the same son & family. Keep your ear out for my other D-I-L, Deepa Fernandes, a radio journalist, who has had informative pieces on NPR, BBC’s The World. Her focus has been Latin & South America. That’s it!”
Beth Pauley Teketski: “Lou and I are going on a Viking cruise down the Rhine River in June. We just returned from his high school reunion in Wilkes Barre, PA. We are making plans for fly fishing trips to West Virginia and New York. In the mean time I’m judging quilt shows in Lewis, DE, and Quakertown, PA.”
Margo Friedman Friedman: “I cannot believe it is 55 years since we gave each other graduation hugs. I am sorry not to be at the reunion, but will think of you all. We continue to delight in our CT children and grandchildren. Sid is still directing theatre at Boston University, but he and I have both retired from teaching. I am very busy with volunteering, clubs, and friends. I have been in touch by phone or mail with Linda Keyler White, Barbie Reeves McGee, Jane Stevenson Rule, Jean Lenhart Golden. Marty Robertson Williams visited us in Wellesley last August. We would welcome 1962 classmates, if you are in the Wellesley area.”
Teal West Hugo: “I never have any news, but this time I do have something. I led a hymn sing based on the life of Sojourner Truth for the Presbyterian Women of Northern New England last weekend (May 13). This was the biggest research project I have done since graduating from Hood! Mike is in nursing home care at the Veterans Home in Scarborough ME. His long term memory is amazing, and we share reminiscences about all sorts of topics from the good old days.”
Nancy Turner Heckscher– “In January The Blatchfords Judy Hammond and Park and the Heckschers Nancy and Ben drove to Baltimore to go Museum gazing and met Carl and Susan Shinnick Hossfeld for lunch. I often see Penny Mardoian as she comes down to see her son and family! I am completing (end of June) my 2nd and last year as Judging Rep. for The Garden Club of America. This has been a challenging job- really 5 jobs: placing, educating, recruiting, evaluating, keeping forms both digitally and in paper files. I love the people and most of the job but time to hand it over to someone else to perfect! I continue to play bridge and attend 2 garden club meeting’s and Park House Museum meetings and hook into my kids lives. Jon and Amanda have moved back from Hong Kong and are in Boston with their 3 girls. Kali is still in Maine with her athletic Tom and Kali. They are all going to Europe this summer. Katie (14) is on an exchange program. Ben’s Chris just had our newest grandchild in Hong Kong, Marcus. That makes 8 grands. David’s Alisa just finished her freshman year in Ohio. Everyone is healthy and doing their things. If in Phila. do come and visit. Judy Blatchford is next door!!”
Judy Hammond Blatchford: “I’m afraid I sound like a broken record. Park and I continue in good health as do our kids and grandchildren and so we are traveling while we can, in August to Greenland/Iceland for 3 weeks and in October to Tuscany/Venice for 2 weeks.”
Sunny Griffin: “Our biggest news is that we finally have our first grandchildren. My daughter, Kelly, had twins (at 44), Oliver and Mabel, and we are over the moon with happiness. Because we want to be able to see them we have sold our home in Thailand and are now living full time in Telluride, Colorado. On a sour note, I have to have a spinal fusion surgery so most of the summer will be spent on my back. After 8 brain surgeries, a crushed nose (from a fall) and pulverized neck (car accident) I am sick of surgery. Getting old is not for sissies!”
Penny Misirian Mardoian: “I had a wonderful week in London with my daughter-in-law’s mother. Not one drop of rain! My second grandson graduated from high school in West Chester, PA and will be going to Kutztown University in August. My oldest grandson is interning at Ernst and Young in Boston before he enters his senior year at Trinity in Hartford. I am in my Maine home for 5 months returning mid-October. Life is good!”
Jane Hoskins Bollman: “Art for me is still a big part of my life: painting, selling sporadically, teaching. I guess old school teachers (which I was eons ago in junior high school) never let teaching go. I don’t run marathons but I do exercise and do yoga at our wonderful YMCA, which is close enough that I walk there. Gardening is my other form of exercise. It wears us out, but the results are worth it. Children fine, no grandchildren. Don’t sing with the Met, but we love the simulcasts which we can also walk to. If you think you don’t like opera, you should try this at least once. Bridge and book clubs keep the old brain in reasonable shape. So, bottom line, we are good and not suffering from too many aches and pains at 77. Seventy seven? How can that be? Fond memories of Hood have not faded even after all these years. We are looking forward to the reunion, certain to be fun.”
Lynn MacDonough Morrow: “Traveled in May to southern Germany to visit a cousin of George’s. It was my first time hiking in the Black Forest. Then to France for a couple of days in Paris before we joined G’s younger daughter (a grad student in Paris) for a trip to Normandy to visit Mt. Saint Michel, Juno Beach, etc. Just five days back home and we drove to NYC to stay with another cousin while we spent time with G’s older daughter and son-in-law in town for Fleet Week concerts with their Navy Band Northeast. Had my first trip to Ellis Island–quite an experience. Hood Reunion weekend will wrap up for me with visits to my two daughters and their families in Baltimore and near Harrisburg on our way home to State College, PA.”
