Our Families
2018 & 2019
Larry Carballo is a great gandfather again. His great granddaughter Rielyn is holding her sister Reese. Such beauties!
Grandparents Day lunch with Vice Sassone and his Grandson Matthew.
As some of you may know, Marcy's daughter Theresa owns two restaurants in their hometown of New Paltz, NY. Both the Jar'd and The Parish are mentioned in this article, along with the photo of the Parish Patio. Follow the link above to read the article
The patio at The Parish at Water Street Market.
Dear Friends,
Another year gone by already? It doesn't seem possible. Perhaps the only way we can experience time moving along is in the growth of children. And we have seen quite a bit of that since our last report.
We've also seen our little family traveling across the Atlantic in two major voyages. Trudy and Doug enjoyed a week's vacation in Portugal, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds and tasting some of the flavors in Lisbon and Porto. It was the first time they planned a trip doing the internet thing and it was a learning experience, to be polite.
Two days were spent in the northern border town of Caminha, way off the tourist map, for the ARTBEERFEST beer festival. Doug was invited by the organizers to write about the first Israeli beer to participate in the festival (which you can read about at https://israelbrewsandviews.blogspot.com/2019/09/artbeerfest-alexander-beer-puts-caminha.html).
From Portugal, they continued west to Florida to visit Grandma Goldie and Uncle Hal. Goldie is 101½ and doing quite well, enjoying reading juicy novels, eating the food that she loves, and watching TV, a distant third place. Uncle Ami came from Washington, DC, to join them there.
Then they headed north to the clean green spaces of Shaker Heights (Cleveland) for an overdue visit to Trudy's brother Dan and wife Carole.
At about the same time, Melanie flew with Amitai (10), Yadin (7) and Maya (7 months) to Montreal for some quality family time with Bubbe Joyce, Nana Lucy and Uncle Jason, who flew in from Vancouver. Lucy and Jason were thrilled to meet Maya, their first great-granddaughter and niece. Amitai and Yadin spent two exciting weeks going to a sport camp in Montreal and really shoring up their English
After Aharon joined the family in Montreal, he flew with Amitai and Yadin to Washington to spend some time with Uncle Ami and see all the great sights in the Nation's Capital. The family reunited in Florida to give Goldie and Hal a chance to meet their new great-granddaughter and great niece.
(We can't keep track of all these comings and goings, so don't feel bad if you can't either.)
Back home again, Aharon and family settled in for the new school year.
Amitai entered the fifth grade promising to spend more time on his homework, but also not ignoring the extra-curricular side of things. His new passion is tennis (which followed soccer, which followed dinosaurs) and he was accepted in the advanced tennis group, which means two practice sessions of an hour-and-a-half each week! He also took an advanced swimming course and is in a group for camping and hiking. Amitai likes to read, tell people his opinions and spend time with friends.
Yadin started the second grade, but his reading level is really above that. He devours books, including English. He has an enquiring mind and rarely takes an answer at face value. He also loves to build things; any kind of a construction set makes an excellent present. He has chosen basketball as his extra-curricular sport, after trying baseball(!) but hated all that standing and doing nothing in the outfield under the hot afternoon sun. He is in school groups for electronics and nature.
Maya is a discerning young lady, not given to letting just anybody pick her up. She has to get to know you and then you'll be rewarded by the loveliest of smiles. She turns over back to front and vice versa like a pro, and can then spend long periods playing with her dolls and baby gym.
Dr. Aharon is continuing as Program and Office Manager at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, and also doing independent work in editing, translating and writing articles. At the start of September, he gave a talk at a conference in Copenhagen on Stone Tools, which has become one of his sub-specialties.
Melanie is still on maternity leave, but hopes to return to her job at Tel Aviv University (in charge of international social networks) about the time 2020 rolls around. She is putting the finishing touches on her book about women and migration prior to its publication.
In Tirat Carmel, Eitan and Dalit are getting ready to move to their new apartment. In the meantime, their twins Yahav and Lotan have just turned two years old and started their second year in nursery school.
During the summer, Dalit was awarded her Master's Degree in Nursing from Haifa University. Dalit's poster illustrating her Master's thesis was chosen for distinction, and she presented it at a conference in Jerusalem last month. She is working as Head Nurse at the senior citizens' home on Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael.
