roy's little black appointment book for 1980 tells me that he built my spice rack and doll display box in January of that year. We were in the apartment in Sharpes at that time. I brought the doll down when we came in the fall of '87. I knew he would have more time in Sharpes to do it. We took the spice rack back to the Glen and used it there for nine years, but brought it back when we moved.

Marion started his house and Troy was able to help some with the mowing and other light jobs. His entry on Feb. 27 was. 'Most poles in.' There are many entries this year which shows the progress on Marion and Joy's home and of the things Troy was able to do to help.

View "The House That Marion Built"

Brother Gotthart died on March 10th. Beulah and Buddy came and stayed the night with us and the four of us left the next morning for Akron. Gotthart had been living with Elma for quite a period of time, with frequent trips to the hospital. He was in the hospital at the time of death. We spent the night of the 11th at the Ramada Inn in Statesville, N. Carolina.

Sister Ruth came from California for the funeral, which was on the 13th. The only nice thing about a funeral is that those who remain have an opportunity to see relatives and friends they have not seen for years. We started back to Florida on the 17th. If we had had more time for packing we could have taken both cars and saved the trip back.

We left for Virginia on April 7th and took the usual two days on the road, staying overnight with the Harrises one might. The next day Troy was hard at work in the garden, which continued until harvest time and the cleaning up of lawn and garden in the fall.

We picked our first quart of strawberries on June 2nd and the first raspberries on the 19th. We saw that the birds were going to harvest most of the latter, if not prevented. We drove immediately to town and bought yards of mosquito netting. Birds foiled! We picked 11 quarts on the tenth and eleventh of July, which was about the last of the season for them.

Several trips were made at different times during the year and we had visits with our relatives and close friends. It was so good that we both enjoyed these little excursions of a few days to a week or so. It seemed for years after our retirement that we were always either looking forward to having out of state guests, or to a trip that we had planned to take. Of course these tapered off as we grew older and lost some of our bosom friends.

Gladys McQuain died and we attended her funeral on Oct 12, 1980. We had spent the night with her shortly before her death and she said that she just did not feel well and had been to the doctor, but her death was sudden and unexpected. After her burial we went back to her apartment with her daughter, Eleanor, and her family. Eleanor said, "You folks were always such good friends of my parents. I want you to have something that belonged to my mother." I replied, "Give me one of her plates for my plate collection." Eleanor took down from the wall a beautiful antique plate that had belonged to her grandmother and handed it to me." It is one of my prized possessions.

The Clintons and Elma came from Ohio for a visit and the day they left, Oct. 16th, Ruby called that John had a light stroke and was in the hospital. She wanted me to come and I went immediately.

John's stroke, while not severe, left him very difficult to deal with. He just could not be quiet in the bed or chair very long at a time. We were afraid he would fall so one of us walked the floor with him, many times late at night. He was a college graduate and had always read for hours at a time. Now his attention span was so short that he could not make sense out of what he read. I think the stroke had done more damage to his brain than to his body.

We left for Florida on November 2nd. Jim and Beulah Grandle followed in his new pickup truck, loaded with rolls of metal roofing and the tools needed to prepare it for use. Joy and Marion's house was ready for the completion of the roof and Jim taught Marion how to apply it. Later we were able to buy the tools second hand in Singers Glen and in 1981 we brought them down to Marion.