Oh yes, the count down to the reunion is on, and I hope your calendars are marked. I am planning on contacting every single one of you personally. How is that for a challenge? Sadly, I must report that Wilbur, husband of Mary Ann Holloway Ford, passed away Nov. 29, 2012 in Buckeystown, Md. Our condolences, Mary Ann. There was some joy in her family, however. Mary Ann and Wilbur celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and Wilbur was able to walk daughter Cindy down the aisle. The recessional for the funeral service was Hail to the Redskins. Who knew Wilbur was such a big Redskins fan? Neat! Thanks to those who took the time to answer my emails (always a challenge as you change your address, and I do not know until I get them back). Jo Ann Twilley Plichta reported that Joanne E. Zink Markey has moved. Her address is 712 Locust Lane, Gwynedd, PA 19002-2538. Her phone is (215) 628-8835 and her email is omarkey@aol.com.

Life is always exciting for Janet Feick Burmester. Her husband teaches at a university in China and loves the Chinese culture. Janet’s family planned to be together at Christmas and she plans to join him for a trip in June to the Balkans. She is doing well and has children nearby. Janet’s email is janburme@gmail.com. Helen Buss Mitchell and her husband are busy working on a revision of one of their textbooks and enjoying their greenhouse and koi pond. Louise Thornton Burns is still enjoying life, especially bridge. Penny West Pawley has relocated to 18949 Whispering Trail, Traverse City, MI 49686-8720. Sue Olpp Remsburg’s greatest wish is to escape hospitals and doctors as she and Bob have been spending too much time with them. Sue had to give up her gall bladder while Bob had a back operation that needed some redoing. They were looking forward to forgetting all of that at Lake Travis near Austin for the month of February. Sue said she is good for another 50,000 miles, so she will spend some of those coming back to Hood.

Pat Taylor Santelli said she and Jim “smallerized,” renting out their beloved Southside at 143 Cove Road to a 40-something tenant from lower Manhattan’s Tribeca who has lived 22 years “behind a doorman in a loft and hasn’t a clue what life in the country is all about.” They are now 800’ north of their home of 30 years, opposite Cove Beach, loving less work and a water view and waiting for their lease to expire, hopefully before the renters destroy the place. Oh my, and speaking of destroying, Pat wrote extensively about the effects of Hurricane Sandy on Long Island, N.Y. The winds of 80-90 mph snapped their huge trees and downed power lines, washing out roads and flooding cars and homes with some just washing away. It sounds like it was akin to being in a war zone. That was followed by 6” of wet snow. After braving gas lines that never moved, she resigned herself to riding her bike everywhere for two weeks. Almost three weeks later some were without power even though power crews had been brought in from far away states and Canada. The romance of candles and the fireplace soon dimmed. (I never thought of LI being in the country or that it would be so vulnerable.) On a happier note, Pat’s clan is doing well with her two girls and two boys giving her four grandsons and four granddaughters. Her youngest son, still single, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy ’09, is an active duty submarine officer currently deployed on the USS Florida, SSGN 728, a converted ballistic sub, now a guided missile and SEAL delivery boat. Their oldest grandson, a junior, intends to apply to the U.S. Naval Academy, which is great, partly because the Santellis are season ticket holders. Go Navy!