Eitan began his second year as a process and development engineer at Haifa Chemicals.
Yahav and Lotan continue at their pre-school nursery school which stresses music and nature. What is unique this year is that their main teacher is a man. The twins are developing a good vocabulary – in both languages – and are just about to start putting the words into sentences. We are told that they "discuss" the latest news with each other in their cribs when they wake up in the morning and let Eitan and Dalit sleep a few more minutes.
Ami attended a tourism conference and inspection tour in Costa Rica in May, and led an adventure tour there in July. (You can read more about Ami's tours at: http://www.costaribbean.com)
He is also promoting his Hebrew tours of Washington (one of very few guides who do this), and led his first tour bus of Israelis (rather than small groups) a few weeks ago. (https://www.facebook.com/HebrewDC/)
From a family point of view, Ami had a busy summer visiting Grandma Goldie with his mom and dad in Florida, and then hosting brother Aharon and nephews Amitai and Yadin in Washington.
Trudy continues to support Doug's beer habit, though she hasn't found a beer yet that she can say she actually likes. She is continuing with her volunteer projects and craft projects, and is looking forward to a trip to Budapest after the holidays with a friend she has known since 10th grade! After making all the traditional stuffed cabbage, tzimmes and honey cake for the New Year, she found a new recipe for an apple roll that Doug didn't believe wasn't bought at a fancy bakery!
Doug is keeping active and pretty healthy with his regular activities: Pumping lots of iron (a modern community gym just opened in the neighborhood), jogging, drinking beer and writing about it, being a grandpa, reading, and trying hard to keep a vegan diet. One of those activities (or more ) has to be the secret.
A surprise visit from Eitan, Dalit and the twins brought most of the family (except for Ami) together for Rosh Hashana.
So here we are wishing all of you a Happy and Healthy New Year, full of all the good things that we will be remembering happily in years to come.
With love,
Doug, Trudy, Ami, Aharon, Melanie, Amitai, Yadin, Maya, Eitan, Dalit, Yahav & Lotan
Attached is a photo of the two birthday boys (a day apart): me (Doug Greener) and my seven-year-old grandson, Yadin. Behind us is my wife Trudy holding Maya, our seven-month-old granddaughter.
What a great way to announce the arrival of the Ross Family's newest grandchild while enjoyng the day with her older sister and brother.
Congratulations to Steve and Phyllis Ross who welcomed their newest grandchild,
Evelyn Amelia to the family on July 5th.
Roni Cojac and Alan Mintz did not attend the LMHS Reunion because we planned
to take our family to Israel the exact time of the reunion.
Since our family live in Atlanta and Philly, school schedules vary in the north and south. It took us over 1.5 years to get all the details in place with 4 teenage grandson's sports and our children's work time off: travel dates/itinerary/guide/driver/van/airline tickets/ hotels.
Alan can now be an official trip planner.
Hope classmates are doing well and cherishing this time of our life's journey.
Photo 1 is at Kennedy Airport about to take off to Tel Aviv.
Photo 2 is in Tel Aviv, my black shawl was the best item I took on the trip.
It comes from a company called Coolibar- 50SPF, no need for sunscreen and
kept me cool in 90-100 degree temperature.
Harvey Pearlstein and his Grandson Sean at their first annual "off to college" dinner. Sean will be attending Indiana University
This photo was taken this past May at my granddaughter, Sara Bish’s, graduation with a BS in Biology from the University of Arizona Honors College. She is heading to the Royal Veterinarian College in London for the next 4 years. RVC is rated the #1 vet school so we are all really proud of her. She worked really hard those 4 years at UA, so we are so happy for her that she got into her first choice. It will be hard to have her so far away, but they have 400 Americans already at that school, so hopefully she won’t feel too homesick.
Lois (Christenson) Bish
The beautiful bride, Alexis Anne, is the daughter of Al and Anne Hoppe.
The family photo below includes Al & Anne's son Andrew Hoppe.
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Hi Marcy,
Janet Columbia asked me to send this to you for the LMHS website. This is Janet, her daughter and her two daughter-in-laws and her two granddaughters. Don’t they all look fabulous! She treats them to going to “tea” in speciality shops they have out there for special occasions and they always wear those lovely hats. This coming December will be the 10th annual tea.
