Mr. Right For Carol

Monday September 7, 1992

We're up and packed and ready to go about 10:30. Carol calls. We arrange to meet in the Big Apple at 11 a.m. We listen to jazz together til 1 p.m. We say our goodbyes. Harry seems nice. I hope this will be Mr. Right for Carol and she can spend the rest of her days with him.

We have lunch at Carls Jr. nearby and head home. We stop at Gary and Maria's to see how Maria is feeling. Her chest pain is gone but she still feels icky from her medicine. We stay a couple of hours. Her sisters Anna and Rosa come to visit. The kids swim.

I'm really tired when we got home. I take a nap. Later we go to eat Japanese at Kin of Japan.

OK, I just got the chills reading her first paragraph. Her good friend Carol and her first husband Jay had been divorced for several decades and Carol was happily single all those years. Mom is hoping that Carol's new boyfriend Harry will be Mr. Right. Little did she know that her very own Mr. Right Frank would become Carol's Mr. Right also several years later. This is the photo I received with Frank and Carol's Christmas card last year. They have been married almost 10 years.

Mom doesn't say why Maria had chest pains and I don't recall hearing about this. I'll have to give her a call.

The Gospel Hour with Marty and Kathy

Sunday September 6, 1992

We're up early. We will meet Marty and Kathy at 9 a.m. for the gospel program, one hour of church choir, a young black group, and one hour of sing-along church songs. This is my favorite part of the festival. I love to sing the songs. I know most of them by heart from my younger years of attending church regularly. Frank sings too and quite well. Marty and Kathy like it alot.

We spend the day until 11 p.m. taking them to hear all the best groups. They love it and want to go again. We have lunch and dinner outside at the pool, listening to groups play for us. We see Carol a few times.

I felt much better today.

Mom's friend Carol got Mom and Frank hooked on both square dancing and jazz festivals. Now Mom and Frank have got Marty and Kathy hooked on square dancing and now jazz festivals as well. I lost touch with Marty and Kathy after Mom's death, but was happy to receive a Christmas card from them last year with this photo. They look just the same 20 years later! They live in Arizona now.

I can't help wondering why Mom doesn't go to church regularly like she did as a young girl. She always goes to the gospel hour at the jazz festivals in Monterey, Sacramento and Los Angeles, and she talks about how the gospel hour is her favorite part. She believes in the power of prayer and her faith is strong. Wouldn't it help her to be surrounded by other believers all praying for her and for each other? I have been a part of a prayer group at my church for many years where we pray together for our kids. My church also has a prayer group for people battling cancer. Matthew 18:20 says, "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

All That Jazz

Saturday September 5, 1992

We're up about 8 a.m. Have breakfast in our room, coffee cake and cereal. Frank goes to the lobby to get us some orange juice and coffee.

We're listeningi to a jazz group by 10 a.m. About 1 p.m. we run into Carol and Harry. We agree to meet them and Nobby, her brother, at 2 p.m. Later we see Rick, Berkley and Bob Holms and Sandy. We are having a wonderful time. Lots of good music. I'm not feeling real good. I have alot of pain.

Eight of us have dinner together. I manage to eat a salad. We have a wonderful everning and retire about 11:30.

Once again they meet up with Carol, Mom's friend since kindergarten and Frank's future wife. Notice that in spite of her pain she says she is having a wonderful time.

L.A. Jazz Festival

Friday September 4, 1992

I notice a spot on my cheek doesn't look right and seems to be growing. I make an appointment to see a doctor at 2 p.m. We are packed and ready to go to the Jazz Festival so we can leave ASAP. The doctor says it looks like an infection or a bite and gives me some medicine. Not to worry, maybe a bite.

We arrive at the Airport Marriott Hotel about 3:30 p.m. We get settled in our room and then get our badges and go in search of some great jazz music.

I don't feel real well so eat a light dinner. We're in bed about 11 p.m.

Hopefully, listening to some jazzy music will lift her spirits. The Airport Marriott is a beautiful hotel, first class! Sounds very romantic.

Los Angeles Jazz Festival

Saturday August 31, 1991

We're up early and off to the L.A.X. Jazz Festival of Dixieland music to celebrate Frank's birthday weekend. We arrive in time to attend the first performance at 10:30.

At 3 p.m. we meet Carol and Ray at the pool at the Marriott hotel. We are staying next door at the Hilton. Our room isn't ready til 4 p.m. When we finally get the key, someone is in that room. The clerk gives us a free breakfast chit for all our trouble. The room we finally get is large and lovely.

We have a great fried chicken dinner at the Marriott. We had breakfast out in Simi.

All the musical groups are great fun. We dance and hang out with Carol and Ray and go to bed about 10:30.

The annual Labor Day weekend Jazz Festival is still held at the Marriott Hotel near the Los Angeles Airport. It is called the Sweet & Hot Music Festival since 1996. Their website claims that it is considered to be the finest combination Jazz Party/Jazz Festival in the USA with over 50 of the best all-star artists performing the music of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Mom and Frank met Mom's friend Carol and her friend Ray at the festival. Carol and Mom were friends since kindergarten. They got together at jazz festivals in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Monterey every year. Carol also loved square dancing as Mom and Frank did. In fact Frank is now married to mom's childhood friend Carol.