Nephews and Nieces

God's plan for families is one of the nicest things to have ever happened. When God put Adam and Eve together in the Garden of Eden and told them to be fruitful and multiply this was the beginning of marriage and families. We see families throughout the Bible. There are fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and nephews and nieces. There are grandparents, aunts and uncles. Each one of these family members can be an important part of the family.

Today I want to tell about my nephews and nieces. I became an aunt when my sister Donna gave birth to her son Arthur Louis Sinclair on September 29, 1957. He is named after his father Louis Arthur Sinclair. I was already the mother of two year old Kathy at that time. Arthur was a beautiful baby boy, the first grandson on both sides of his family. In just one year and one day he would become the big brother to his sister Debra Marie Sinclair. She was given her mother's middle name Marie. We called her Debbie all through her childhood until she preferred being called Debra. She was as cute as any baby could possibly be. My daughter Laura was right in the middle of Arthur and Debra as far as birth order goes.

Donna's family lived in Los Angeles and we lived in San Diego so we did not see each other as often as I would have liked. Paul and I rarely went to L.A. Donna and Louis got to San Diego on special occasions or several times a year with their two little ones. The cousins enjoyed getting together as they got older and got to know each other better. There would soon be more cousins to add to the mix.

The next addition to the cousins was when my sister Betty had Gary. My handsome nephew Gary Edward was born February 19, 1960. He was an exuberant little boy, with a lot of personality. Laura really loved him a lot as one of her favorite cousins when they were little. Gary would become the big brother when Elizabeth Frances Hamilton was born on July 4th in 1961. She has her mother's middle name Frances. Elizabeth is also a family name. She was called Sissy for much of her childhood. Her family also called her Liz. My son Paul William, aka Bill, fits right in between Gary and Elizabeth age wise.

In December of 1962 I had my second son Griffith H. Marvin, aka Griff. The next baby would be another boy, Matthew Scott Hamilton, brother of Gary and Elizabeth. Matthew was born October 22, 1963. Betty and Sam now have three children, all born in California. One more son would be born in January of 1967 in Hawaii where Sam was stationed with the Navy. Mark Anthony would be child number four, the third son. They would move to Billings, Montana soon after Sam got out of the Navy the summer of 1967 while Mark was a baby. This is where the children would be raised.

When Betty and Sam and family were in San Diego, off and on during the Navy years, our children had chances to get to know each other. In later years after the Hamiltons moved to Billings they made trips to San Diego for family reunions. Gary spent time here the summer of 1973 with his grandma, my mother. He also helped us when we were moving that summer. I remember him with paint brush in hand along with my kids, his cousins. Elizabeth came to San Diego to visit her grandmother the spring of 1980 and ended up at our house for five years. Her dog Mouse joined our menagerie of cats, dogs and turtles.

Matthew has made several trips to visit us over the years. The year my Kathy was getting married Matthew came and helped immensely with putting the food out at the wedding reception. We had other help, but really needed Matthew's extra helping hands. Elizabeth was here then too and she had been involved with us in planning everything for the big day. It was her bright idea to make the mints. As for Matthew he actually prefers to be called Phinwe, but he has always been Matthew to us. Matthew the nephew with style. His color is black and he wears it well.

Mark was only here as a child with his parents. Mark has a sweet disposition whenever I do get to see him. He is the father of Brittany and Michael. They are both grown up now, and Brittany is in college and works for a vet. Elizabeth also has two children. Andrew, her oldest, is now a daddy to a baby girl. Elijah is a teenager, high school age. So Betty and Sam would be enjoying having a great granddaughter, as well as seeing their four grandchildren grow up, if they were still with us. We lost them much too soon. Sam was only 55 and Betty was only 67 when they died.

My sister Donna has more great grandchildren than I can remember. She may have only had two children, but they went forth and multiplied as was mentioned in Genesis. Debra and her husband have two children. Their son Shawn has two children. They all need prayer as there is division among them. Shawn has not been in touch with them as he should be in quite sometime, so Debra and Pete have not been able to see Shawn's girls since the first one was a baby. Debra and Pete have a teenager, Natasha, fourteen years and one day younger than Shawn. Remember that Arthur and Debra were one year and one day apart.

Donna's son Arthur has children and grandchildren. He has been missing since 1994 so he has not seen any of his family in a long time. He probably met up with disaster those many years ago. Arthur has three children and many grandchildren. His son David has four or five children plus a stepchild. David lives in Missouri with his family. Arthur's daughter Nicole lives in Wales and just had a baby boy in September. His son Michael lives near Donna and Fred and is a young man now. I wanted to say he is a teenager but time flies by.