Alix Rockwell Jacobs is having a problem with email addresses as they did not get changed to her new laptop (maybe she did not write you off, after all.) She said their lives are novels best unwritten. Hummm? Actually, she is still working with her decorative paint business and styling and staging homes for real estate and individual clients. What an anniversary present for Carol Joice Carty. A grandson arrived on that very day. Carol, who has discovered that she likes fine jewelry, has a perfect position to see what is new, as she is still a bookkeeper for Saxons Diamond Centers. Do you take your salary in stones, Carol? We may have missed a horrifying story in the last issue from Sally Schaeffer Morse. Sally and Al were vacationing in Hawaii when they found out their youngest daughter Ellen was in Johns Hopkins with a brain aneurysm. She is a 38-year-old nurse at Johns Hopkins, so she was in familiar territory. She was treated, had her wound sealed with glue and was back to work in seven weeks. The wonder of glue! Our daughter Robin had a 7-inch incision on her chest glued in 2010. Sally recently called Holly Wagner Mai, who lives in Burley, Idaho. Sally said their parents had grown up in the same town, and Sally and Holly ended up being half-little sisters. Sally had not talked to Holly since Hood but had kept in touch with Holly’s mother until her death three years ago. Holly lost her husband five years ago. Holly, who taught for 33 years, has two children, five grandchildren and stays close to her husband’s family. Sally is encouraging Holly to attend the reunion and travel on to see her sister, Karen Wagner ’69 who lives in New York City.

Kathie Anderson Houchens loves to travel and has a good excuse as they have family living in West Virginia north to Vermont. She greatly loves to go to North Carolina to enjoy “water time.” Kathie mentioned that she reconnected with Gail Wood Fortin ’62 after reading that Gail’s daughter had died of cancer. Kathie and Dave stopped in Connecticut to visit with Gail on their way to Massachusetts. She said, as they reminisced, the years melted away, and they had picked up their friendship. The whole gang in the block with Mary-Verdella Wagner Nelson, including Nancy Craven Jacobus, Mary Deibler Spohn, Dottie Hussennetter Ritz, Helen Pinckney Schafer and, we hope, Dinny Ingrey Allen, plan to attend the reunion. Nancy has a new passion in photography which she pursued on a trip to Alaska, so perhaps she can help document our 50th. Mary V. was on Martha’s Vineyard when Hurricane Sandy blew through. She only wished she would have had her boots so she could have gone out and sloshed around like lots of others were doing. We know a lot of our classmates suffered the effects of Hurricane Sandy including Brenda Eklund Pearson who still owns her parents property in Beach Haven, Long Beach Island. The house fared better than a lot of others, but still suffered a lot of flood damage. Brenda has traveled far and wide this year, both foreign and within the states.

Ellen DeBard Adle (adle means justice in Persian) reported that her husband Parviz Adle is a retired diplomat under the late Shah of Iran. He was consul general to the western third of the United States and ambassador to Brazil and Canada. “We spent 10 marvelous years in Istanbul from 1987 to 1997. We’re now in Duxbury, Mass., about 40 miles south of Boston on the coast, where we are active volunteers. I teach ancient mid-Eastern history and Parviz writes for various magazines in Farsi while finishing up his memoirs in English. His family story is amazing. We have a daughter and family in Normandy, France, and many friends abroad so we continue to travel. This year we plan to visit various friends and family on our way to and from Florida,” said Ellen. Her email is parvelle@verizon.net.

As for me, Dottie Snyder Engle, I have traveled far and wide, too, including to Texas with Ron and Robin and Las Vegas with Robin (big first full day when I passed out on a city bus in the morning, causing Robin to think I was dead, and finished the day at a Garth Brooks acoustic concert). Then, I traveled to Europe, including Paris and a Scandinavian/Baltic cruise with Ron and 30 others for 17 days, the annual beach trip to North Carolina and to California for my annual week with son Ryan. Now we are home until March when we will visit our Danish son, our exchange student from Denmark, and his family in Barbados where they work for Shell Oil, to celebrate out 50th wedding anniversary. Soren and Anne have sons, ages 5 and 3, probably our only grandchildren. Daughter Robin is doing well and celebrated her two-year anniversary for aortic valve replacement. Please help me out. Send new information such as email addresses and phone numbers. Also, include your whole name including maiden and your husband’s, as I sometimes have to look up these things. The memory is going! Please call, email or write several Hood sisters to personally invite them back for our reunion. Need anyone’s information, get in touch with me. See you on June 7; dinner for all at our house. Apologies if we have not included your news, given you someone else’s husband, or moved you to another state without you knowing it.

Class Reporters: