McCorry Family Christmas Letter for 2014

To All,                                                                                                  Christmas 2014

It’s been another busy year in 2014 for the 30 cousins – the grandchildren of Bridget and Charles McCorry, who immigrated to America in the early 1900s -- and all the other children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have come along since. I hope you all have a chance to get together and enjoy good times this Christmas.

I wanted to start by updating you on the condition of Sr. Mary Benedicta, our Aunt Eleanor, who’s being cared for at Mercy Circle, a new facility in Chicago she moved into earlier this year, where she once again lives at the same place as Sr. Mary Acquinice, our Aunt Rita. Sr. A tells us Sr. B is still with us but she feels Sr. B doesn’t recognize her and many others like she used to because of the stroke. “She appears to respond to her caretaker [though], and they give her excellent care,” Sr. A writes. Brian McCorry made a visit to Mercy Circle in September and the nuns’ last remaining sibling, Teresa Jonas, has visited a few times this year, accompanied by one of her children.

Brian had another purpose for visiting Chicago, which was to also see his sixth grandchild, Maura Frances Koesterer, who was born Sept. 20 to daughter Lizzie and her husband Phil Koesterer. They were married in 2010 and their son PJ is a doting big brother to baby sister Maura.

Brian turns 60 Dec. 21. His wife reached that milestone in August (my rendezvous with the same destiny is May 22, 2015). Betsy traveled with six of her seven sisters to South Africa in August, plus a side trip to Paris. Son Patrick’s wife, Erin, is finishing up her residency in Oakland, Calif., this year; son Andrew started a new job with Northwestern Mutual in Chicago; son David and his family still live in Durango, Colo.; and son Brian works in Houston at a company called Datacert that was acquired this year by a company called Wolters Kluwer.

The Schield Family returned to Never Never Land to distribute the ashes of their parents Betty and Carroll Schield, who died in 2011 and 2013, respectively. They also dedicated a gravestone for them in Neillsville Catholic Cemetery. 

Wendy Smail tells us her son, Patrick, performed a song at the gravesite that he had written for his grandparents. “It was called ‘Hey, Mom’ and it brought tears to our eyes when we heard it,” Wendy wrote me. The year 2014 started out with services for Dr. Carroll Schield Jan. 24 in Neillsville.

Patrick Smail performs in a few bands in the Seattle area and toured with one of them, Hibou, in the UK last spring. A West Coast tour is planned for early next year. Wendy’s daughter, Brittany, has entered the masters degree program at San Francisco State University, majoring in Creative Writing. She wrote two poems about her grandfather, our Uncle Carroll, one of which was submitted with her application. Wendy has been Brittany’s roommate in San Francisco since October after Wendy took a leave of absence from her dental hygienist job in Boulder. The move coincided with Brittany losing her roommates and needing help with the rent.

David Schield had successful surgery in April for the removal of a cancerous prostate, the same diagnosis and outcome for his brothers Jim and Joe previously. David also tells us that his family welcomed Abigail Makena Reeves, the second daughter for Jessica Schield and her partner Josh Reeves, in late December of 2013.  Meanwhile, David’s son Jeff suffered the toughest setback of his career as a personal trainer by landing a two-year contract as a soccer coach for a nonprofit organization in Nassau, The Bahamas! Tough break, dude!

Several Schields met in Washington, D.C., in January for a surprise retirement party for Jim Schield from his career at the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Pat Werth tells us she is enjoying time with her granddaughters, Julianna and Daniella Rabbaa, while their dad, Nino, is raising money for another brewpub in Santa Rosa, Calif., and their mom, Megan, is starting a social networking site for women. Nino’s parents, Tony and Nono Rabbaa of Lebanon, should receive their green cards soon and are taking English lessons, indicating a possible move to the U.S.

Lastly from the Schield family, David and his wife, Rebecca, enjoyed their first trip to Ireland in October. They posed in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, where David also distributed some of his mother’s ashes.

David and Rebecca announced in December the passing of their family dog Maggie, who was a family member for 15 years.