Arthur was the cousin my boys had adventures with when they were young. Bike adventures and even a motorcycle adventure are included on the list of things they did together. Arthur was there when Griff had his bicycle accident on suicide hill. Years later Bill and Griff were trailing Arthur when he flew off his motorcycle. They came around a mountain curve and there was Arthur's cycle with the wheels spinning and no Arthur. He had flown off and was nearby. He survived with serious scrapes and bruises. He probably hurt a lot, but xrays showed no broken bones.

Debra has had health problems since she was a child. She has seizures that her medications don't seem to help. Right now she is in the hospital since one of the medications was making her very sick. She had been throwing up a lot and she was told her pancreas was the problem. It turns out to be that the medication is the problem. I don't know if they still think her pancreas is also involved. She has had one thing after another to deal with almost all of her life. When she was sixteen she had a tumor on her spine. That was resolved with surgery and radiation. Thankfully there was no malignancy involved. This all plays havoc with her emotionally. My prayers go out for this special niece.

My other niece also deals with health problems and I pray for her to enjoy improved health soon. She is enjoying life with her "new" husband Jack, a pastor of a little church in Missouri. She also stays interested in Jack's family which includes his adult children and many grandchildren. Elizabeth became like a daughter to me when she was at our house for five years. I have not seen her or her brothers since I was in Billings for their mother's burial in April of 2008.

I was going to write about our niece and nephews on Paul's side of the family, but I will save them for another day. Paul has one brother and he has three children, plus grandchildren. Charlie's three are all younger than our four. His first was born five months after our youngest son. Eric, Carrie and Deron were all born when the family lived in Coronado so we knew them as babies. They moved to Sacramento and our contacts were few so our children did not get to really know each other, I'm sorry to say. It was always a pleasure to see the whole family. We have had some opportunities to get together with them over the years of which I'm thankful for. Paul and I do stay in touch with Paul's brother and his sweet wife Edye. They are the best at writing to us of all of our family.

Families are close to our hearts and always in our prayers. May God bless each of these dear people. We may sometimes have different ideas about life and our creator. We may have different thoughts on politics and other matters. But we come from the same grandparents and have the same aunts and uncles. Most of us have blue eyes, but there may be some with brown eyes. Some are blondes and some brunette. But we have the same blood line. We have bonds that hold us close even when the distance is great. I love my family. I love my nephews and nieces.

Donna married Fred Guapo in 1979 after some years of being a single mother. Her children were grown up by then, but Fred had a young son, Freddy. He is now a fine young man and has a beautiful wife. In 1980 Freddy was with our large family gathering in a family picture that included all of Mom's family. Donna, Betty and myself with all of our children, my husband Paul and Donna's husband Fred were all in this portrait. All were there except Betty's husband Sam. He was still in Montana as he couldn't make that trip to San Diego.

Family reunions are most enjoyable. Getting together with my grown children and grandchildren is extra special for me. My four are spread across the country from California to Florida. Our oldest daughter Kathy, her husband John and their family are in Colorado. Our granddaughters are all grown up. Becky is married and has a baby boy. Melissa is a teacher's aide for a preschool class and she is studying to be a preschool teacher. Our sons each served in the military for a period of time, and they each own their homes, one in California and the other in Florida. Laura shares our home with us. It is a challenge to get everyone together. We can manage to have three together, but that seems to be the most at one time.

Then when it comes to the nephews and nieces it would be a rare treat to gather everyone together again. The last time may have been when we had that large family portrait in 1980. We also had a very nice gathering with four generations at Kathy and John's wedding in 1983. But there is always someone missing in the picture. We have several more favorite family pictures when our granddaughters were little. These were three and four generation portraits with all four of our children present. It is fun to think on these things. I do not expect all of my mother's grandchildren to gather together again in my lifetime, but the memories are sweet.

originally written October 18,2011
first picture-Arthur and Debra
second pic.-Gary,Elizabeth &Bill in front
Laura and Kathy holding Griff in back
third pic.-my Dad with all of his grandchildren
fourth picture-Arthur with kitten
fifth pic.-Arthur, Laura and Kathy with kittens
last picture is our large family portrait with Mom
and all of Mom's family as described in story.

