Here I am, bedecked in leis, last December 2012.
Wow! Retirement and grandchildren! Isn’t that the goal that many of us are aiming for?! Those of you who follow me on FaceBook read about my retirement from being a church organist last December, and subsequent celebration in April of this year. However, I’m still working at my remaining three jobs, and am in fact, going to play two solo recitals in a couple of weeks. So I’m still continuing the play the organ and teach students.
As for grandchildren, I’m still waiting!
Dave Campbell and his grandchild, Diego.
As for the grandchildren part, though, our classmate, David Campbell, recently sent this picture of himself and his first grandson, Diego. He is presently single and living in Costa Mesa, CA. His first grandson, Diego, was born in March 2013, and is the child of his daughter, Heather and son-in-law, Bernardo. Heather graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a master’s degree and is now teaching at California State University at Channel Islands.
Dave Campbell, 1968
Dave’s son, David Jr., married Lauren last October in Cabo. David Jr. graduated from the UCLA and is a paramedic in San Diego.
John and Donna Wray are both retired. Shown here with their two daughters,
Two of our Burbank High Class of 1968 grads who are now retired and enjoying the good life are John Wray and his wife, Donna Canzoneri Wray. They posted this picture of their youngest daughter, Karleen,
And the newest grandmother is Lark Ziegler Rilling! You may recall from a previous post (“It’s a small world after all”) that Lark and I connected after many years and it turned out that she was my nephew’s preschool teacher. She writes that her daughter Jenny gave birth to her first son on July 26, 2013, at 6 a.m. weighing 8 ½ pounds with grayish eyes and a good deal of dark hair. Son-in-law James is taking the week off, and Lark’s husband, Art, will help with housecleaning, dog care, yard work, cooking, laundry, baby care, or whatever they might need. Lark says, “Thank you for your prayers for this dear little boy, for Jenny and James as new parents, and for us as new grandparents.”
If you want to read a great blog post, click here to read “On becoming a grandmother,” by Elizabeth Lesser. Here is an excerpt:
When my children were born I feared they would remain infants eternally and that I would never sleep through the night, would always feel slightly stupid, and would permanently smell like sour milk and poopy diapers. But now I know that life with children defies logic: the days are unbearably long, but the years fly by. One moment your little guy is teething and then suddenly, he’s graduating from college. That kind of perspective would have been so helpful to have as a parent. Instead, mothers and fathers are lost in what seems like a vast wilderness, while grandparents see a straight line through the woods.
Lark Ziegler and grandson
A friend asked me if becoming a grandmother made me feel old. I didn’t know what to say. It’s not that it makes me feel young. Rather, it makes me know what matters; it wakes me up; it enlivens me. Joseph Campbell said that people are mistaken looking for life’s purpose in concrete and noteworthy ways. The only purpose there is, he said, is to feel “the rapture of being alive.” That’s what I feel as a grandmother. I am hooked up to a mainline of rapture in the form of a baby.
Here’s another plea to all you Class of 1968 grads to send in your pictures of celebration, be they retirement, grandchildren, landmark vacations or whatever!
And don’t forget about our 45th Reunion on Sunday, October 13th at the Castaway Restaurant. It’s certainly not too late to send in your reservations to:
BHS Class of ’68
c/o Jim Ranshaw
1017 E. Fairmount Road
Burbank, CA 91501
Cost is $60 — make checks payable to BHS Class of ’68.
Burbank High Class of 1968 