But we came back pretty soon, you know, after we explored that part of the world and lived there and all. And we came back and we came back and we came to—it was in our sixties—and we came to… we were just getting ready to be on Social Security. That’s how I know how old we were. And so that was a new thing for us to apply for that. And we came back here and Louie wasn’t well. And so he died eleven years ago. And I could just… if he wasn’t already gone I could kill him for dying. (Laughs.) Because it sure screwed up the fun we were having. I’m not good alone. I mean, I’m okay alone, but it’s so much more fun to have a partner. You know, Louie always expected I could do anything that he could do and we were just so involved with each other’s lives that I don’t enjoy not having anybody to shout out when I hear something funny or somebody says something funny to us, or something like that. So I didn’t like that.

It’s very bad. And I’m not very good at living alone yet. I’m not very good at it. I do the best I can. Luckily, I can still work at the hospital, and that really gives me a core. But it sure takes the fun out of things. Because Louie was always gung-ho to do anything. You know, we can go here, we can go there. Well, I don’t just get in the car and drive off to here and there, because there’s nobody to talk to. You know. Because we’d be going everywhere now. Now I go to the movies or something like that. Blah. (Laughs.) Luckily I have this little guy (her dog).He requires a lot of attention.

During his career, Louis built 17 schools, and they’re still going strong. They’re all in the East LA area. Sort of La Mirada, that area. And he, I went back… we had a memorial for him. And we went back to the church where we used to be very active in the Quaker church there. Because it was the community church and everybody belonged to that church. And I was able to—they have a nice picture of Louie—and I was able to meet a lot of the teachers and the principal of that school, and they were so tickled to meet me because of Louie. And we were having his memorial service there, you know, because I had to have one up here and one down there. I was so pleased with that, because they liked knowing who he was and what he was. And it’s a nice school. He had a good, a wonderful, time to be able to show it to his dad. I have a picture of him and his dad in front of the sign. His mom had died before and that was too bad because she would have liked that. Because she didn’t understand education. She said one time to Louie, she said, “Louie, will there be a time when you’ll move up to high school?” (Laughs.) He was an elementary administrator, but you know, it just tickled me so because that meant a step up to her.