School Days

I have a long list of ideas to write about, all good ideas, but it starts to look like a school assignment. Eventually I will write about each idea on my list, but that is for future reference. Why do school assignments seem so daunting? I was not the best student and often procrastinated writing those special reports that were so important. I actually ended up with neat folders with decent grades. I put a good last ditch effort into certain assignments. Some classes were fun, but others were a struggle for me.

Laura enjoyed some of the special assignments that she had to do. She was very neat and put a lot of effort into what she did. She has enjoyed writing as far back as I can remember. Like me, she did first grade twice. I think it was a good idea for me to repeat first grade and I hope Laura feels that it helped her to do the same. Some of us needed that extra help in learning to read and do first grade arithmetic.

Bill benefited from doing second grade twice, but I think that he started to shine in school when he was older and had new glasses. He went to an eye doctor once when he was three or four years old and nothing was found to cause concern. I should have taken him to our favorite optometrist to have his vision checked. When I finally took him to have his vision checked he needed special glasses. This helped him a lot. I think that is when he started doing real good in school. Bill and Laura, as well as their brother Griff, all do very good in math.

Griff did not seem to struggle with any subjects in school. In fact he was identified as gifted. His problem was that he may have felt that he knew more than the teachers at times. He may have been a challenge for the teachers in many ways. In high school he got to where he would not go to school after a while. When he was seventeen he got his GED and then he joined the Marines. He did the best possible on the test to join the Marines so of course they wanted him to enlist.

Our oldest daughter Kathy did her best and got good grades. In high school her favorite subject was probably homemaking. She had the opportunity to take four years of this class with one of our very favorite teachers, Mrs. Hanks. My sisters and I loved Mrs. Hanks and each of us learned to sew under her watchful eyes. I even visited this favorite teacher at school after I graduated. I took my baby Kathy to show off to Mrs. Hanks. It was a blessing for Kathy to also have this same homemaking teacher as I had.

Kathy was the third generation in our family to graduate from Coronado High School. Paul's parents, aunts and uncles all graduated from CHS. My Dad attended Coronado schools, but did not graduate. Some of Dad's siblings graduated from CHS. Paul and I, as well as his brother and my sisters, graduated from Coronado High School.

Laura graduated from Coronado Junior High (8th grade) and then we moved to South SanDiego (Otay Mesa). She went to Montgomery Junior High and then Montgomery High School, as did Bill and Griff. Laura had another Junior High graduation when she graduated from 9th grade at Montgomery. Bill and Griff were in 5th and 6th grades when we moved here. They attended Juarez Lincoln School near here. We can often hear the children playing in the schoolyard on the nearby hill reminding us of the good old school days.

"Reading and 'Riting and 'Rithmetic" are words to an old song we used to sing. There is a hickory stick in this old song, but none ever had to be used on me at school. That would have been a rare thing when I was growing up and was probably never done when my children were in school. I do remember my sister getting in trouble one time at the school we went to when we were on the farm. She was in first grade. All she had done was to refuse to eat something on her plate in the cafeteria. And when I made the mistake of mentioning it to my grandmother Donna got in trouble again at home. That's the way it was. I did not like some of the cafeteria food, but I choked it down.

Time on the playground with friends was one of my favorite things at school. I enjoyed jump rope, hop scotch and jacks. I did not do good at team sports. Playing on the monkey bars, or the bars you swing across hand over hand getting blisters along the way, is another memory. Those blisters were badges of skill.

We were lucky to have square dance classes at times over the years. There were other lessons in dancing too, all good old fashioned dances. I'm sure not everyone appreciated these lessons though. But I remember them being fun as I liked boys. We were still young enough that some of the kids probably did not care for the opposite sex. Not all of my children had these opportunities. Laura did not get to do this as she had a different class. I guess some of the children got to square dance. My husband Paul remembers these lessons from back when he was in school.

Paul and I never danced with each other except for trying to when we were first dating. I did a little bit of dancing when the opportunity was there with friends or classmates. Once in a while there would be a party at a friend's house. At one such party at my friend's house I was having fun, but must have eaten too many nuts or other goodies. The music was on and some of us decided to dance. I danced with one of the boys that was trying to enjoy his first dance. I so much wanted to enjoy this dance. Our dancing in those days was slow and together, with the music of the early fifties. It would have been fine if I felt good.

The dance was barely over when I started for the bathroom, but I did not make it. I threw up all over the floor right in front of my dance partner and the other kids there. Not a fun experience for the fine young man I had been dancing with a few seconds before. I felt so bad for him, not to ignore the fact I was embarrassed to have spoiled what should have been a fun evening.



