ID:	6	Reunion Information?:False
Author:	Scott Bushnell
Date Entered:	7/26/2007
News Item Title::	2002 News Letter
News Item Text::	Bushnell Genealogy Newsletter 2002 issue {Use your Browser's Back Button to go to Site Main Page) Previous Page BUSHNELL 2002 Table of Contents In Memory and News (Immediately below) Reunion History -- Article by Asa Bushnell Bushnell Park, Hartford, CN Cemetery News Couple of the Year & Family Recipe A Family Experience Shared -- Article by Ed Parker In Memory Of Louise Parker 1919-2002 George E. Bushnell Jr. 1925-2002 Lewis W. Price 1926-2002 O. A. (Ozzie) Bushnell 1912-2002 BUSHNELL NEWS Greetings, Thank-you for all the support given this past year. It's a pleasure to hear and share information from many Bushnells. Please keep sending information to share. If you're ever planning to visit the Phoenix area, let us know beforehand and we will get the Arizona clan together. -Darren & Susan Troub, AZ - Troub7@aol.com, 3818 N. 78 Dr., Phoenix AZ 85033-3602 ------------------------------------------------------- Since the Bushnell newsletter is now on-line, we are collecting family portraits, and biographies of each person, to share on this website. We wish to post a military archive with pictures, too. Please send pictures & bio of ancestors to Keith & Darlene at KDBushnell@aol.com, 2807 Manley Dr., Lansing MI 48913-3722. Please help us to update our website. Do we have your Bushnell lineage? Do you know any Bushnell that is not listed in our directory? SPECIAL NOTE The Bushnell directory is posted on the website for Bushnells to locate new cousins and lost family. If you suspect spam (unwanted mail) has been generated thru this website, please notify us immediately. For security reasons, we will never post SS#s or birthdates of the living. ------------------------------------------------------- If you have received a paper copy of this newsletter through the US Postal Service, then we don't have your e-mail address. Please send your e-mail address to Troub7@aol.com. Thanks. REUNION The big 2007 Bushnell reunion will soon be upon us. We are beginning the campaign to bring hundreds of Bushnells to Bushnell Park, Hartford, CT in July of 2007. We are seeking volunteers for the reunion committee. All help and ideas are needed! If you would like to help and be part of the 2007 Bushnell reunion committee, please e-mail Susan at Troub7@aol.com. We need people to help with: ---*Locating Bushnells in your area and to send them information. ---*Organizing reunion activities, tournaments and talent show. ---*Compiling invitations, scrapbooks & recipe books for the reunion. ---*Contacting media, sponsors, vendors. ---*Planning travel, hotel & tour packages. Please, if you have experience in any of these areas, we need your help! --History of Bushnell Park appears below in the history section of this newsletter.-- ------------------------------------------------------- We encourage all Bushnells to obtain for their genealogy collection the 1945 Bushnell Genealogy Book by George E. Bushnell. It dates back to the 1400s and contains lots of history! This big book can be purchased through: Higginson Book Company, 148 Washington Street, P.O. Box 778, Salem, Massachusetts 01970 (978)745-7170 http://www.higginsonbooks.com ------------------------------------------------------- The big 1945 Bushnell book is now on CD! See the proper page on this website for details - HUMOR: This item appeared in the Carleton Place Herald on 27 February 1935: Traces Family to Adam Columbus Ohio, Feb. 24 - Mrs. Christian Sell Jaeger announced today that she had succeeded in tracing her genealogy back through 159 generations to Adam and Eve. Mrs. Jaeger, who is historian of the Columbia Genealogical Society, went back through the American Revolution, through all recorded history and through the Bible to reach her first ancestor. Among her forebears as she traced them by the aid of records in libraries here, in New York, Washington and Chicago, were: Williams, Edward III and Henry I, of England; 21 generations of Scottish Kings; Irish Kings who ruled 19 centuries ago; the Pharaoh Nectonidus; Zedekiah, last of the Kings of Judah; David, King of Israel; Enos, Seth, and finally Adam (4000 B.C.). BUSHNELL HISTORY In the past 2 newsletters, we featured articles on Asa (Ace) Bushnell #5459 family's accomplishments. As promised, here's Ace's story about his life in the limelight of his father & great-grandfather..... "I am enclosing an article I wrote for the Princeton alumni magazine more than 17 years