The News On Sunday

💞💞💞💞💞An Addendum to the Previous Entry💞💞💞💞💞

My niece, Carolyn, called to tell me that my brother, Frank, died on Saturday night. His daughter, Noreen, with whom I was in touch later, thought she had texted me, but hadn't. I can understand that--she has a lot on her hands. Funeral plans are not yet finalized, but should be soon. I called my daughters and emailed my sons with the news; also, called my only surviving brother, Larry.  

In addition, I called my cousin, Sally, in San Diego. She and Frank were two weeks apart in age and, in truth, her mother, my Aunt Marie, my mother's only sister, is the reason I'm now writing this in Ventura, California. How so? Because she and her husband, Howard, moved to the state after living in Bryn Mawr, PA,; they had a restaurant called "The Ship's Bell" and ran it for several years. Later, Aunt Marie's only biological child (she had a stepson) also settled there. She married young and when and her husband had three children under four, he was killed in an accident. At that point, Frank had graduated from Villanova and, attracted by the west coast, actually lived with Sally and her children until she married again. Frank stayed in California where he met and married Marybeth and had four children. My Mike visited them and decided California was for him, too. He went for a year to Rider College, where I worked, before transferring to UCSB, where he met Paula. They moved in together after graduation and my daughter, Ellen, visited after graduating from Rider. She was also pulled in by the lore of the state and after working at Computer Sciences Corp for several years, packed up her possessions (including her cat) and drove across country to settle there. Years later, my husband, Pat, died and a few years after that, I made the decision to follow suit. I wonder who's waiting in the wings ready to come here, too.  

Frank would have loved this picture:

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