Thanks. Love, Lois
That’s Ginnie Faul Cooley on the left with her daughter Dawn. Ginnie will be at the reunion this month so keep an eye out for this face if you are going. Sometimes old eyes need a little help.
From Harvey Pearlstein
With grandson Sean at his high school graduation. Really proud of this kid! He's off to Indiana University next year. Where did the years go?
Congratulations to Mary Ann Lavery Turk on the birth of her fourth great granddaughter born 12:08 PM on the first day of spring. Lydia Harper weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and was 18 inches long.
From Warren and Nancy Karp. Proud grandparents:
Check out Warren's website
wbkarp.com
to learn all the interesting things he has going on in his life.
Say "hello' to Ryleigh Erin Karp, our new Valentine's grandbaby...... excitingday....... We are thrilled.
Her brother Tanner, 2 years old videod a valentine to his Mommy and saw his sister via Iad for the first time. He is staying with us. The whole thing is cuteness overload!
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank Heaven for little girls.
A baby girl was born to Aharon and Melanie on Friday morning, February 15 – sister to Amitai and Yadin, first cousin to Yahav and Lotan, niece to Ami, Jason, Eitan and Dalit, first granddaughter to Doug, Trudy and Joyce, first great-granddaughter to Goldie and Lucy.
For the Greener family (we figured it out), she is the first female born since Jacqueline (Jacky), sister of Doug's father Milton, 100 years ago.
No name yet, but there is a short list.
Doug & Trudy
You are cordially invited . . .
. . . but we understand the distance might be a problem.
Aharon & Melanie
Trudy & Doug
Neil Rose got a surprise visit from his daughter Stacy for his upcoming birthday later this month. Stacy lives in California and Neil lives in Arizona. What a great birthday surprise!
2018
The Great Greener Grandsons. Picture by Doug Greener.
(Amitai, Lotan, Yahav and Yadin Caught together on camera for the first time.)
Dana and Michael Cottrell are both running for office.
Dana is up against U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster. Michael is taking on state Sen. Wilton Simpson, both political heavyweights
The Cottrells are Democrats and it’ll be up to voters to decide whether they should be in office instead of the incumbents.
But this isn’t a political story, per se. It’s much more personal. The couple live in Spring Hill with their soon-to-be teenage son Nolan.
They were both teaching military children overseas when Dana decided to return home to enroll Nolan in a local STEM school. Michael stayed and, while seeing a doctor for a routine physical, he complained about a twinge in his neck. Several tests later, doctors recommended a biopsy. Then the diagnosis: Cancer. More specifically, Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The diagnosis happened in April. Dana, back home, had already decided to take on Webster in the U.S. House race. Soon, Michael came home for what they thought would be three cycles of chemotherapy.
The June night before official qualifying deadline for the state ballot, the Cottrells were talking politics. Both had hoped that someone would be opposing Simpson, if for no other reason than to ensure he wasn’t re-elected unopposed. But no one did. So Michael paid the qualifying fee to get his name on the ballot opposite Simpson’s for the Nov. 6 election.
Now. I”m a political writer and I get politics. I understand that politics can be a driving force in people’s lives. But run for office while being treated for cancer?
“I just put my name on the ballot,” Michael says. “The whole point of democracy is Americans have a choice.” His wife agrees with a simple statement. “It was too important to us.”
They met at a job interview. Michael was applying for a teaching job at Powell Middle School in Spring Hill. Dana was part of the interview committee. Michael made the mistake of mentioning that, along with teaching social studies, he could coach softball. “Dana said, ‘Softball’s mine!’” Michael recalls.
He was hired and they became friends, then started dating. They were married a year later, Dec. 28, 1996.
The Cottrells were adventurous from the start, taking their honeymoon in Africa, Israel and Egypt.
Michael left teaching to work for a large bank holding company in Tampa, but eventually his job was eliminated. Rather than return to teaching in Hernando County, the couple explored the idea of teaching school at military bases overseas.
They became certified in multiple subjects and off they went. Their first stop was Busan, South Korea. There were 82 kids in the entire school. While on vacation back home, Nolan was born on Oct. 3 and the new family returned to South Korea.
After two years the base closed and they were transferred to Bitburg, Germany. It was around then that Dana and Michael were noticing odd behavior from Nolan.
