The McCorry Family’s Year of 2017
The most difficult news of the past year was of the
wildfires that swept Wine Country in Northern California. Among the many
structures destroyed in those October fires was the home of Pat (Schield) Werth
and her husband Jay Werth along Bardy Road outside Santa Rosa.
Pat and Jay escaped and relocated to the nearby home, which
was spared, of their daughter Megan (Werth) Rabbaa, her husband Nino and their
two little girls, Juliana and Daniella. For now, it’s where the Werths will
stay until they rebuild.
Pat and Jay Werth's home near Santa Rosa |
Their ordeal is the most difficult one among the people in
the McCorry extended family in 2017, but not the only one. Our cousin Peter
Jonas lost his son Sam on June 5 after Sam’s long battle with cystic fibrosis. And
David Schield’s mother-in-law, Thelma Weber, died April 25 at age 90 at her
home in Western Wisconsin. There were others.
Nonetheless, there were reasons to delight in McCorry Family
USA happenings this year. David and Rebecca Schield’s daughter, Jessica,
married Joshua Reeves in July at the Schield family’s “Never-Never Land”
cottage near Neillsville. There were other weddings this year among other families.
Also, my niece Erin Freer, daughter of my sister Tricia, is engaged to Mike
Ewing and plan to wed in August of 2018.
The Schield Family
Pat Werth tells me they were awakened at about 2:00 a.m. on
October 9 by a phone call on their landline. She didn’t answer it but then her
cell phone rang with a call from Megan, alerting her to the fire. Megan said
they were being evacuated and were heading to the Werth’s home. Pat told her
not to do that because they were being evacuated, too; she surmised that was
what the landline call was about. She and Jay looked out and saw a red sky and
flying embers. They drove away with fire on both sides of the road and heavy
smoke. They took shelter at a fire station.
Eventually, Pat and Jay met up with Megan, Nino and their
daughters, at a hotel.
“The hug among us when we all got
there was something I will never forget - we were all ok and that was most
important,” Pat said.
Also spared was Pat’s sister, Mary
Alice Shield, who lived west of Santa Rosa and was out of danger.
In a few weeks, Pat, Megan and Pat’s
sister Wendy Smail, visiting from Colorado, returned to the site where Pat and
Jay’s home once stood. It was built in 1973 and the Werths moved into it in
1993.
(L-R) Wendy, Pat and Megan |
While the home was completely
destroyed, Pat notes that a lemon tree somehow survived. Also, on a subsequent
visit, she discovered that a lilac bush was again in bloom. “We will rebuild,”
the couple declares, and Jay started on the plans.
Pat and lemon tree |
Other news from the Schields was the
wedding of David and Becky’s daughter Jessica to Josh Reeves. David and his new
son-in-law bonded by creating home-brewed beers for the reception. David -- whose
company, Chrysalis Design Works, creates packaging for beers -- made the two labels:
“Seven
Year Hitch,” an Irish Red; and “Ball & Chain Ale,” a Pale Ale!
Jessica (center) and Josh (to her left) Reeves |
Dan Schield also performed the father-of-the-bride role for
his daughter Emily (Schield) Conrad at her wedding to Cole Conrad at the Keystone
Ski Resort area of Colorado in August. Both Conrads work at Milwaukee Tool in,
natch, Milwaukee.
The Mullins Family
My sisters Betty Mullins and Tricia (Mullins)
Freer took an interesting trip this past summer. They both flew separately to
Montreal and from there, took a train west across Canada, stopping at many
interesting places along the way.
Our brother Bill moved recently to
Palm Springs from L.A. Tricia and I went there to have Thanksgiving with him.
Tricia, Robert and Bill |
I started driving for Uber this past
June. It adds a nice regular flow of money along with my more sporadic earnings
as a freelance marketing writer, plus my pension from work earlier in my career
at the University of Wisconsin System.
Our sister, Mary, recently retired
from waitressing. Her most recent gig was at the legendary Milwaukee German
restaurant Mader’s. Her husband, Bill Van Pelt, is scheduled to retire from UW-Milwaukee
in 2018. Their daughter Lizzie is a student there.
(L-R) Erin Freer, the ring, Mike Ewing |
And, as I mentioned earlier, Tricia’s
daughter Erin is engaged to boyfriend Mike Ewing. The wedding, set for August
18, 2018, will be at Tricia’s home in Oakley, Calif. They have been together
for about three years and live together in Los Angeles. Mike manages a
Starbucks and Erin is an administrative assistant at a law firm. BTW, Mike is a
stand-up guy! My brother Joe still lives and works in Milwaukee, Kathy is in
retirement in LaCrosse, and Eileen is in San Francisco.
