Throwback Thursday - Kristen's first kid birthday party, 4 years old

This is the only picture that I took at Kristen's 4th birthday party!!  It seems inconceivable to me now!

This was her first kid birthday party.  Most of the kids were from our neighborhood.

From left to right - Robin (she lived next door; her family only lived on our street for a few years), Karen Jacobek (she was the daughter of Ann, a lady who used to work with Dot.  We became friendly when we were pregnant at the same time.  Karen and Kristen are 5 days apart), and Michael Tassanari who lived at the beginning of our circle.  In the back I think are Chris Fitzpatrick (he lived on the other side of us) and Erica Marieb who also lived on our circle.

About the only thing that I remember of her party was that she was VERY excited.  She got ready early and asked if we could take a walk around the circle to see if any of the kids were ready to come to her party.

I don't remember if Paul was there or if it was while he was working.  Mark must have been there but I don't even remember that.

Of course, we had the family party at another time so I don't think there was any other family there.  I really wish I had been into scrapbooking then, or at least journaling!

Happy Birthday Paul!

Happy 68th Paul!

I originally was going to use this story for a Throwback Thursday, but every now and then I like to do a birthday post for someone in my family and include an old story of that person.

A while back, we went for a ride to Otis and Tolland State Forest. Paul wanted to see where the entrance to the camping place was because he used to camp there with his parents when he was young. 

He told me the story of one day walking to the general store in the center of East Otis to get something for his mother. It was quite a way away. We figured it was about a 5 mile round-trip, which seems incredible to me for a kid of 10 or so. He said that it had gotten dark on his way back and an owl screeched right next to him and scared the life out of him. He got back after dark and his mother was quite worried.

That same day while we driving around, we saw a bear in the front yard of the headquarters of the Tolland State Forest. He was just browsing around, sniffing, and even walked up on their deck.

We watched him for what seemed like a long time.  Eventually a lady came walking across the street with two dogs, one of which was not on a leash.  A forest ranger type person came out of the headquarters and shooed the bear away because she was afraid of a confrontation with the bear and the dog.

It was fun seeing that bear from the car, but I'm so glad that 10-year-old Paul didn't see one on his way to or from the general store!

Happy 93rd birthday Dot!

This was the last picture that I have of Dot before she went to the Atrium.  It was taken on April 7, 2011, and she went to the Atrium on May 29, 2011.  Mark and Mason had come with us to bring Dot her dinner (for awhile Paul would get her a dinner to go from On the Hill and we would bring it over to her).  She was so happy to see them.

I looked back in my journaling to get the exact date that we brought Dot to the Atrium and, reading it, I got a knot in my stomach.  Even now, 7 years later, I feel so many emotions about that day.  I wrote that it was the worst day of my life.  It's still true.

We went to visit Dot at Wingate of Hamden for her birthday on Monday, the 18th.  My Dad's wife, Marge, is there now. We brought both of them to the dining room for a little "birthday party."  We had cupcakes and ice tea.  Dot doesn't walk, without their assistance, anymore so we wheeled her down to the dining room. They suggested we take Marge there in a wheel chair too. We gave Dot a present from Steph, wrapped in a box.  She didn't know how to unwrap the present, or even how to open the box.  We brought her a balloon, and took some pictures.

One funny thing about our visit - when we got back to her part of the nursing home, I had clipped the balloon to her chair. A little Hispanic man, who was also in the same type of reclining chair that Dot had, grabbed Dot's chair and pulled himself over so that he could reach her balloon and unclipped it.  He took the balloon and was having such a good time with it that we didn't have the heart to take it back, especially since Dot didn't even really notice the balloon.  He was still playing with it when we left, including wrapping the string around his bare feet and toes, lol!

So many times I wonder why Dot has to linger in that nursing home.  She used to tell me that our days are numbered by God, that it is written down when we are born and when we will die. Years ago Dot gave me a little daily devotional "The Grace of Encouragement" by Charles R. Swindoll.  Today's message was "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16."  I have to believe that God has Dot's life in his hands.  I love you Dot, happy birthday!

Happy 39th birthday Janelle!

This picture was taken on June 13, 2004. It was the first time that Janelle met GG. We were having Marley's third birthday party at GG's and Big Baba's house. Unfortunately, GG passed away a week later. She would have loved getting to know Janelle; she is definitely a wonderful addition to our family! Happy birthday Janelle!