ago that really sums it up. I received more positive reaction to that essay than anything I ever wrote for any newspaper. The only thing I would change today is the length of my sobriety - 11,837 days (31+ years). Here's to a bountiful new year for the entire Bushnell clan! Cheers!" - Ace ------------------------ Back from a Curb in Watts -by Asa Bushnell, '47 (Oct 19, 1983) As I sat on a curb in Watts, sharing an ill-gotten bottle of Ripple with three newly acquired soul brothers, the question crossed my muddled mind: What is a Princeton graduate doing in this predicament? Sadly, the question had been asked before - by me, as well as about me. A year and a half earlier, for instance, I had joked that I was the only person with a Princeton degree driving a taxi in Fort Lewis, Washington (for $15 per 12-hour shift, no less). Except it was different this time, this unforgettably dreadful day in the seamiest section of LosAngeles. It was no joking matter. Finally, after 18 years of steady imbibing - very heavy the final five or six years - I had touched bottom. On that fateful day in September 1969, I had reached what I believed was my point of no return. Never had I experienced the feeling of total helplessness and hopelessness that I felt that day. On the outside, I laughed as I told my black friends there would be no Ripple for those who refused political allegiance to Richard M. Nixon. On the inside, terror gripped my guts, because I feared I could not get out of Watts alive. Why such despair after a mere five days on Skid Row? Probably because I had been powerless over alcohol for more days than I ever will remember - and the Skid Row of self-destruction can exist wherever and whenever an alcoholic drinks. Curiously, the disease of alcoholism first afflicted me in 1951 - after I had gone through Old Nassau, a year of graduate study at Penn, two years in the U.S. Marine Corps, a first marriage, and two and a half years of newspaper work virtually alcohol-free. I learned a long time later from a bright, young county psychologist in Phoenix that my problem stemmed from placing my father, Asa S. Bushnell '21, on a pedestal. When I concluded that I was not destined to attain his heights of professional success, I apparently decided in my subconscious to escape from reality into a bottle (almost any brand). Of all ironies, it was in the FBI that I began to drink. And I started right out as a morning imbiber, influenced by a couple of good ol' Southern boys who convinced me that special agents could benefit from an eye-opener, too. I eventually would discover that alcoholism is a cunning and baffling disease - and I would think back to those days of wonderful innocence in the Bureau. My Princeton classmates and colleagues, of course, had no idea I already had shoved off on a downhill toboggan ride. They rewarded my years of service as class secretary by electing me president of '47 for five years. I also became class representative on the Alumni Council. No one realized I was riding for a fall, least of all yours truly. For me, the days of wine and roses seemed to roll merrily along. At age 26, I left the FBI and returned to the Tucson Daily Citizen, my first employer, as the newspaper's youngest city editor. Disdaining Thomas Wolfe's admonition against going home again, I subsequently accepted the position of managing editor of Town Topics in Princeton, where I had grown up (in the shadow of Dad's pedestal). That, in turn, led to a promising appointment as public relations director for New Jersey's attorney general. Behind the journalistic challenge and the political glitter, however, a disproportionate share of my waking hours was spent caressing the grape. Nothing seemed quite as important as the next drink. While composing safety slogans for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Division, I totaled three cars in a six- month period - one of them a "loaner" from my disbelieving parents. Finally, after concluding that work occasionally got in the way of fun, I resigned from the attorney general's staff - by slipping a letter under his door at 6 a.m., because I lacked the courage to face him or any of my peers. That spring and summer of 1962, in retrospect, should have opened my eyes. But the booze blurred them. I could not focus on the telltale signs of my illness. By hitting the then-illegal numbers game - 047, fittingly - I paid for my 15th Reunion and assured my classmates that a new career beckoned in New York City. I commuted to the Big Apple about once a week, fully