My brother John had been having excruciating back pain and his wife Kathleen took him into St. Margaret’s Hospital where he spent a couple days and then was transferred to physical therapy at Health South Harmarville where ironically he spent the end of 2017 in physical therapy. He did well for a while but they did another MRI and determine that his spinal stenosis had gotten much worse and in fact should have been a candidate for surgery a year ago. So his great wife Kathleen spent much of her holidays visiting John and dealing with doctors. More later but here is a photo of John at St. Margaret’s Hospital on December 24.
On December 25 we had a very nice family Christmas, much of it made possible by Jen for all her decorating and helping people with presents. I got the one I wanted, replacing my broken chair in the den. Here are some photos including one of Susan holding a drawing of her beloved Golden Retriever Lizzie who passed away in 2018. This drawing was from Meg’s former sorority roommate Sydney. The last one is the dashing Grant Friday who has been my secret mentor on the House Committee, keeping me in line preserving the Longue Vue traditions during any of our remodeling projects. Thank you Grant! See you in April on the golf course or at Vine Club.
On December 27 John had back surgery at UPMC from an experienced neurosurgeon Dr. Gertzman. Kathleen had spent all day waiting for the surgery and recovery and I got there just before he went to a room. He seemed to be in good spirits seeing me in the hallway and cracking jokes when describing me as his “much older brother” to the nurses. He was later transferred back to Health South Harmarville but unfortunately his recovery has been very slow and he was just moved to Manor Care to start additional therapy before he tries to get up their 17 steps in their house in Millvale:
I applaud Kathleen and John for their patience and perseverance and ask for every blog reader’s prayers and best wishes for a full recovery.
December 29
I made a 60 mile (100 kilometer) road trip to Grove City Pennsylvania to Wendell August Forge to buy some Pittsburgh Bridges ornaments for some of Susan’s coworkers and our favorite people in Asia such as my trainer at The Pit in Singapore.
Along the way I called my former co-worker Scott Creveling who went to Grove City College and did a nice job keeping me out of trouble doing tax accounting and helping me immensely with fighting off outsourcing efforts by accounting firms trying to “help us” do our jobs. Scott and his wife Jan now live the wild retired life at The Villages near Ocala Florida, deciding between 100 activities and clubs each day. I had the privilege of staying with them a couple days last spring.
I also tried to meet with Rich Snyder who lives in Grove City and says he is enjoying teaching full time at Grove City College after retiring from U. S. Steel last year. Unfortunately for me, Rich and his family were In Buffalo NY visiting his wife Lorraine’s family. As I will note later, I really appreciated that Rich made the trip all the way from Grove City to visit John at Harmarville.
December 29 – mini USS Tax Reunion and dinner at Diane Blanton’s
I want to thank Marilyn Zawoyski for organizing a happy hour and dinner for several USS Tax people at the Enix Brewing Company at 337 East 8th Avenue in Homestead PA. Here are some reviews.
We had a great time there and the attendees were:
Jim Hollingsworth
Marilyn Zawoyski
Linda Weissert
John Dougherty
Amy Dougherty
Shirley Musselwhite
Nancy O’Toole
Like I said we had a nice time as the beers were good as were the flatbreads and salads so we recommend going! It turns out that Linda Weissert is also a good friend of Kumar Nandan’s and they are in some kind of cocktail society so we sent Kumar a photo. Here are a few others.
Marilyn, thanks again for organizing this event. You did a nice job and I’d like to pattern my retirement like yours but it will take me a while to be as physically and mentally active as you are. I knew you continued to play golf and take golf trips but then I found out you were a Mahjong player and winner at a tournament a couple of years ago. I had never heard of it till you told me so I was really ready when two women in the movie Crazy Rich Asians played it. I’m sure you would have given them a run for their money! I’ve always enjoyed working with you since I found out in 1987 that you were a fellow Math major and then was really pleased when you took our offer to move and work in Slovakia in the Tax area there. On the golfing side I also enjoyed the Frostbite Open days when we played in 3 degree weather and snow in early February. (I always wondered why we spent 9 holes and 5 hours in those conditions but it was for a good cause. Thanks Lou Prosperi for organizing the outing all those years!)
Marilyn continued to amaze me this year when she told me she ran a 5-K in Pittsburgh’s Great Race and finished first in her class of runners! Keep up the good work and I hope to see you in April. Here are a couple of photos from the race. I left off the scoreboard showing her finishing first in her age category as no one would have believed she was in that particular category.