Happy 43rd birthday Mark!

The other day I was talking with Mason about starting 3rd grade.  I showed him this picture of his father when he started 3rd grade, in the same school that Mason is going to.

This was the same grade where Mark crossed his eyes during the class picture!

He thought it was so funny!  Obviously, I didn't.  Raising boys is no joke!

Happy birthday Mark!

Happy 45th birthday Kris!

This picture is from Kristen's first birthday party.  We had the party at Nan and Dot's house because my Aunt Dot was recovering from falling down the attic stairs and was still too sore to ride in the car.

My Aunt Ettie was there and gave her the present that is right in front of her.  For some reason Kristen was afraid of it and wanted to get out of her chair!  Maybe the present was too big.

I have always loved that picture; so glad that we captured that cute little face on film!

The present was a blue horse that you ride on (you can see it on the table in the picture below).

She was fine with it after it was unwrapped.

Happy birthday Kris!

Happy Birthday Big Baba!

I have always loved this picture of Paul's Dad, Big Baba.  It was taken on Thanksgiving Day 2003.  It is hard to get a picture of him looking at the camera, never mind smiling!

I miss GG, and I miss Dot before Alzheimer's.

Happy 89th birthday Big Baba!

Happy 8th birthday Mason!

Holy cow!  How can this be 8 years ago?  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I can honestly say that there is nothing like the birth of a grandchild.  To see a child born from your child, and to see your child reacting to their child is priceless.

Happy birthday Mason!  You are very much loved by all of your family!

Happy 16th Birthday Marley!

Birth to 16 in a blink of an eye!

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  My first grandchild!

Marley has always been everything a grandchild should be and I couldn't love her more.

Happy 16th birthday, sweetie.

Happy Birthday Paul!

This is a picture of Paul (right) and his good friend Ralph Lathrop.  It was taken at our church, Bethany, on December 6th, 2015.  When I saw them standing in the foyer together looking like twins with their bald heads and gray goatees, lol, I just had to take their picture.

This was Ralph's first time in church since his stroke in the beginning of November, 2015.  He went to Brigham and Women's in Boston and then to rehab.

These are the scrapbook pages that I made of this time.

Ralph had been diagnosed with breast cancer in November of 2012, and had been doing really well until this stroke three years later.

A few days after he got home from rehab, Ralph's brother flew up from Florida and drove Ralph and Linda down to their condo in South Carolina where they have been spending the winters for quite a few years.

He has had his ups and downs health wise but had been holding his own until this Saturday, May 6th when he had a massive aneurysm and was placed on a breathing tube until his sons could get there on Sunday, May 7th.

What has all this got to do with Paul's birthday?

Unfortunately, the day Ralph passed away was the day before Paul's birthday and the day we had his birthday party with the family.  We all tried to be upbeat for his party but there was an underlying sadness.  I'm sure, every birthday for Paul from now on, he will remember his friend Ralph.  Maybe that's not a bad thing.  Rest in peace Ralph.  The Radtkes love you!

Happy 3rd birthday Miriam!

After waiting all day on April 6th for Miriam to be born, Grandma Stacia and I finally left the hospital around 11:00 pm to relieve Paul who was staying with Mason.  We finally went to bed about midnight, exhausted but worried....until we received this picture from Mark!!

Happy 3rd birthday ladybug!  Baba and I love you very much!

Happy birthday GG!

My mother-in-law, Priscilla, would have been 89 today, and has been gone for almost 13 years.  It doesn't seem possible.

She was such a fun person.  She used to tell me how much she liked the fact that her birthday was on April Fool's Day; that way she got to fool people on her birthday.

I'm so glad she got to see Marley for three years, although I wish she could have met Mason and Miriam too.  When Marley was born, Priscilla became GG (great-grandmother) to all of us.

Happy birthday GG!

Happy Birthday Ettie!

Today is my Aunt Ettie's birthday.

This is one of my favorite memories of her.  It was the summer of 1966 and we had rented a cottage at Misquamicut for a week.  I had a transistor radio, and the song "Wild Thing" played on the radio a lot.  My cousins, Donny and Bobby loved that song and Ettie used to sing the beginning of it, "Wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy."  We all used to love it when she did that.  She was so much fun!