“He would zone out, go into what I call Nolan World,” Dana says. “He was lost in that world, talking to himself.”
His parents weren’t sure what was happening so they took Nolan to a doctor. When Nolan was about 6, he was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and Tourette syndrome.
In the summer 2017, they were transferred to Okinawa, Japan, but by then Nolan’s parents wanted him to attend Gulf Coast Academy of Science and Technology, a Spring Hill charter middle school.
“We didn’t know if Nolan would get into the school. One of us had to stay in Okinawa because one of us had to work,” Dana says.
So Dana returned home to Hernando County while Michael stayed overseas. Then Michael went for a physical, and their life turned upside down. He saw a local doctor, not a military one. A translator was also provided, who walked him through a medical center for a battery of tests. He told the doctor about a twinge in his neck. The doctor ordered a biopsy n April, and he learned it was malignant. More tests were needed to find out the cancer’s stage.
Dana, back in Spring Hill, didn’t think twice. She picked up Nolan from school, bought airline tickets to Japan and surprised Michael at the airport.
After the diagnosis and treatment plan, doctors suggested Michael return to Florida where he would be with family and friends to support him during chemotherapy. They said the chemo would be for three to six months. They went to Moffitt Cancer Center in late May for the first of what they thought would be the three chemo treatments.
So when qualifying time came for the ballot, Michael and Dana both thought his treatment was nearly over. But it was just a few days after qualifying that they learned more treatments were necessary. It’s rendered him nearly the non-candidate in a district that spans Citrus, Hernando and part of Pasco counties, against an incumbent who is in line to become Senate president in 2020.
While his wife is active on the campaign trail in the congressional district, Michael does his best to regain his strength.
Michael and Dana have no regrets. The chemo treatments have stopped and they’ll find out through tests in October whether the cancer is gone. “I’m starting to feel a little human again,” Michael says with a smile. It’s all about attitude, Dana says. “We’ll survive,” she says, "one day at a time"
PS. Neither Michael or Dana won that election but Dana has registered to run again in 2020
Condolences to our classmate Lois Christensen Bish. Her husband Roy passed away on March 2, 2018 after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. She has given me permission to share his obituary with you. Roy and Lois can be seen here in their wedding photo from 1964 on the "Weddings & Anniversary" Page You may notice in that Photo the bridesmaid by her side is classmate Janet Columbia.
Lois can be reached at
lbish43@aol.com.
Obituary for LeRoy W. Bish Jr, age 84, died March 2, 2018 at his home in Vail, Arizona from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Roy was a proud veteran serving in both the Marines and the Navy. After high school, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the Korean War. He then attended Parks College at St. Louis University where his love of flying began. He graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, joined the Navy and attended the Naval Flight Training in Pensacola, FL where he got his Naval Aviator wings.
Roy piloted the AD Skyraider while serving on the carriers USS Constellation and the USS Lexington. He then became a Navy test pilot of the A6A Intruder and the S2F Tracker at Grumman Aircraft Corp. He left the Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and continued flying for the Naval Reserves at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY.
His flying career continued as an airline pilot for Pan American World Airways, first as a navigator, then as a first officer on the 707 and then as Captain on the L1011 and 747. He served with distinction for over 27 years and never lost his love of flying.
When Roy wasn’t flying airplanes he was pursuing his love of history, with a particular interest in the Civil War that began as a young man growing up near Gettysburg, PA. He had an extensive library of Civil War and history books and traveled to many of the historic battleground sites throughout the United States. He also took advantage of many overseas trips as a pilot to explore historic sites around the world.
His other hobbies included renovating old houses in his younger days and bass fishing with his grandkids off his dock at his home in Florida, where he lived for 18 years.
Roy was born in Hanover, PA to LeRoy W. Bish, Sr. and Hilda Collins Bish. He grew up in Littlestown, PA with his two sisters, Anna Mae Reinaman Snodgrass and Jean Bish, who both predeceased him.
He is survived by his wife Lois, his son Christopher, his daughter-in-law Vicky, and his two grandchildren Sara and Connor, also of Vail, Arizona, as well as beloved in-laws, nieces and nephews and dear friends. His daughter, Tracy, predeceased him.
Funeral to be held at a later date and will be announced.