in Cherokee, western NC. Anne is a doctor at the Cherokee Native American Reservation and at the nursing home. It is for tribal members only at no cost. Chuck maintains the property of 44 acres. The horses use most of the land. There is a shed and natural pond for the horses. There are three beautiful horses, three loving, eager dogs and two cats. Chuck voluntarily mows a large portion of the grounds and has a very productive garden as you would expect of him. Anne and Chuck made delicious dinners every evening with fresh produce from the garden. The house is built like a lodge with large rooms and a porch which surrounds the whole house overlooking the garden, horses, valley and distant mountains. The foliage was very colorful while we were there.

My first remembrance is when I was 5 years old entering first grade at St. Columbus School. Even though we lived behind the convent in a little house I didn't want to stay in class and I tried to run out the front door. I remember the nun holding her wide dress across the front of the door so I couldn't leave.
I was five years old when my brother went to Rome to become a priest. He was Father Francis. He received two doctorates in Rome. When he returned to Albany diocese he became the judge of the diocesan tribunal and chaplan at the college of St. Rose. He later became a parish priest, first pastor of St. Madeline Sophie Church. He helped Father Patrick Peyton, founder of the Family Rosary, and received permission from the Albany diocese to become co-director of the Family Rosary Crusade.

Patty is here tonight to start me on a journal. We have had a fun weekend with dinner up on the Shack above Snug Harbor watching the pelicans brigade and the traffic on the bridge. We enjoyed breathing the fresh air and seeing the smoke from the brush fires in the distance. Tomorrow we will go to church and see how the new community building is coming along in Fort Myers.

Patty says to pick a story I feel like telling again. I find it interesting that my Dad grew up in central Illinois in Abraham Lincoln territory to very young parents on a very poor farm with no hint of ever going on to school. Yet, he was known as one of the greatest educators in central United States when he died. There is a football stadium named after him in Burlington, Iowa. He built this stadium in a ravine in downtown Burlington Iowa with concrete steps. These steps hold two thousand people. The night lights were the first ones installed in the country in a high school west of the Mississippi River. This was a former lumberyard. The seats go up one side of the stadium and the wooded hill on the other side of the stadium has the glory of autumn leaves right during the football season. The high school has been rebuilt out on the edge of town but they still use this football stadium.

Friday Feb 24 MH is giving me some final lessons: writing and answering email, reading and writing blogs, et. You have all been a big help, Mark D, John, MH, Anne, and all. I really appreciate it and think I will be able to use this nice computer much better.

We all (Bob and Cathy, Mary Helen, Tony, Margaret. Anna and Emily, John, Kristy, David, and Karen, and Dad and I), left Siesta Bay for Captiva Cruises and left on a catamaran for Gasparilla Island and the town of Boca Grande. The day was perfect, warm, sunny and the breeze delightful to breathe. When we landed Norb rented a six-person golf cart, and the others rented two four-person carts, and with Bob Hoffman at the wheel we drove down Gulf Road into a world we never knew existed. The houses were elegant beyond belief, all along the coast. We stopped at the South Beach Park. John and Kristy sat at a table outdoors at the South Beach Bar and Grill.

Thank you everyone for our anniversary greetings. We are enjoying this happy day with Chuck and Anne. Tonight we will go to dinner at The Lighthouse, near the causeway with a jazz band. Hope you are all having a happy day too.

Congratulations David on your swimming records. Good luck. Love to all. Grandpa and Grandma