1964
Barbara Maly Fish
919-475-8301
barb2fish@yahoo.com

Satchel Paige once said this about age: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” A group of women who seemed not to know their ages gathered at Hood for all or part of our 55^th reunion weekend on June 7-9. They included Betsey Covel, Cookie Johnson Bolig, Barbara Strayer Brittain, Connie Heard Damon, Marylou Herrmann Foley, Claire Fulenwider, Flo Sechler Miller, Kate Jenks Powell, Susan “Eloise” Varney Helfenstein Rauth, Sandy Borrelli Ricci, Ann McMillan Shuman, Susan Lyeth Sternfeld, Mary Frances Gaver Trunk, Harriet “Hardie” LeSourd Wise, Althea Bates Travis-McCarthy, Heidi Stephens Whitesel, and me, Barb Maly Fish. Laughter sometimes mingled with tears as we reminisced about those good old days and the happiness and sadness that have filled the years since then. Special thanks go to Harriet Wise for hosting our group at her new home on that Friday night and to Marylou Foley for using her superpowers of persuasion to pull everything together. Too bad more of you couldn’t come. Although she could not come, Gayle Reed Carroll contributed a poem she had written for all of us. She was in Ireland in June, working on an M.F.A. in a joint program run by Carlow U. in Pittsburgh and Trinity College in Dublin. Much of what she saw near Trinity seemed familiar and Gayle vaguely remembered rooming there with Betsey Covel when the Hood Choir made a singing tour of several European cities back in the day. Gayle wants to know if anyone else remembers that trip. Several people had to miss the reunion for less happy reasons. Eleanor Berklite Harris and her husband Alastair have been dealing with treatment for his recent diagnosis of multiple myeloma. In April, he received an autologous stem cell transplant at M.D. Anderson in Houston and the Harrises will return there for follow-up over the next year. Alastair is doing well and they are hopeful that the treatments will add to the quantity and quality of his life. Ed Sneckenberger, husband of Mary “Scottie” Hansbrough Sneckenberger, sent me the following message: “Scottie has been able to recover from the stroke that she experienced on her left side in Minnesota in February enough so that we could return to our senior living home in Morgantown, WV. Unfortunately, after just three week of being back home in Morgantown, Scottie experienced a stroke on her right side. Fortunately, she has not suffered too much mentally from the two strokes and she is able to move her upper body and both of her arms. The hospital assessment for Scottie’s second stroke has found that she has a defect in her heart that will probably need correcting in the near future. This defect could be a contributor to the two strokes that she has experienced and is also a possible explanation for her often being tired.” Ed added that Scottie would love to receive messages from former classmates. Her address is 106 Heritage Point, Morgantown, WV 26505. This column ends with more sad news: Dave Johnson, husband of Pam Wallace Johnson, died on March 28. I send the sympathy of the class to Pam and her family.