The tax group Marilyn organized met at 4 pm and finished around 6:45. So, in keeping with the torrid Hollingsworth pace, I also had another dinner at our food friends Diane Blanton and Michael Farabaugh’s house at 7:15 in Fox Chapel the same evening, along with Susan’s legal counterpart from PnC bank, Joan Zangrilli and her husband Dave. This of course was the day before we left for Chicago but I think we were packed.
We had a great steak dinner along with a few bottles of delicious Brunello wines from Italy. My co-worker Janelle Gabbienelli and Dr. Jeff Wilson from Longue Vue had introduced us to Brunellos earlier so this was a nice send off for us to head to Chicago and then back to Singapore. Thanks Diane and Michael!
Dave
Michael Farabaugh and Susan.
December 29 – Off to Chicago
As a special Christmas and wedding Anniversary present the kids gave us a flight and hotel in Chicago to spend our “ceremonial wedding anniversary” on December 30 in downtown Chicago so we could attend the annual New Years Eve Party hosted by Chuck and Andrea Jarik at their place on Astor Street. Many of Susan’s long time friends from Chicago such as Ray Parpan and Shirley Staffan (or is it Ray and Shirley Parpan?), Debbie Clark, Freddie Date and Kirt Hayes, Forrest and Nancy Lombaer and Jack Palka also attend along with friends of Jacqueline and Julianna Jarik.
So this was a great treat as we first stayed on December 29 at Susan’s sister’s Betsy and Bob Jaeschke’s in Wilmette and met them and her brother Kurt Mueller snd his wife Anne Mueller first at their house for appetizers and then dinner at Gusto’s in Wilmette.
On December 30, our anniversary, and also that of John and Amy Dougherty, (congrats!) we first visited Susan’s parents Carl and Nancy Mueller at Susan’s childhood home in Wilmette and then we drove downtown. Susan’s father’s cousin Jane had sent a nice box of French Butter cookies to Nancy and Carl.
On December 30, Susan and I celebrated our 34th anniversary (hard to believe I know) at a nice restaurant on the river, Chicago Cut, courtesy of the kids as Jen and Meg had eaten there earlier this year. It was delicious! (For those of you who are bored with my stories you also know that in addition to our ceremonial anniversary we also have our “real” anniversary on January 1 so then we celebrated our 68th).
We also had a comedic waiter, Matt, who had strained his neck sleeping in the wrong position but he said he’d be happy to wait on Meg or all of us when she starts her auditing position in Chicago late summer or early fall. So thanks Jen, Meg and Mark for a great present!
On December 31 we had lunch at Harry Caray’s downtown. and then made our way to our next abode at Ray and Shirley’s who live in Dearborn near the Jarik’s. I don’t think the Bloody Mary with shrimp and bacon or the Pretzel burger will be on my nutrition plan but it was New Years Eve!
Shirley and Ray checked us in and we all headed to the Jarik’s where we participated in the annual trivia photo contest to identify celebrities but I know I did not contribute much except for identifying some sports stars like Jordan Spieth.
While we had a pretty great 2018 we wish all a better 2019!
Meg and Jen were off to a nice start as they had saved up for several years to go to Sydney Australia and sent us this New Years video from Sydney Harbor where they celebrated several hours earlier at the Royal Botanic Garden across from the Opera House. (Click to play fireworks in Sydney Harbor!)
Just before leaving we received this nice birthday photo that Rich Snyder took of John, recovering from back surgery at Health South Harmarville (now known as Encompass Health Rehabilitation in 2019).
I write this blog on an airplane from Hong Kong to Toyko where Susan is on business and I’m on “trailing spouse” duty this Thursday and Friday 24 and 25 January before we spend the weekend in the historic cities of Kyoto and Osaka Japan after the last 5 days in Hong Kong.
John looks pretty happy here but is still recovering, now at Manor Care in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. I can’t thank Rich Snyder enough for making the 60 mile trek from Grove City to keep John in good spirits on his birthday! Rich had gotten to know John over the years and became a true friend, listening to John’s stories and jokes, having him up to Rich’s cabin in the Tionesta woods, etc. so thanks again Rich!!! We also thank Gordon Haw who has also been visiting John!
This will be the end of the blog up to 2 January, 2019. More to come as we travel and work through Asia! Like I said at the beginning I’m trying to post this from the bullet train from Toyko to Kyoto so I hope this works! Jim Hollingsworth
Singapore Travel Blog 