Happy Birthday Gramps!

Donald (left) and David Wait - 1956

Paul and I have been working on David Wait's genealogy lately.  He was my grandfather's younger brother.  

We have been photographing all of the different places that Uncle David lived, all of them in Greenfield except for one place.  From what we can gather from City Directories and Uncle David's daughter Janet, Uncle David moved to Arizona in 1956.  He had bad lungs and the doctor told him that moving to a dry environment might help.  

This picture is one of my Aunt Dot's slides.  I remember that they came for a visit on their way to Arizona - Uncle David, Aunt Ellen and their five children.  There was another picture taken that day. I can still see it in my mind.  I looked everywhere for it and the only thing that I can think of is that Dot must have thrown it out.  She went through a phase where she went through her slides and "purged" them, although I can't imagine why she would have gotten rid of that one. 

Anyhow, my grandfather and Uncle David were very close and the move must have been hard for both of them.  I don't remember the details, whether he didn't like it in Arizona, didn't think it helped his health or what, but Uncle David was back in Greenfield the next year.

I have many pleasant memories of going to Greenfield with my grandfather to visit Uncle David, Aunt Ellen, and their youngest son Donald, who was two years younger than me.  

Today is my grandfather's birthday.  He would have been 117.  Happy birthday Gramps. 

Happy Birthday Nan!

Today is my grandmother's birthday.  She would have been 116!

In honor of her birthday, I thought I would post some pictures of her childhood home, Chateaugay, NY, a tiny town near the Canadian border.  

In 1986, and again in 1987 we took her back there.  In one trip we went with my Aunt Esther and, I think, my Dad.  In the other trip it was me, Paul, Nan, and my Aunt Dot.

I'm so glad we took her there before her eyesight got so bad. 

The farmhouse was still there and the owner was working near the barn.  He stopped to talk to us and then had his wife come out.   My grandmother told them that she and her family lived there when she was young.  I wish we had asked them if we could go in.  

We also went to the cemetery in Malone, at Notre Dame church, where her parents are buried and also two baby girls who died in infancy.  

We drove around the downtown area and Nan told us where one or two of her brothers worked.  I wish I had taken notes because I have forgotten a lot of the things we saw. 

We also met a member of her family who still lives in Chateaugay.  We went to her house and talked with her but I can't remember who she was.  I sure wish I was doing my blog then!

In looking through old pictures I found some pictures that Paul and I had taken in 1998.  I had totally forgotten that we took a trip to Chateaugay then.  And actually, I really don't remember much about that trip, but the pictures show more of the barn and farm area.  

Paul and I have been working on the Bessette genealogy on and off for years.  In 2003 I found a Bessette message board on Ancestry.com and this is some of the information I found (Thomas Bessette is my grandmother's grandfather).  

"Thomas Bessette married Marceline Martin and he had a brother, Francis Bessette, that married Lucie Martin. Marceline and Lucie were sisters. Frank and Thomas came to Malone in the mid 1880s and built houses just outside the Malone Fairgrounds. Those two houses are still there today."

I really want to go back there again some time soon.  I want to find those houses.  I want to see if they have a Historical Society in Chateaugay, or at least Malone (the nearest city).  I want to see if the farm house is still there.  Maybe I can go in this time!

Happy birthday Dad and Jean (mom)

Jean Higgins and David Waite, November 6, 1948

In keeping with my new idea to post a picture of a family member on their birthday (I started this with Kristen in August 2016), here is a picture of my parents, both of whom had birthdays this week.

My dad was born on January 1, 1927 and passed away on December 9, 2012.  He would have turned 90 this week!

My mother was born on January 5, 1931 and passed away on December 31, 2010.  She would have turned 86 this year.  

I have often wondered what life would have been like if they had stayed married.  Obviously, it was not the plan that God had for my life.  I feel that, growing up with my grandparents and my aunt Dot, I had a much more stable life than my half-siblings, on both sides.  My grandparents were wonderful to me and I am so grateful that they stepped in to what must have been chaos when I was 9 months old.  

As I grew older, though, in some ways, I missed having a "normal" family life.  I always said that if and when I got married, I would definitely have a normal family unit, and I did.  