Caroline's eighth grade graduation picture--Coronado, 1951

More Thoughts of My Sister Betty

On April 11th I posted memories about my sister Betty. These memories included a lot about our childhood. Even though it was a long post I thought of more I could have written.

Betty was a talented seamstress, as is our sister Donna. We all had the same homemaking teacher in high school, the caring and talented Mrs. Hanks. My daughter Kathy had the same teacher too. We all learned to sew and each of us made our own wedding dresses.

Betty and Sam had a happy marriage and a lovely home. Betty was a good cook and her children learned the same skills in her kitchen. Betty taught Elizabeth to make the most delicious pies. I know that because Elizabeth lived with us for five years. Gary is a skilled chef and does this for a living. Matthew also knows how to get around in the kitchen too. He helped us with setting up the food at my daughter's wedding. I'm sure that Mark does fine in the kitchen too.

The boys learned to hunt with their Dad. They always kept the freezer full and were never without something to put on the table. Some of them continue this tradition. One Thanksgiving after Betty died I called their house and Matthew answered. His brothers were out hunting and he was preparing the Thanksgiving feast for the family.

Betty liked butterflies and pretty pastel colors. When Betty was little she received a pretty butterfly pin at her birthday party. The package was large and in the box was a smaller box. In the smallest box was a lovely butterfly. This could have been the beginning of her love for butterflies. This sticks out in my mind as birthday parties were rare in our home as children. We remembered birthdays, but did not usually invite our friends to a party. Actually this is the only party I remember.

Betty's home was painted pretty pastels and the fabrics she chose were in the same flowery shades with delicate prints. It was always fun to receive Christmas packages from her as she put a lot of thought into each gift. A lot of my little collectibles are from her. She never forgot to add something in the package for my December birthday.

The last time I was in Billings to see her family was April of 2008. I had not been able to get there when she was sick or when they had her memorial service in November of 2007. Our sister Donna was there with the rest of Betty's family for the service. But I was able to be with them when they buried her on her April 11th birthday. She is in the Hamilton family plot in the Burlington Cemetery, Burlington, Wyoming. Their family has used the same burial grounds for generations. Betty and Sam as well as his parents, grandparents and greats are all buried there.

I spent most of a week with Gary, Elizabeth, Matthew and Mark as well as Mark's two children, Brittany and Michael Hamilton. Elizabeth was there from Missouri. I would have loved to see her two boys and meet her new husband too. I have not seen her sons Andrew and Elijah since they were little guys. Andrew is going to be a daddy this year so Betty and Sam would be great grandparents.

I wrote in my previous blog post about vacations with Betty and Sam. I did not mention that in 1994 Paul and Laura and I, along with Becky and Melissa (my granddaughters), traveled from Aurora, Colorado to Billings to spend some time with Betty, Sam and family. It was a memorable trip for us. Paul and I had traveled with Patchy the cat to Aurora from San Diego. We had been caring for Patchy since Kathy, John and girls had moved to the Denver area. Laura had been with them that school year to care for the girls. So we were taking Patchy to her real home and bringing Laura back to SanDiego that summer. While in Colorado we wanted to head north to Montana to see Betty's family. It was a fun time except for the accident we had on the way to Billings. Nobody was hurt though.

Another special memory is when Betty's son Gary spent a good part of the summer in San Diego in 1973. He was mainly at Mom's as that was his grandma and she loved having him with her. But Gary was with us when we were moving into this house that summer. He helped us with some painting too. My children loved having Gary here that summer. Gary is in between Laura and Bill in age.

It seems as if there is no end to memories, but I need to put an end to this post. Families are part of God's plan and we need to treasure our relationships.

Pictures from family album are of Betty with Caroline and Donna in Coronado in the 40s;
also picture of Gene McDonaugh family in Portland in 1945

Remembering My Sister

My sister Betty was the youngest of three girls. I was the oldest sister and Donna was the middle sister. Betty Frances McDonaugh Hamilton was born April 11, 1940 in Coronado, California. She died on November 23, 2007 in Billings, Montana.

Our parents were R. Eugene and Ida Frances McDonaugh. Dad was born in Washington D.C. in 1911 and came to California when he was nine years old. He spent the rest of his childhood in Coronado. Mom was born in Bellingham, Washington in 1913 and spent her childhood on a farm in that part of the country. Her maiden name was Davenport. Our parents met in Coronado and got married in 1935. Dad was a chauffeur and Mom was a maid at the time. Later, after the war they would spend many years painting houses together in Coronado.