expecting Time magazine or a top ad agency to roll out the red carpet. It never occurred to me that they were not in the market for a 37-year-old unemployed newspaperman with bloodshot eyes and whiskey breath. I usually began those days on a barstool at Rosso's now-defunct tavern on Spring Street, a half- block from my domicile, dreaming of future glories and postponing attainment of same in favor of another round. If I live to be 100, which is a physical impossibility due to damage to the vital organs, I will not forget the morning my father detoured by Rosso's - en route to a train he seldom missed in 32 years as commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference - and asked from the doorway, simply yet sternly, "Ace, is this a way of life?" Indeed, it was - a devastating way of life. I hated it. I hated the embarrassment, particularly to him. But I could not change it. In fact, I was even unable to face a third season as PAW's football correspondent, so I slipped out of town in early September, in the dark of night, in order to duck any lingering responsibilities (my wife and young son understandably had already flown the coop). Jobs, when obtained, lasted for shorter durations. The Citizen offered me another chance, though a few rungs down the ladder - as police reporter rather than city editor. Then I spent almost a year with the late Upland (Calif.) News, a past-its-prime weekly that was fast fading into the Pacific. From there, I migrated to Montesano, Washington, to labor for the weekly Vidette - a perfect place for a practicing alkie, because the paper's unsuspecting absentee owners were 80 miles to the east in Tacoma. Then followed my brief stint as a cabbie, a three-month whirl with the Phoenix Gazette, and an eight-month ordeal as an ad salesman/PR officer with the New Mexico Lawman, a monthly magazine in Albuquerque. During this terrible period of decline and deterioration, I somehow managed to return for my 20th Reunion at Princeton. When asked later to submit my most vivid memory of the weekend, I responded with a one-word summation - "Arriving" - that was duly recorded in our 25th yearbook. Other than that I could recall little, for it proved a blur of orange and black, a disjointed series of vocal and musical noises - a truly lost weekend. And how any of my classmates could stomach me remains a mystery, except that '47 is populated by magnificent fellows, headed by Jack Madden and Bob Wohlforth, two enduring friends from Nassau Street Elementary School. In the summer of 1969, I surfaced on the beach at Malibu, where I fancied myself a latter-day F. Scott Fitzgerald '17. The party never seemed to be over, and I just knew my writing for the Palisadian- Post in nearby Pacific Palisades would stimulate a career as a crafter of scripts in Hollywood. Instead, the summer of my discontent led to the lowly perch on that unforgettable curb in Watts. How I climbed out of the gutter and back into civilization, after a long absence, I still am not sure. All I know is that I awoke outside my favorite Malibu watering hole, sick and tired of being sick and tired. I wanted help in the worst way, but I had no idea how to seek it. I was a basket case. In the next few days, then weeks, miracles took over my life. By happy coincidence, the Post's advertising director - unbeknown to our bosses - already had chalked up six years of solid recovery from alcoholism. A fellow refugee from New Jersey, he came to my rescue. By happy coincidence, some of the other recovering boozers to whom he introduced me made a great deal of sense. I identified with their stories. By happy coincidence, four other people in my apartment complex informed me that they were in the same boat. They refused to let me stray off course. I have thought a lot about these "coincidences" in the last 14 years, and I am now convinced they may have been more than that. I like to believe that a higher power just may have intervened to put me back on track. Whatever the circumstances, my comeback proved quick and dramatic. Changes in my lifestyle resulted in a promotion, election to several community boards, and, most significantly, a rebirth of my self-respect. So many good things have happened since I retired my glass that I cannot chronicle them here. In 1971, for example, I attended my Dad's 50th Reunion, a remarkable weekend in that it enabled me to reaffirm my closeness to him while reaffirming the values learned so long ago at Old Nassau. Also, in 1971, the Citizen invited me to return to Tucson for a fourth