Dr. Bernice Jameson Todd Elementary School

Kathy Rodriguez took this photo. Bernice was our grandmother on Dad's side. Here is a link to the Dr. Bernice Jameson Todd Elementary School web site. Turn the sound down unless you like digital chattering toucans. Otherwise, it's a pretty web site and it has a link to some information about her life and the reason they named a school in her honor.

80th birthday, Prescott, January 11, 2003

On January 11, 2003, my sister Kathy (pictured) along with Lois and Fred and some local friends helped Dad celebrate his 80th birthday at the VA Hospital in Prescott.

April 4, Part 2: Playing pool in Dad's basement, Prescott

I have one sister and one brother. Here they are: Kathy and Gary playing pool in Dad's basement in Prescott, Arizona. It was a special weekend. We hadn't all been together in I-don't-know-how-many years. We all visited Dad this weekend and we had a great time being together. I'm only putting this one photo up tonight, but that weekend we also went to the zoo and just sat around their house with the beautiful panoramic view joking a lot and enjoying each other's company in a way that hadn't been possible for a long time. It was a bittersweet time - mellow and nice, but with a sense that it wasn't going to happen this way again, because Dad had Alzheimer's and was clearly getting worse. He was still well enough on this visit to play pool (without too much attention to the rules) and to laugh and have a good time with us. He always enjoyed good humor - gentle, funny, and not too much poking fun at anyone. Anyway, that weekend was special.

On the left is Dad in the foreground and Gary behind him. Kathy is on the right. This is their living room with the front door at ground level and the hillside sloping steeply away so the side of the room opposite the front door goes out onto a high deck overlooking the trees and the valley.

In the mirror you can see Lois's back in the pink robe and someone who had come in. I don't think that was Kathy. The yellow-trimmed quilt is one I bought for Dad in Palisade. It has trout on it, and he always enjoyed fishing. I thought it would be nice and cheerful during his illness.

I'll put up a few more pictures from this visit eventually, but I regret there aren't any really good ones of the PEOPLE. For some reason, it's so hard for me to take them. I'm going to work on that in the next phase of my life - more people pictures.

Sheryl
September 27, 2008

February 2009: I'm adding a couple more pix of the basement, where I felt comfortable. On some visits I slept on the floor on a mattress, and on other visits in the guest room down there. It was roomy and there was a small deck out back. I liked the pool table, which had come with the house because nobody could figure out how to remove it. Dad grew up with a pool table in Corona. They had a family of four kids, and there were usually cousins around.

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A visit to Prescott, April 4, 2001

See this post in Sheryl's personal blog.

Feb 1956: Ted with Kathy and Sheryl, printed February 1956

Ted with his first two kids, either 1955 or 1956. From left: Kathy, Ted, Sheryl, and Sheryl's doll. The photo was printed in February, 1956. I almost remember that we were supposed to be singing Christmas carols, so it was probably taken in December. Remember when film stayed in the camera for months? Gary was born in 1954, but was not in the photo.