Friday June 7, 1991
I'm up at 6:00 a.m. to ready the house for company, get ready, pick up the flowers for centerpiece at the luncheon, and pick up Bob and Donna at the Fly Away bus in Van Nuys at 10 a.m. The flowers are beautiful. Donna and Bob are on time.
After I pick them up we go to Frank's office to surprise him that Donna and Bob have flown down for his retirement luncheon. He is very surprised. We help him clean out his office. He has a hard time tearing himself away from his office for the last time. Finally he's able and we head for the luncheon.
There are 125 people there to honor Frank. It's a wonderful affair with lots of nice speeches. We visit around the room. All the family is there except Deb, Joey, Sara, Chris and Justin. Chris has sent the centerpiece flowers. Dolores and Steve delight Frank with a kite. I give him a buckle. Paul, Judy, Tayler, Steve and Dee come to the house. Later we all go to dinner at Tony Roma's. It's a blast! Paul and Judy have gone to her folks.
It has taken me most of the day to write this post as I am heartbroken today. As I read this entry in Mom's journal as well as some of the next ones to come, I came to realize that I need her photo albums to continue my blog. Up to this point, I have made do with some of my old photos, but for many of the events and trips coming up I was not around since I live 400 miles away. Mom was always so faithful about taking lots of pictures all her life, and she saved mementos and all her photos in albums for posterity. After she died, I took home her clothes and jewelry and my brother Gary got the ski boat that we skied behind since 1972. But everything else stayed in the beautiful home that she and Frank owned. Five years ago Frank sold that house, which they bought together in 1982. He remarried and moved to a retirement community in Northern California. I called my brother Gary last night to see if he had mom's photo albums. He looked through the ones he had and told me he only had the photo albums prior to her marriage to Frank in 1982. Today I called Frank to see if he had the albums since 1982. He informed me that when he moved he was downsizing so he got rid of lots of stuff. The only photos he kept were their wedding pictures. I almost started crying right there on the phone. 11 years of meticulously kept photographs, gone. My bubble has burst. I don't know how I can continue this blog. It certainly won't be the same without pictures. The photo above was NOT taken at Frank's retirement party as I have no photos of my own of that event. I'm sure Mom took dozens of pictures. The photo of the two of them above was actually taken at Frank's daughter's wedding in 1986, 5 years earlier. Frank took an early retirement at the age of 55 so that he could take care of mom while she battled her cancer. He loved his job, but he loved her more.
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