and final tour of duty. There followed a rewarding decade-plus in various middle-management posts, coupled with the writing of more than 600 opinion columns, primarily political in nature. Involvement in civic affairs became equally important, climaxed by an elegant "roast and recognition" luncheon in mid-September of this year. Paradoxically, my cup runneth over, because it has not been filled at all. Recently, since career changes obviously can take place at an advanced age if one is sober and feeling young, I switched from the paper to the Pima County Sheriff's Department as community services manager. It has done me a world of good, permitting me to increase my civic commitment - I hold a number of board positions in crime and alcoholism-prevention groups - and to toil as a liaison official between our department and our splendid volunteers' organization, as well as media relations spokesman for the sheriff (visitors to Tucson, please note: I am not empowered to fix tickets). Perhaps the ultimate compliment I have received in my recovery years was the request by the Class of 1947 that I serve as its secretary again - after a 30-year hiatus. It is a real thrill for me to be "all the way back" at last. I no longer have the urge to get up on my late father's distinguished pedestal. I now have my own pedestal - on which I am happy. It seems incredible that 14 years have elapsed since I emerged from Watts and poured my last drink of alcohol. Just as I always will appreciate the timeless values taught at Princeton, so I always will remember the lessons learned in Watts. Believe me, I do not want to forget. If I cannot recall vividly my last drunk, it might not be the last one. --- Asa "Ace" Bushnell is a community relations manager for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, 1750 E. Benson Highway, Tucson, AZ 85714-1758 Bushnell Park - Hartford, CT History Hartford in the 1850s was a rapidly growing river town, doubling in population from 1850 to 1860. The city's economy was booming, driven by industries such as publishing, insurance, banking, munitions, manufacturing and river shipping. Like many American cities of the time, Hartford was enjoying the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. But along with this growth came some growing pains, including crime, crowded tenements, poverty, poor sanitation, polluted water and air. These problems were a growing concern of civic leaders at mid-century. Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) was the primary influence in the creation of a national park system in the United States. By 1848, he was advocating the creation of urban parks financed by private funds for the enjoyment of select groups of people. But he never advocated publicly financed parks. In 1851, a proposal was made to establish a centrally located park in New York City. And land for New York's Central Park was privately purchased in 1853. Later that year, recognizing the need for open space in Hartford, CT, the Reverend Horace Bushnell presented an idea that had not been suggested in any other American city--the creation of a public park, financed by public funds. Initial public reaction was skeptical. Hard-nosed business leaders were opposed to removing taxable property from the tax rolls. Furthermore, it was hard to imagine a less likely place for a green, peaceful park than Bushnell's proposed site, which was home to two leather tanneries, a soapworks, pigsties and other livestock--even a garbage dump. A railroad spur ran through it and the smelly Park River, polluted with the city's industrial waste, ran alongside it. Crowded tenements lined both banks of the river, with their outhouses in the back emptying directly into the sluggish current. Even Rev. Bushnell described it as "hell without the fire." However, after hearing Dr. Bushnell's presentation in October 1853, the Hartford City Council voted unanimously in November to spend public funds--$105,000-to buy the land that was to become Bushnell Park. Hartford voters approved the expenditure on Jan. 5, 1854, by a vote of 1,687 to 683, making it the first municipal park in the nation to be conceived, built and paid for by citizens through a popular vote. But six years later, the park still had not taken shape. It was clear that a new and comprehensive park plan was needed. Bushnell asked his life-long friend, Frederick Law Olmsted, a Hartford native and world-famous designer of New York's Central Park, to design the park. However, Olmsted could not grant Bushnell's request since