I’m grateful for my husband. I’m happy that he never knew how his son died. I’m fortunate, even though lots of unhappy things happened. I had 55 years with my husband.

One Christmas, we were getting ready to go to Sacramento. We used to do a lot of traveling together. He loved to go on ships especially after he was older. We went on the Mississippi a couple of times; we went to Europe.

The first cruise we ever had was in 1954. We took the Luriline out of San Francisco. On board ship we met a couple from Colorado, and we clicked. We cruised across the Atlantic to Portugal, Spain, and London.

Aboard the ship our son was so well behaved that people commented on what a nice boy we had. For me, that was a thrill.

Aboard ship, there was a cute, fifteen year old blond girl. My son Jack said: “oh, I really like her!”

I told him: “she’s much too old for you.”

He said: “well, I don’t mind!”

We had a great trip. We were aboard ship crossing the Atlantic for seven days, and then we flew home.


A traveler’s memorial for my son Jack

After my son Jack was killed, we decided to take all of our grandchildren on a cruise when they were thirteen years old.

My son’s oldest girl was named Denele. We took her through the Panama Canal. Laurie went to Alaska. When my granddaughter Charlene wanted to go through the Caribbean and Mexico, we took her. We also took her down to the Florida Keys.

Then Corey, my daughter son wanted to go to Alaska, so we took the two children there. The kids really enjoyed it.

When we took Corey, we took my daughter Susan with us. We took her on quite a few trips.

I’ve made it up to Carol, as well. We went to the Greek isles. My friend from Denver was supposed to go with me, but she became very sick. The doctor didn’t think she should go. They told me I could have the stateroom to myself, but I didn’t want to go by myself. So I called Carol and invited her to cruise with me through the Greek isles.

I asked her: “do you think you can get off work?”

She said: “if I can’t, I’ll quit my job!”

She went with me on that trip. She also went with me on a cruise through Mexico, so what kind of made up for the loss of him.

Carol lost her mother and father one after the other. She calls me “mother,” and I introduce her as “my daughter.”

When I became very ill, I fell. I was very foolish; I took medication for a sinus infection.

I fell over the chair and onto the floor, and I couldn’t get up. The phone was off the wall. I broke my leg and my hip, and I was by myself.

Fortunately I have a good friend who calls me almost every day. I remember thinking to myself: “if I lay you’re on the floor, no one will see me.”

So I pulled myself up into a sitting position, then I put one leg over the top of the other and pulled myself all over this house. This was a Sunday afternoon. I had no food, no water.

But Pat Owen figured out that something was wrong. I was able to reach up enough to open the door and yell “help, help, help!”

I couldn’t reach the phone in the bedroom either. By Tuesday morning, pat figured that something was really wrong. I pulled myself over to the door, and when she saw me that called 911.

They took me to the hospital and I was completely dehydrated. Doctor Calciano, the heart specialist, told Pat that if she hadn’t got me here when she did, that I would be dead.

My heart would shut down, and then it would race.

Pat told me: “you are a miracle!”

I was three or four hours away from dying.

A day, if I need a doctor I call him right away. And I’ve got this little lifeline device. If I push this button it calls a doctor for me.

Before I broke my back, I bowled in two leagues, and played golf. I broke my back on the roller coaster In Santa Cruz. We used to go every year.

After my husband’s death I lost weight. We went on the roller coaster in March, 2005, and that is when I broke my back. When I got off the ride, I couldn’t walk. They had to take me to the hospital.

I went to a spine specialist, who operated on me twice. He drilled a small hole in my back and inserted a balloon that was filled with “cement.”

They pull the balloon through, and it fills the hole with cement.