Phoebe Adams Marshall: “I did not go to the reunion this year. Hope to get to the 60th, if possible. I keep busy playing tennis three or four times a week. I also sing in a Masterworks Chorale at the U. of SC – Aiken. We are planning a couple of trips this summer. We’re getting together with Joan Terpak Plitt and John. We’re planning to drive out to Indiana to see my sister, Shirley Adams Beheler (Hood ’56) and her family. We’ll also have visits to or from grandchildren at some point.”
Barbara Arthur Pretzsch: “Our lives have gotten more active this year. We bought a house to “flip” and decided to move into it which we did in December. It has a fenced in back yard (for the dogs), space for the 5thwheel, a house all on one floor and 3 parking spaces for our 3 vehicles. Our son, Rob, joined us in the business from Kentucky and added another business; refinishing kitchen counters and bathroom tubs and showers. He brought 4 cats and a dog with him which makes our menagerie more numerous that the humans living here. He is living in the 5th wheel. The business just bought house #18, #15 is about ready to sell and houses # 16 and #17 are midst renovation. I still do exercises and line dancing although my body is saying “slow down a little” my mind says “No way”. I have been called into grandchildren sitting. Sean, now 9 is playing basketball (last winter) and baseball now. Jaclyn is a typical preteen at 11 nearly as tall as I am. I’m planning another crochet conference in Chicago in July. I am a junior reviewer for the CGOA Master’s Program. Evaluating the portfolios of candidates for the Master’s Program is a challenging experience. And another mini reunion with my Hood roommates is in the wind. If anyone is tripping east to west or west to east on Interstate 10, we are only about 3 miles off the interstate. Come and visit.”
Betty Appel Bailey: “All is well with us …. thank goodness. Our daughter, son-in-law and 3 grandchildren live nearby in Carlsbad, CA. The girls are all in sports and doing well. We took a great trip this past spring starting in Jekyll Island, GA and up the coast to Savannah, Hilton Head Island, and ending in Charleston. This was out 6th Tauck trip and as usual they took care of everything. We are still in San Diego, CA but we recently sold our 2nd home in Palm Desert which we owned for 15 years. It was time to pare down. Best to all.”
Judith Simonsen Ziobro: “Ed and I are in reasonably good health, being able to do just about everything we WANT to do and enjoying life greatly! We spend a good amount of quality time with our kids and their families (except for the one based in AZ. That’s a long way to come for a cookout.) This is especially true at our Bay House – just off the Chesapeake Bay. We love being around them. I do some financial bookkeeping at my church, and still am allowed to sing in the vocal choir and play in the handbell choir. I do sewing and altering as well (people keep coming back – that means that I must pretty good, or that I don’t charge enough!). Ed spends time setting up games and exercises to develop math skills in the 6 – 10year old grandkids. They love it that they know how to read Roman Numerals (however, that is a skill that may not be all that useful anymore — I understand that even movies have stopped using roman numerals in the copyright area in the final credits section. Oh well…) Life for us is good and I hope to continue it for a long time!”
Regina Schlank Pyle: “Every spring my private high school in New York commemorates the holocaust by giving a special presentation to honor a beloved instructor who was a holocaust survivor. It was my pleasure to introduce my elementary public school classmate, Michael Bornstein, author of “Survivors Club: The True Story of a very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz.” Michael was one of the youngest to be liberated by the Russians and his story is a testament to love and endurance. I traveled in China for three weeks this spring with a close friend. The impetus for the trip was for me to finally visit Beijing where my dear friend, Bikui, lives. He worked with my late husband, Tom, in 2000, they became good friends and he’s been in my life ever since. We started in Beijing and Bikui showed us all of the non-touristy sights and then we began a tour created for us by an excellent company. After Beijing we went to Xian to see the terracotta warriors, then to Chendgu to see the pandas, then a river trip through the Three Gorges and ending in Shanghai. Bikui arranged to have a business trip there so he was a wonderful guide. To say the least it was an eye opening trip and caused me to realize that the USA lags behind China is so many ways. Of course their style of government allows them the ability to forge ahead in many ways we can’t but in the past 30 years or so have created a fantastic highway system, hi-speed rail and excellent air lines, cellular technology, sophisticated cities with gleaming architecture and a highly educated population. And with a population of almost 1.4 billion, there are plenty willing to be sweepers who keep the streets immaculate. The people were most welcoming and the weather sunny and smog free! In early June I attended what would have been Tom’s 50th reunion of the Harvard Business School. We were married and shared that fantastic experience so it was wonderful to reconnect with many of his section mates and share memories.
Me, “Sally” Sara Zimmerman: I am teaching an introductory conversational German course as a volunteer with the University of South Florida OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute), and was elected in May to serve on the USF-OLLI board of advisors. The German language is a decades-old hobby of mine; so is singing. Early in 2017 I joined Friendship Singers, a Tampa chorus. We perform mostly in nursing homes and encourage everyone to sing along to our renditions of songs that were popular in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. (Think ‘Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye.’) In an effort to walk taller, I’m at the New Tampa YMCA for a half hour three times a week where I use the resistance machines and lift weights. My health is very good; however, when I’m meeting someone new, or especially when teaching a new class, I have to explain that my ever-more-noticeable shaking is due to ‘essential tremor,’ a benign, heritable condition. It was first diagnosed in the mid 1970s when it was barely noticeable. And if people I’m explaining my tremor to are old enough to remember her, they say, “Oh, just like Katherine Hepburn and her tremor.’ And I say, ‘Yes, just like that.’”
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