he was busily designing Central Park at the time. He recommended that the city hire Jacob Weidenmann, a Swiss-born landscape architect and botanist to design and build the park. Weidenmann's plan of 1861 had a distinctive natural style, which featured smoothly sculpted contours and graceful paths leading to focal points like the meandering Park River. The plan included informal clusters of evergreen and deciduous trees, which screened the sites and sounds of the city, a departure from the formal New England square or central green. As part of the plan, Weidenmann selected 157 varieties of Trees and shrubs from North America, Europe and eastern Asia to grace the park. A total of 1,100 individual specimens were planted, creating a canopy of green covering the Park. Over the years, many important architectural features, such as the Civil War Memorial Arch (1886), the Capitol (1876), Corning Fountain (1899), the Carousel (1974) and the Performance Pavilion (1995) were added, while other scenic elements, such as the Park River and its several graceful bridges, were demolished in the 1940s. A major transformation in the park occurred at this time when the firm of Olmsted and Olmsted of Brookline, Mass., (Frederick Law Olmsted's son's firm), was retained to assist the city in redesigning the Park after the burial of the Park River was completed. Although changed, Bushnell Park today remains an oasis in the heart of the city where people from all walks of life come to renew their spirit and energy. -from http//www.bushnellpark.org A huge Bushnell reunion is planned for 2007 at Bushnell Park. It's less than 5 years away! HUMOR: The following was overheard at a recent high society party... "My ancestry goes all the way back to Alexander the Great," said one lady. She then turned to a second woman and asked, "How far does your family go back?" "I don't know," was the reply. "All of our records were lost in the flood." Veterans History Project-Associated Press 6-6-'02 New York - Concern that history may be dying along with 1,500 American war veterans every day, archivists are launching an effort to get their stories on video and audio tapes for future reference. The Veterans History Project was to be formally announced today, the 56th anniversary of the D- Day invasion of France, at the USS Intrepid sea-air-space museum in New York. "This is the raw material for a more comprehensive history than any ever written about a nation at war," said James Billington, the librarian of Congress, whose institution leads the project along with the AARP. He said the project seeks to amass personal memories of America's five major 20th century wars in "all media" - letters, diaries and other written material. But the most important element is the "oral testimony" recorded on tape. It provides a history of war from the bottom up, the soldier's perspective, as opposed to written histories that traditionally focused on the generals and grand strategy, Billington said in an interview. The Veterans History Project, initiated by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 2000, is run by the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center. The project encourages schools, libraries, veterans groups and other local entities to seek out veterans to tell their stories. A kit for the purpose is available from its web site. On the Net: Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets Cemetery News -submitted by Grant Bushnell, WA Bushnells buried at Arlington Cemetery, Washington, DC: Bushnell, Albert / NY / 94th Inf. Co. B / Band. Bushnell, Albert E. / NY / 71st Nat. Guard (30 days '63) Co. D / Bushnell, Albert G. /MA / Mil. 53rd Inf. Co. G / Bushnell, Alfred T. / UC / 97th Col'd. Inf. Co. D, A / Capt. Bushnell, Asa L. / NY / 1st Provl. Cav. Co. G / Bushnell, Asa S. / NY / 24th Cav. Co. G / Bushnell, Augustus T. / VT / 9th Inf. Co. A / Music. Bushnell, Charles / MA / 12th Inf. Co. H / Bushnell, Charles / MA / 38th Inf. Co. C / Bushnell, Charles / MA / 39th Inf. Co. D / Bushnell, Charles / NY / 1st Mar. Arty. Co. B / Bushnell, Charles A. / NY / 10th Hvy. Arty. Co. D / Bushnell, Daniel / UC / 79th Col'd. Inf. (New) Co. D / Bushnell, Darius G. / NY / 77th Inf. Co. C / Bushnell, Darwin / NY / 93rd Inf. Co. B, F / Bushnell, David / NY / 121st Inf. Co. I / Bushnell, David / NY / 149th Inf. Co. F / Bushnell, David / NJ / 35th Inf. Co. D / Bushnell, David O. / NY / 19th Cav. Co. G / Bushnell, Duane W. / NY / 2nd Hvy. Arty. Co. H / Bushnell, Edward / VT / 10th Inf. Co. E / Comsy. Sgt. Bushnell, Edwin / NY / 13th Hvy. Arty. Co. K / Bushnell, Emilus / NY / 112th Inf. Co. H / Bushnell, Eugene C. / MA / 2nd Inf. Co. F / Music. Bushnell, Fordis O. / VT / 13th Inf. Co. B / Cpl. Bushnell, George / NY / 93rd Inf. Co. B, D, F / Capt. Bushnell, George H. / NY / 6th Cav. Co. D, M / Bushnell, George R. (George H.) / NY / Lt. Arty. 27th Ind. Btty. / Bushnell, George T. (George) / NY / 144th Inf. Co. D / Bushnell, George W. / PA / 102nd Inf. Co. I / Bushnell, H. J. (Henry J.) / PA / 83rd Inf. Co. K / Bushnell, Henry / NH / 8th Inf. Co. C / Bushnell, Henry (Henry A.) / VT / 12th Inf. Co. E / Bushnell, Henry F. / NY / 19th Cav. Co. G / Bushnell, Henry A.