Time truly does fly. It is now April 6, 2003. It has been 4 ½ years since my last entry.

Life is good. Gloria graduated from St. Elizabeth Nursing as valedictorian of the class of 2000 (at age 56) and now works as the director of the health care office for Pratt Institute and as a nurse for Hamilton.

After a number of moves and bosses, I am now the supervisor of web technical development with a small, fantastic staff. We make the web sing and dance and have a great time at work. I plan to retire at age 63, June 2004.

Eric has graduated from medical school, did his residency at the Univ. of Maryland, while his friend Jana did a fellowship at Johns Hopkins, also in Baltimore. They finally moved in together and were married in September of 2001. They have since had a baby daughter Elena - March 26, 2002, and bought a beautiful house in Watertown NY. Eric is an ER physician in Fulton, and spends one day a week in Lowville. Jana is the director of the North Country Children’s Clinic in Watertown. We found out two days ago that Jana is again pregnant and due in November. We love being grandparents.

After returning home in June of 98, Darren worked for the better part of a year at a local insurance brokerage while he applied to law schools. He spent much of the summer of 99 traveling the country and Alaska with a friend - Dave Bathrick. Darren's car was not fit enough for the trip, so we switched cars so he could take our 96 GMC Jimmy. He was accepted to and attended Vermont Law school where he graduated in May 2002. He has been working various law-related jobs since and is currently confidently awaiting the results of his second attempt at the NY Bar. He now lives in Syracuse with Erica (his mate of two years and also a Hamilton grad) while she completes a program in speech pathology at Syracuse University. Great girl, whom he has intentions to marry.

In March of 2000, we sold the house on Stebbins Drive in Clinton and moved back to Welshbush after we made several upgrades to the property. In August, I bought a 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible and in September we spent two weeks in Italy, including Sicily, on a great trip.

I n May of 2001, Gloria had knee replacement surgery in Syracuse with recuperation at the Sitrin home in Utica in early June. While there, we saw an ad for a mini-estate on White Lake. It had a four bedroom main house, a two bedroom guest house, a boat house, a work shop and a playhouse, all at the end of a dead-end road. It all seemed too good to be true. We were shown the place the next day (Gloria on crutches), made the deal within two days and closed in July. Eric and Jana were married on the nearby island in September. It is perfect and truly a life-long dream. We now spend the spring, summer and fall living there.

On April 8, 2002, my mother died. A good woman, and a great mother. We planned for and had a family reunion at the camp last summer, hoping for her to be there. She didn’t want to attend and got her way. Arthritis had its way with her body and she was a proud person.

She taught me to enjoy the simple things in life. We would spend hours sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes (when it was in vogue) and talking about life. She was a very smart woman and she made you think and enjoy thinking. She had five children at a time when the man of the house did very little for their care. She did a great job. She cut my hair until I went in the army. She taught me how to rewire lamps and electrical outlets, what I needed to know about plumbing and so much more. She was unique. Of my two parents, I think the genes I inherited from her were stronger than my fathers were.