News from the Mullins clan leads with the announced retirements of my sisters Kathy and Betty. Kathy retired at the end of last year after a nursing career that started when she was a teenager and cared for a wheelchair-bound neighbor, Mrs. Pearson, who lived across the street from our house on 71^st Street in Wauwatosa. She got her nursing degree at UW-Madison and worked at hospitals and clinics in Chicago, Milwaukee and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meanwhile, Betty is retiring as of Dec. 31 from her career as a paralegal. After 12 years as a member of the song-and-dance group The Brothers and Sisters, Betty worked for Godfrey & Kahn for two years, lawyer Steve Kravit for 23 and the last seven years with Habush, Habush & Rottier. Throw in two years of college and she’s been working for a total 44 years.

This summer, the California Mullinses turned out to wish Roy Gesley a happy 70th Birthday. Roy is Kathy's ex-husband and father to Sam, Brendan and Maureen.

I have returned to fulltime employment after a few years of freelancing, starting in October as a marketing writer at a company called FireEye, which is in the network security space. I write white papers on various security industry topics. Cyber security is often in the news with the breaches at Target last year and, more recently, at Sony Pictures. Our CEO was featured on a Dec. 7 segment on “60 Minutes” about credit card fraud and, as I told several people, “No, it was not one of those segments where our guy is running from the cameras!”

My brother Bill picked up a new technical writing contract at YP.com, the Web site version of the Yellow Pages. The rest of the clan – Mary, Tricia, Joe and Eileen – send their best wishes.

The year 2014 began for the Jonases with the birth of Geneva Lynn Arroyo on Jan. 23. She is the daughter of Katie Jonas and Alex Arroyo and the first grandchild of Jim Jonas. Katie has been sharing photos of her little girl throughout the year on her Facebook page.

Sarah Jonas and her husband Scott Przybylowski spent two weeks in Europe with friends in October, including visiting Paris and Amsterdam. Sarah said that while The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower were great to visit, “the most intense experience was at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. If ever you get the chance to go, do it.”  

Sarah’s two restaurants are humming along, as is Paul Jonas’s Tonic Tavern in Bay View.

Jane (Jonas) Williams reports that her son, Luke Shaner, still lives in Minnesota and rebuilds motorcycles for fun. His brother, Jonas Shaner, is an ER nurse in San Diego. Ryan Williams, son of Jane’s second husband J.T. Williams, is a law professor in Orange County, while J.T.’s other son, Scott, is taking over the reins of American Design Inc., the design firm that Jane and J.T. started in Milwaukee, then operated also in San Diego.

PeterJonas’s son, Sam, was hospitalized briefly in August for pneumonia, a bout related to his cystic fibrosis. Peter’s daughter– and the oldest Jonas grandchild -- Jane, turned 40 on June 5^th, and her husband threw a surprise party.

Meanwhile, Tom and Sandy Jonas’s son, Connor, graduated from Arizona State University in May and stayed in Arizona to work for a technology company called Citrix. Also donning a cap & gown this year was Marypat and Michael Groth’s son, Jeremy, who graduated from medical school. He’ll be doing his residency in anesthesiology at Froedtert/Medical College of Wisconsin. Jeremy’s wife, Krystal, is enjoying her new teaching job in Menomonee Falls.

There was a sad start to the year for the Jonases, too, when Richard F. Moede died at age 70 on Feb. 15. He was the father of Erin Bridget Moede and former husband of Tess Jonas Moede, the oldest daughter of Teresa and Bud Jonas, who herself died on June 8, 2010.

Even at 1,500-plus words, I may have missed some news of your families. If so, please let me know and I’ll add an update to the blog. I’m going to send the Cousins Address Book 2014 later in a separate e-mail, updated depending on how many e-mail bounce backs I get from sending the letter! ;)

I wanted to end with this message in a Christmas card I got from Sr. Acquinice, which also reflects my wishes for all of you at this Christmas time and for 2015:

“May Christ give to you

at this time and for always

his peace in your soul,

his presence in your heart,

his power in your life.”

Sincerely,

Robert J. Mullins

San Jose, Calif.