(or Henry or William H.)/NY/ 2nd Hvy. Arty. Co. E, C/Co. QMSgt. Bushnell, Henry I. / NY / 14th Inf. Co. A / Cpl. Bushnell, Henry N. / VT / 6th Inf Co. H, C / Capt. Bushnell, James H. / NY / 94th Inf. Co. I / Bushnell, James H. / NY / 105th Inf. Co. C / Lt. Bushnell, James H. / NY / 117th Inf. Co. B / Bushnell, John / NY / 4th Hvy. Arty. Co. K / Bushnell, John / NY / 26th Inf. Co. H / Bushnell, Joseph G. (T.) / UC / 28th Col'd. Inf. Co. A / Bushnell, Lester / NY / 20th Cav. Co. D / Sgt. Bushnell, Lester / NY / 24th Inf. Co. G / Bushnell, Levi B. / MA / 57th Inf. Co. K / Bushnell, Lucius F. / NY / 2nd Hvy. Arty. Co. A, E / 1st Lt. Bushnell, Martin D. / NY / 154th Inf. Co. H / Cpl. Bushnell, Nathaniel (or N.) / NY / 65th Inf. Co. B, H / Bushnell, Samuel A. / PA / 3rd Res. Inf. Co. H, I / Bushnell, Samuel A. (or Samuel) / PA / 54th Inf. Co. M, D / Bushnell, Theaphalus / NY / 3rd Lt. Arty. Btty. H / Bushnell, Thomas C. / PA / 9th Res. Inf. / Bushnell, Thomas C. (or Thomas) / PA / Lt. Arty. Ind. Btty. F / Bushnell, William / NY / 35th Inf. Co. B / Bushnell, William H. / NY / Lt. Arty. 8th Ind. Btty. / Bushnells in Ohio Cemetery Records - Monumental inscriptions from Hartford and Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio: HIRAM BUSHNELL, died Aug. 1832. A. E. 29 yrs., 10 mo., 15 da. In memory of WILSON BUSHNELL who died Aug. 30, 1828, age 41 years. THOMAS BUSHNELL, Emigrated from Hartland, Conn., 1804 Died April 10, 1817, aged 55 yrs. REBECCA, wife of Thomas Bushnell, died Jan. 12, 1842 aged 76 years. ELI BUSHNELL, Died Sept. 8, 1862 aged 56 years. In memory of CAPT. ALEXANDER BUSHNELL, died March 18, 1818 aged 77 years. WILLIAM BUSHNELL died July 24, 1828 aged 26 years. SALLY, wife of Dr. George W. Bushnell, Born at Hartford, Conn., Jan. 8, 1802: Died at Hartford, Ohio, Aug. 31,1866. In memory of REBECCA, wife of Daniel Bushnell, Died 1809. "The law produced precepts ten, And then dissolved in grace. This vine produced as many buds, And then returned to dust." GEN. ANDREW S. BUSHNELL, Died June 17, 1851 aged 69 years. "Couple of the Year 2002" We would like to honor: Frank & Nancy Foster For all their years of research into our ancestry. Nancy has documented amendments to the Bushnell genealogy by George E Bushnell. Family Recipes Years ago a Kentucky grandmother gave a bride the following recipe for washing clothes: Advice to a 1912 Bride 1. Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. 2. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. 3. Shave one whole cake of lye soap in boiling water. 4. Sort things, make 3 piles. 1 pile white, 1 pile colored, 1 pile work britches and rags. 5. To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.v 6. Take the white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and then boil.v Rub colored, don't boil, just rinse and starch. 7. Take things out of kettle with broomstick handle, then rinse and starch. 8. Hang old rags on fence. 9. Spread tea towels on grass. 10. Pour rinse water in flower bed. 11. Scrub porch with hot soapy water. 12. Turn tubs upside down. 13. Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings. Hang this recipe above your automatic washer, and when things look bleak, read it again, and count your blessings! Article: A Family Experience Shared: Attendant to Caring for an Alzheimers Patient at Home -by Ed Parker, MI There is no concern with keeping the house-hold in a ship shape mode.. Many kinfolk are involved with the younger generation.. Friends are uneasy with the situation.. There is little interest shown by contemporaries making inquiry when you attend a gathering of folk as to the condition of your spouse.. A caregiver's day can begin around 6:30 A.M. Usually comes to a close about 10:00 P.M. Each day and it's problems are dealt with as they occur. While the patient is also enduring some health conditions of no small consequence, such as a post polio