During World War II my sisters and I lived on the farm with our grandparents while Mom and Dad worked in Portland, Oregon in the shipyards. I always say that Mom was Rosie the riveter. She was always a hard worker. Dad painted inside the ships that were being worked on.

Donna, Betty and I enjoyed our time with our loving grandparents on the farm. I was in school and did two years of first grade plus second grade in the school near Bellingham. Our area was called Laurel and the grade school was Meridian Elementary. They did not have kindergarten at that school so Donna did not get to go to school till she was in first grade. I had gone to kindergarten in Coronado. Betty was still too little for school. She got to spend more time with our grandparents.

One family story is that Dad took Betty with him on the bus to California. We were not exactly rich and Dad could not afford the fare for Betty. I guess she was barely old enough to have to pay so Dad said she was four rather than five years old. She was to say she was younger than she was. When they got to our aunt and uncle's house in L.A. and they asked her how old she was she had to ask Dad, "How old are I now Daddy?" She was tiny and no bigger than a four year old at that time.

Our grandparents were very upright Christian people so we learned a lot of good lessons in their home. They faithfully took us to their Church and Sunday School. We also lived a "Little House On The Prairie" existence. There were fields to play in and a barn that we spent time in. It was fun to watch our grandparents milk the cows. We had chickens and pigs too. We had a healthy lifestyle. There were plenty of vegetables that grandma had canned from her garden. It was fun being able to climb the cherry trees to pick our own fruit. And riding on the haywagon while our grandparents and other relatives brought in the hay was a fun time for three little girls.

The summer of 1945 we moved to be with our parents in Portland. I remember all the horns and celebration that summer when the war was over. I was sheltered from most of what had been going on in the world. The main thing I remembered is that my Daddy did not have to go to war as he did not pass the physical when they tried to draft him. But he served our country in a different way as he was available to work in the shipyard.

Now we were living in a housing project in Portland and had indoor plumbing instead of the little house out back. These were nice buildings in my child's eyes. The school was in walking distance instead of by the bus I remembered from the farm. Betty got to start kindergarten when school started that year. We also had relatives near Portland and got to go to their place for Thanksgiving. It was a time of more good memories for our family. The five of us were all together again.

After Christmas the five of us took the bus to California where we would live. I remember seeing palm trees for the first time in years. I also remember the ocean for the first time since I was a lot younger. It was probably the first time Betty ever remembered this scenery. Our grandfather met us at the Santa Fe train station in San Diego where we got off the bus after such a long ride. He took us on the ferry to his house in Coronado. It was so sweet to see our father's parents again after so many years. I wonder if Betty had any previous memory of them. I had always written to them as Grandma Davenport encouraged me to do this.

My parents had hoped to be living in the old house next door to our grandparents, but there were already renters there. We moved into the back part of our grandparent's home on the corner of third and F where we would live for a few years. I was in third grade, Donna was in second grade and Betty was in kindergarten. I even remember the first day of school in Coronado. We made friends in Coronado that would last a lifetime.

Mom and Dad painted houses for a living for many years. Donna, Betty and I had the island for our playground, the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. We went to Sunday School and made friends there. When we were on the farm we went to a Baptist Church, but there was not yet a Baptist Church in Coronado. We went to the Methodist Church for many years and made many memories there.

The summer of 1948 Donna flew to Bellingham to be with our grandparents as they needed her willing hands to help them on the farm. Betty and I were together with our parents, and I'm sure we missed Donna as part of the family. We had always played together, maybe not always peacefully.

The spring of 1949 the rest of us decided to go to Washington and join Donna to spend time with our grandparents there. This was a memorable car trip that I have written about before. The car was loaded with all of our worldly possessions and two special pets, as well as squeezing us in too. The pets were my favorite turtle Mac and our little red hen Susie Q. We were quite the sight.

It was a pleasure to be back on the farm. I was in sixth grade and Betty was in third grade. Donna was just one grade behind me. When in Coronado I was homesick for the farm. When in Washington I was homesick for Coronado. I don't know if this was the case for my sisters. We spent the rest of the year on the farm until after Christmas. In the meantime two of our California cousins came to live with us on the farm. It was fun to get to know them.

So after Christmas their dad came to help us move back to California. My dad had already moved back and made arrangements for us. We were to move into our Aunt Clara's big old house in Spring Valley. There was a houseful as my cousins were still with us as well as another cousin, Aunt Clara's son. We went to various schools as we varied in ages. Donna and Betty and one cousin went to the nearby elementary school. I was in junior high and two cousins were in high school. This was a lot for our parents to deal with. They were also back to painting houses in Coronado.

