Christmas Letter 2012

Blessings of the Season to All:                                                          December 2012

Well, all the ballots are in and counted and I’m happy to report that the reunion at the Schield’s cottage outside Neillsville was unanimously voted Event of the Year for 2012 by the McCorry, Jonas, Schield and Mullins families! A good time was had by all.

Many fond memories were created by the gathering of more than 70 people who are the descendants of Charles and Bridget McCorry, spanning four generations. The Schields did a great job of organizing the event from arranging catering, to doing some of their own food preparation to laying the stones for the patio surrounding the fire pit. David Schield explained to me that his brother Dan laid an estimated total of 17,000 pounds of patio blocks in one day (though not all at once)!

View more posts about the reunion here.

The reunion was the perfect antidote to the sadness in January when we laid to rest our dearly beloved Aunt Betty Schield and UncleBud Jonas, who died within hours of each other the month before. It was after those funerals that the Schield family committed to plans for the reunion.

In other Schield news, the Werth-Rabbaa restaurant empire in Santa Rosa, Calif., grew this year. Besides Rendez Vous Bistro, Nino Rabbaa and wife Megan (Pat’s daughter) opened two restaurants – Flipside Bar & Burger in the spring and Lakeside Grill in the summer – plus a bar called Space XXV.

Dan and Bobbi Schield report that their daughter Miranda is engaged to one Justin Mayer, a Wisconsinite she met in Chicago. Their son Michael, who won the “One Who Traveled Furthest to the Reunion Award,” returned to his job as a golf instructor in China. Daughter Emily moved from Portland to Milwaukee for a promotion in her job at Milwaukee Tool Co.

Joe Schield moved from Northern California to Florida to be closer to his dad, Uncle Carroll Schield, though Joe also made a trip to Paris with his sister Wendy, who continues as a dental hygienist in Boulder, Colo. Wendy’s daughter Brittany graduated from college this year with straight As and a degree in philosophy. Mary Alice Schield still lives near Pat and Jay Werth in the Santa Rosa area.

Jim Schield came through successful surgery to treat prostate cancer in the fall, for which we are all greatful. I didn’t know this at the time, but his wife Shawn lost her mother in 2011 shortly before Jim lost his. Their son Brandon, who lead the sing-alongs at the reunion with his guitar, played with a band that opened for the legendary Leon Russell.

From David Schield comes news that his daughter Jessica, boyfriend Josh and their daughter Rian, are planning to move from Hawaii to Wisconsin (give me a second to get my head around that – from Hawaii to Wisconsin, in the winter!). Their son Jeffrey still works in Chicago as a personal trainer and daughter Grace is a junior pursuing a criminal justice degree at the University of Iowa.

From the Mullins family comes word that sister Mary and husband Bill’s daughter, Liz, will be starting her first year at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in January. The three of them will be visiting Disney World before Liz starts school. Bill teaches a course on globalization at UWM and still uses a video I shared with him, a PBS documentary on “Peak Oil,” in his class.

Betty and Joe still work at their jobs as a paralegal and a bartender, respectively, in Milwaukee. Betty has been speaking to groups of seniors and veterans in Milwaukee about her book “Don’t Let Down,” which was published in 2011. Joe earned the praise and admiration of many at the reunion by scoring a case of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey for the event. Yours truly moved back to San Jose in March, after living with Tricia at her home in Oakley, to be closer to my work as a freelance technology reporter in Silicon Valley. Tricia’s daughter Erin has begun studies to become a physician’s assistant at Mississippi College in Jackson. Tricia has visited Erin twice since she moved there; in November they drove from Jackson to Memphis to tour Graceland and to Tupelo to visit Sun Record Co., Elvis Presley’s first record label. Kathy traveled with niece Erin and son Brendan to Ireland earlier this summer. While Kathy spent her days attending a medical conference, Erin and Brendan did sightseeing, including Galway, the Cliffs of Mohr and the obligatory Jameson’s Distillery tour.

From the Jonas clan comes word that daughter Sarah has temporarily closed the café side of Café LuLu for remodeling, replacing the diner motif (it was, after all, originally a George Webb’s) with a more “grown up” look, she says, and a new name, LuLu Lounge. Sarah and husband Scott Przybylowski (I have to copy and paste his name every time) moved this year from a single-family home they owned on the south side of Milwaukee into a duplex they already owned.

Brian McCorry’s wife, Betsy, says their son Patrick and his wife Erin welcomed their son Charles Brian “Charlie” McCorry into the world on June 1. Aunt Mary Ann McCorry wrote me a few weeks ago saying she enjoys her senior living facility in Willowbrook. “My tree is up as is my crib scene,” she wrote. Unfortunately, she and Sr. Benedicta weren’t able to make it to the reunion, and Sr. Acquinice told my sister Betty that Sr. B "is doing as well as can be expected."

As I write this letter, I’m watching live TV coverage of the memorial service for the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shootings where President Obama is about to speak. While that tragedy may cast a shadow over many Christmas celebrations around the country, keep in mind that the birth of Jesus Christ was a promising beginning, according the book of Matthew, “for he shall save his people from their sins.”

Bing, like Google, is a great place to search for Bible quotes appropriate to the situation. Besides Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my shepherd …” I found this Psalm 30:5 as well: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

Again, it was great to see all of you at the reunion and I hope we can stay in touch in the New Year.

Robert Mullins