Christmas Eve 2017

Joyce was looking good today in the skilled nursing unit. She seemed happy and anxious to come home. I am ready to have her home again. The last 9 weeks have been a trial for both of us and our Annie. I cannot thank her enough for her support during this tribulation. I have been looking at a copy of an All Hands publication from 1968 this afternoon. I spent 11 years in the navy and in that time I looked at just one of these magazines, but never read it. A few years ago Joyce came home from the thrift store in Ash Grove with this copy. Those who served in the navy will know what All Hands is. Today is the first time I really looked in it and read the articles. This of course brought back a lot of memories. I am not even sure why I kept this copy for so long, but today I finally got to read it. I had 2 nice Christmas phone calls while I perused the magazine, but I got through the whole thing, which is more than I ever did during my service time. Tomorrow I will have Christmas dinner in the nursing center with my love. This will be the second time we had Christmas alone. The last time was in the nineties. We had bacon wrapped filet mingnon. It did not seem like Christmas, but it was delicious and the next day we had unexpected guests so Joyce cooked a nice turkey and all seemed right. Tomorrow we will have roasted turkey and all the fixings, except for the varied alcohols we usually have. At this point we cannot have everything, but it will be nice. Things are looking good at this point and we are looking forward to Joyce coming home soon, whether it is sooner or later, I think it will happen and there have been several times in the last 9 weeks I was not sure if that would ever happen. Thank God 2017 is coming to an end! We have had many good years together, but this one has been a nightmare for obvious reasons. I wish to thank all who have sent cards and emails and have prayed for Joyce’s recovery. I/we wish you a Merry christmas and a Happy New Year as we will surely have. May God bless and keep you in the years to come.

She is still the most beautiful creature ever created! Those of you in the Stopppler lineage will surely recognize the resemblance. She looks so much like her mother, another Steoppler I grew to love.