effect causing undue prevalent pain in the hip & back. The caregiver must address these little sinister obstacles and seek medical expertise. Such an expedition can provide a maximum of frustration. Medical professionals know a minimum relating to Alzheimers, but eager for an opportunity to explore. Eight medications now are on a daily regimen. This writer first experienced the responsibility of caring for a 50 year companion. It isn't a very pleasant task to find yourself all of a sudden the chief cook and house keeper, followed by sitting across the table from someone and finding you can no longer carry on a meaningful conversation. During that interlude endeavoring to manage a small business enterprise was a challenge worthy of note. Eventually it became necessary to obtain caregiver assistance. Our first helpers were of little value. Finally reference was given me regarding a lady who might be available. Contact was made. We soon discovered she must be one of those earthly saints who gain mention on occasion.. Actually more like an angel from Heaven. The malady effects each victim in a different manner or mode. My first mate was sort of lackadaisical or listless and paid little or no attention to what was taking place in her habitat. Currently this patient imagines there are other people who were here at times also has a memory & orientation loss. She can be informed of something several times but continues asking about the same matter over and over again. Apprised of the treatment provided by most care facilities operating today. After more than half a century of matrimonial strife it becomes difficult to imagine subjecting your Sweetheart into the care and keeping of someone whom you have misgivings. At least while you are physically & mentally capable of caring for them. There is also a cost factor worthy of note. The current patient resents having anyone but the family doing tasks around her home. In retrospect this caregiver and both previous wives endeavored to practice an art of visiting elderly & ill folk of the Church, Fraternity, Friends & Community. That practice is evidently out of style during these times of hustle ...bustle. The emphasis in this age is sports. Don't permit anything to disrupt a game on TV or Arena in the area. Life is a precious commodity to most everyone and very few folks are anxious to respond to a summons from the grim reaper. It is a privilege and blessing to attain the status of one who has been enumerated on the Census rolls nearly four score & ten years. Longevity is also accompanied with new dilemmas that require addressing.. One of great significance is... your life-long cronies are not here to share joys & concerns. Lost vision in one eye with limited sight in the other coupled with impaired hearing has altered this old timer's life style. Somehow it seems I was destined to become a husband & caregiver a second time to a lovely lady now afflicted with the dread malady. Due to extenuating circumstances we are both dependent on the Public Transportation System as a means of getting around the city. On occasion it becomes necessary to request a friend or relative to transport us somewhere not easily accessible via bus. In a few instances there was sensed a feeling of imposition to avoid in the future if possible. It is doubtful if there would be a great deal of harm created if some good samaritan was to drop in on the old folks who hang out over on Alpha Street. Visitors are a welcome break from an ordinary day of existence similar to that on a deserted island. In the days prior to a sophisticated name we considered it as senility... I recall visiting my aunt Jennie, (My mother's sister) who was a prime victim. It was not uncommon to spend a minimum of 2 hours washing a sink & counter full of dirty dishes. Meanwhile getting berated for taking her money. Upon due searching of dresser drawers money could be revealed & some semblance of respect restored.. A degree in sick-eye-a-tree might prove beneficial. When patient is no longer comfortable in Worship Services, interest in attending Church is also lost. Ministers are busy with a full schedule of Hospital visitations & other prerogatives.. Homes of Alzhiemers Patients do not offer an inviting atmosphere.. Regardless of any personal hurts or quirks the caregiver is expected to maintain an up-beat demeanor. It's stick to the job when hardest hit, when things seem worst that we must not quit! - E.P. The Ole Philosopher 10/31/2000 Louise Parker passed away May 30, 2002. Go Back to Top of Newsletter