Charleston family

October 26, 2007

Dear Robbins,

I have no excuse for waiting so long to try to do this, so I won’t even try to make one up! It’s not that we don’t think of you, of course, and we truly appreciate seeing your notes.
We have been enjoying a few lovely rainy days, lately (“liquid sunshine!”). The upper part of the State has been dry as a bone. I think at one point they went 35 days without a drop of rain. Of course you know what can happen at our house in downtown Charleston if we get a sudden, heavy rain and the tide is high......we’ll be up to our knees in it before you can say, “Find me a boat!” Actually, I think in the last 3 days we have had over 4 inches. I wish we could share it with those parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and upper SC who need it so desparately. Not to mention those fighting fires in California.

We recently celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. I may or may not have told you, we married at a formal party to which we invited some friends for ‘cocktails and music.’ At the end of the first hour, we had the string quartet play a few bars of the wedding march to get everyone’s attention, and a friend who was a judge came in in her robe and married us on the spot and we went on with the party. Everyone (but us) was surprised! We decided to have a similar party every 5 years thereafter to celebrate. We held it at the Legare Waring House at Charles Towne Landing this time. It was beautifully restored a few years ago. (I am going to try to attach a photo or two, but make no promises, as this is my first effort at ‘blogging.’

A couple of months ago, I hurt my back at the gym and spent a couple of weeks just lying around. Just as I was getting better, I was out for a walk and fell, further irritating my back and taking the hide off my knee....the one I had operated on for a torn meniscus a couple of years ago. This is getting to be old, and has put a serious crimp in my lifestyle. I go to the gym 5 days a week and play on two tennis teams. (well.....past tense for the tennis right now). We had planned a little vacation - a trip to Boston and Main this Fall, however my back put an end to that. I also had to miss my 40th nursing class reunion. Sitting around. Eating. No exercise. So.....I am putting on some weight. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!! I know in time I’ll get back on track, but goodness, at my (our?) age, they say the medical news isn’t going to get any better.

My sister has put Mother’s house on the market (and we included the land parcels on either side of it) and she has bought a piece of property on Hwy 176 down toward Campobello to build a new house in a development there. That’s about all I know, since we have minimal contact. She does need a smaller house. I hope we can sell the property and that will be the last of it to get rid of.

Remley and I did manage a weekend at the Pine Crest Inn in Tryon recently. Even a short mini-vacation is better than none at all! I think I talked him out of wanting a house in the mountains. I didn’t think two mortgages, two sets of insurance, two phone and electric bills, two yards to take care of made much sense when we can go to a nice B&B and let things be done for us so we can truly rest.

Remley is staying very busy, not only with various College of Charleston boards and committees, but his Leads Group, the Exchange Club, the Harbour Club, and goodness knows what else. I still love being retired, but I wonder when I had time for a job! I hear that from folks a lot! I do some volunteer work at the hospital, help with Friends of the Library, help Remley in his office when needed, but compared to Remley, it seems like I do very little. He’s always been a high energy person. I’m very proud of him! And feel very fortunate we found each other!

Here’s an email I got from Barbara Bowman Miller recently:
"Hi Sarah: I just checked my email today & saw your note. Sue & Bob have changed their email to dyersb@roadrunner.net but they were still supposed to get the adelphia also. How are things in Charleston? We are doing okay here. We lost Don's Dad on Aug 5th. He was 97+ so he had a long life & was alert & with it until the day before he died. It was a blessing he did not come out of his stroke. He would have hated a nursing home. Sue is home & planning a little family supper for Dad's birthday tonite.
Dad & Mary were here to visit in Sept with Sue & Bob. We plan to head for Cal around Dec 15 to spend Christmas with our Son Michael & family since they moved to Cal in Feb. We haven't had Christmas with them in about 15 yrs. Then we'll go on south to see Dad & Mary & Sue's family. We plan to be in AZ the end of Jan & All of Feb. Hope all is well with you & yours. Keep in touch. Love, Barbara"

We enjoy hearing about your activities and are proud of Susie for starting the blog!
Love to you all,
Sarah