Since I have had grandchildren, though, I have appreciated my grandparents and especially my grandmother (my grandfather died when I was 14).  Life is a little harder as you get older, as in aches, pains, less energy, etc.  It has made me appreciate my aunt Dot more too.  She never married and lived at home with me and my grandparents.  She did all the fun things with me that younger parents do.  

Since it was my paternal grandparents that I lived with, I saw my father quite a lot.  Not so much with my mother.  It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I reconnected with her and I'm grateful that I had such a long time to get to know her.  I never called her mom.  I had never called anyone mom.  I really didn't call her anything, just hoped she was looking at me when I talked to her, lol!  But I feel as though we got to be good friends and I found that I really liked her.  

I used to think that I was so lucky that my grandparents took me in, and I was.  But now being a grandparent myself, I would do it for any of my three grandchildren in a minute!

Happy 46th Birthday Toby!

The year was 1990, and the day was Kristen's high school graduation.

Toby started "hanging around" in the late fall to winter of Kristen's senior year.  He was going to UMass at the time.  This was one of their first dates of that summer and they dated until Kristen went away to Gordon College that fall.

It wasn't to be for another few years, I think it was some time in the latter part of her senior year of college, that he started "hanging around" again.  This time it was the beginning of the end and they were married in November of 1995.

Happy birthday Toby!  I'm glad you kept "hanging around."

Happy 92nd birthday Dot!

This was my Aunt Dot's favorite car, her 1959 Chevy Impala.

It was a convertible and I remember it so well.  I remember when the Mass. Turnpike opened in our area, Dot, my grandmother and I went for a ride on it from West Springfield to Lee.  I was so afraid that the ticket would fly out of the car and we would be in deep trouble.  They both laughed and said I was silly and that the ticket would be safe.

I also remember many times riding to my aunt Esther's house in Salem, NJ.  We would always leave after supper, around 6 pm, and arrive at my aunt's house about midnight.  I remember the first time I went over the George Washington Bridge in Dot's convertible.  It was almost surreal - night time with all of the lights on the bridge, being up so high with the wind whipping at us.  It's something I think I will always remember.  One time my Dad came with us and the wind was so strong that he wore a kerchief on his head while we went over that bridge.

In later years Paul and I bought Dot a car model of her 1959 Chevy.  She still has it in her room at her nursing home.

Happy birthday Dot!

Happy 38th birthday Janelle!

This is what I wrote in my blog on December 7, 2004, almost 12 years ago. Marley was 3 years old.

"Janelle and Marley - Marley just absolutely loves Janelle. From the minute she gets here Marley just showers her with hugs, kisses, pats, and loves. Poor Uncle Mark definitely takes a second set to Janelle. Mark said it's probably because she reminds Marley of a Barbie doll. She even had a barbie doll she named Barbie Janelle. Marley loves to brush and comb Janelle's hair, and tonight she wanted to put pony tails in Janelle's hair but she said she didn't know how. Janelle said she could teach, so she tried to show her how by taking a strand of her own hair and showing her how to put the hair in the middle of the elastic band. Poor Janelle, her head got a little abused, but the feeling seems to be mutual - Janelle seems to really enjoy Marley too!"

Happy birthday Janelle! Thanks for being such a big part of our family!

Happy 42nd Birthday Mark!

Back before ultrasounds were done as a regular part of prenatal care and you were able to know the sex of your baby, it was a surprise at birth whether you had a girl or a boy.

Because I had already had a girl, I just thought I would have another girl (talk about naive!).  We had a girl's name picked out, Amy, but we could not agree on a boy's name.  Paul wanted Peter.  Now I like the name Peter, but not with the last name Radtke.  Peter Radtke?  I imagined him standing at the bus stop and being teased by the other kids, "Here comes Peter Rabbit".  No it would not be Peter!  I wanted Mark.  We never did come to an agreement because, after all, we were having another girl!

So, when the doctor said, "It's a boy", I said, "Are you sure?" (must have been the medication, lol).  Before the name discussion could even come up again Paul said, "Do you still want to name him Mark?  You get to choose, you did all the work".  I knew it was probably said in a weak moment, but I went with it, and he was named Mark Edward Radtke.

It was another story with Kristen.  She was 2 yrs and 1 week old, and expected us to bring home a sister, Amy. Someone (probably my mother-in-law) bought her a doll and we called her Amy.  Even so, she called him Amy brudder for quite awhile!

Happy birthday Mark!