After a few months of this arrangement we were making new plans to get closer to Coronado. Cousins were now out of the picture and we temporarily settled in Imperial Beach in our friend's house. We went to school in Coronado as we would move there in the summer when the house Mom and Dad wanted would be available.

The rest of our school years we would be in Coronado. Betty graduated from Coronado High School in 1958. She was already an aunt by then. Betty had a job in a bank while she was still single. She had done a lot of babysitting as a teen ager, as we had all done.

It was not long before Betty met and married Samuel S. Hamilton. He was a young sailor from Wyoming. Three of Betty's children were born in California. The youngest was born in Hawaii when Sam was stationed there with the Navy. Elizabeth was born in Coronado like Betty was. Her sons are Gary, Matthew and Mark.

When Sam left the Navy they moved to Billings, Montana to be near his family. They have lived in Montana since 1967.  We have enjoyed getting together with their family a number of times over the years. When they lived in California our children got to spend time together and they got to know each other. I have pictures of them all together when they were little. Then when the distance was great we still stayed in touch. They came to California on vacations.

Donna managed to get to Billings for a vacation once with her daughter Debra in the early years. Donna's son Arthur got to spend some time in Billings with his cousins too. Mom and her husband Frank used to get to Billings almost every year at one period of time. It wasn't until 1979 that three of my children and I got to go to Montana. That was after Kathy got her own car and took us on trips. Also on that first trip was Laura and Bill. We got to go to Yellowstone National Park for the first time with Betty's family. Griff stayed home with Paul that summer.

Then in 1980 Betty and Sam's daughter came to visit and stayed for five years. She also had her dog with her. Mouse was a good dog. Elizabeth became like a daughter to me. In 1981 the girls and I made a trip to Washington and Montana. This was another trip to remember. It was my first time back to Washington since 1956 when I went with my in-laws and baby Kathy. On this 1981 trip Kathy was driving. We visited family and saw the sights. We met up with Donna and her husband Fred, as well as little Freddy, in Billings. So the three sisters were together for another reunion. Caroline, Donna and Betty.

Betty and Matthew both came to Kathy and John's wedding in 1983. Matthew saved the day with all the help with the food. We had other relatives from out of town too including Paul's brother Charlie, and John's sister who came on the bus from Washington with two little children. Betty had also come on the bus from Billings, Montana.

In 1993 Betty and Sam were here for Easter which was also her birthday. So we had a nice family gathering at that time. By then Kathy and John were in Colorado with my grandchildren. Betty and Sam offered to take me with them back to Billings, stopping in Denver for an overnight stay at Kathy and John's. This was a sweet time to spend with family. Then I got to stay in Billings for a week or two. I came home on the bus.

Betty and Sam made more trips to San Diego over the years. When Mom was in her last days Betty and Sam made two trips by car in a very short period of time. They did a lot of work with us. Matthew was with them then. They were here for a memorial service for Mom.

Years earlier when our Dad died Betty made a trip from Washington state with three little children on the train. Sam had just left on deployment with his ship. This was 1964. Betty had hoped to get here to see Dad in the hospital, but she got here for a funeral instead.

In 1997 Sam died of a heart attack. He was young like my Dad had been. He was just 55. Dad had only been 53 when he died of cancer. A couple of months after Sam was gone Donna and I flew to Billings to spend some sister time with Betty. I think we were there for about two weeks. Sam died September 6th the same day as Princess Diana's funeral. This date is also Grandma Davenport's birthday.

Ten years later Betty was very sick and died on November 23rd. Thankfully Betty had been here for a nice visit with Matthew, and two of her grandchildren and their friend the summer of 2006. We enjoyed a beach picnic with a bonfire one evening. We three sisters were all together for this. My dearest friend Madeline and her sweet husband were also with us. Betty also came in 1998 to visit, the 4th of July Paul and I were in the parade. All of us were together then too.

When Betty died Donna was able to fly to Billings to spend two weeks with the family and be there for the memorial service. Elizabeth's new husband officiated at the service. Elizabeth and Jack were there from Missouri. Gary, Matthew and Mark live in Billings, Montana. The family still have the home they have been in for many years.

Betty and Sam are also survived by four grandchildren. Mark's children are Brittany and Michael. Elizabeth's two are Andrew and Elijah. And this year they would be great grandparents as Andrew is going to be a Daddy.