The McCorry Family
Andrew McCorry, the fourth of five
children of Brian and Betsy McCorry, married Kristina Marinelli on June 24. The
ceremony was held at the Basilica of Notre Dame and the reception was held
nearby in South Bend. Interestingly, June 24th is also the wedding
date of Andrew’s grandparents, Dan and Mary Ann McCorry – in 1950.
Andrew and Kristina McCorry Wedding |
Patrick McCorry, Brian and Betsy’s
oldest, is moving from Sacramento to nearby Davis, Calif., after Patrick’s wife,
Erin, finished up a fellowship in endocrinology there this year. Erin will be working next at a Kaiser Permanente
hospital near Davis.
Brian and Betsy’s youngest son,
Matthew, will be spending Christmas this year in Thailand.
Sr. Acquinice McCorry continues her
stay at Mercy Circle Retirement Community in Chicago. Sr. A, who turns 93 in
January, tells me she’s okay, but slowing down as you would expect and needing
a walker as does her only surviving sibling, Aunt Teresa Jonas. Teresa’s son
Paul and daughter Sarah drove their mom from Milwaukee on Teresa’s 89th
birthday Oct. 15 to see Sr. Acquinice. “All she wanted for her birthday was to
come down to see me,” Sr. A said.
The
Jonas Family
Speaking of the Jonases, there was sad news – though not
unexpected – on June 5th with the passing of Sam Jonas, 34, the son
of Peter Jonas and Barbara Lanza-Jonas, after a lifelong battle with cystic
fibrosis.
Sam’s aunt and my cousin, Jane (Jonas) Williams,
shared this with me that day by email: "His body was just unable to overcome the strain
of infections that he was fighting. He was a warrior every day of his
life. He passed peacefully surrounded by his closest family."
Sam Jonas |
Sam may be gone but
he will not be forgotten. Sam’s brother Pete, Jr., and his wife, Kelly,
welcomed a son into the world on April 17. They have named him Sammy.
Sam and Pete Jr.’s
dad, Peter Jonas, is preparing to spend his first winter at a home he bought in
Naples, Fla. Peter is enjoying his first full year of retirement after 24 years as VP of Operations at HellermannTyton Corp.
Brother-in-law
Mike Groth, retired from Tax Airfreight after 35 years, is remodeling a lake
home he and his wife, Mary Pat (Jonas) Groth, recently purchased. Their son
Jeremy and Jeremy’s bride, Krystal Groth, welcomed son Jacob into the world on
Feb. 27 of this year. Little known fact: Young Jacob shares a birthdate with
the Mullins twins, Joe and Eileen.
Tom
Jonas, who provided me the details on the news above, also tells me his wife,
Sandy’s, mother, Dorothy Stawicki passed away on Mar. 10.
On the
bright side, though, Tom and Sandy’s son, Connor, is pursuing an MBA at
Louisiana State University (LSU). Better yet, his employer is paying the
tuition. Nice!
Luke Shaner and wife Marielena Parris |
In last
year’s Christmas letter, I told you that Jane’s son, Luke, became engaged to
Marielena Parris. The ceremony was held on August 24th of this year
on their property in Bayfield, Wis. Luke also becomes a stepdad to Marielena’s
two children, Alessa and Taylor
Parris. Also, Jane and her husband John T. Williams, become great grandparents.
I
think it’s time for another one of those family tree charts that Sr. Benedicta
made for us years ago!
Sarah Jonas’s
husband, Scott Przybylowski, continues his treatment for esophageal cancer, which was diagnosed in 2016.
Doctors are looking at different immuno-therapies for him to try out because
the chemotherapy treatments he has been undergoing have had adverse side
effects. He’s trying to eat right, gain weight and improve his quality of life.
“He’s fighting the good fight,” Sarah writes. “His goals are to gain weight and
get to our annual Mexico trip in February.”
I want
to thank everyone who contributed news, information and photos to this year’s
letter. I especially want to thank Facebook Messenger that allowed me to ping
some of you with a quick, pesky fact-check question that you were able to
respond to, literally in seconds! I hope we can all stay in touch going
forward.
As we close out another year, I know
you all appreciate the value of family and cherish the memories we have had
together. I hope you’ll appreciate this one. Recently, I attended a book-signing
event in Palo Alto where MSNBC News anchor Chris Matthews was touting his new
book, “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit.”
As he signed my copy, I told Chris “I’m from an Irish-Catholic family of five
girls and four boys,” and then we both said, in unison, “Just like the
Kennedys!”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Sincerely,
Robert Mullins
San Jose, Calif.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home