Mom at Peace

God peacefully took our Wife, Mother, Grandma, Sister, Aunt, Cousin, Niece, Godmother, Friend, Patty Duke and Rockstar to be a special angel on the morning of March 1, 2017.

We know why she was put on this earth. Considering the 34 years she protected children in the Village of Kimberly as a crossing guard, the thousands of trips to the nursing home to care for her parents, Bernard and Audrey Vanden Boogaard, being a guardian for her younger brother Bob after their parent’s death, on top of raising a family and being a wonderful wife, it is clear that she was placed here to guard and care for us. But that was nothing yet.

Even after being given a tough diagnosis of leukemia and fighting it with all the side effects that 27 chemotherapy sessions over the next five and a half years would bring her, she continued to take care of people. She attended more of her grandkids games than seemed reasonably possible, made hundreds of frosted and sugared cut-out cookies every year, and lightened the day of the nurses who took care of her.

When she had time to take care of herself she loved to hold and go to rummage sales, have ‘learning sessions’ with her breakfast group, and take out other friends at lunch. She loved going to country music concerts, traveling anywhere anyone would take her, and watching TV and keeping track of the celebrities, especially Nashville series and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society chairperson, Charles Esten.

We will fondly remember her determination, persistence, pride, humor, spoiling, ‘opera’ singing, Culvers, tacos, and Tootsie Pops.
While she only was on this earth 67 years, we should not feel that she did not live a full life. In fact, she probably lived more than most, and we believe that is shown by the number of people she impacted and share our love for her. Regrettably, we couldn’t possibly list them all, but you know who you are.

She is loved by her husband of 46 years, Tom, her son Jeff and Kelli Rindt, and her son Randy and Anne and her grandkids Grant (Buddy), Michael (The Man) and Claudia (Sweetie Pie). She is loved by her brothers and sisters: Mary and Lenny Milton, Kim and Laurie Vanden Boogaard, and Bob Vanden Boogaard and sister-in-law Sherree (Jim), and their children.

She is too loved by Tom’s brothers and sisters: Dave and Maria Asman, Mary and Steve Arend, and Russ and Lynne Asman and their children.

She has joined her parents, her brother Jim, and brother Garry and sister-in-law Jackie, and Tom’s parents Roy and Effie, in heaven.

We know we are not alone in our love for her. We invite all those who knew her to celebrate her life on Friday, March 3, 2017 from 4:00 PM until 7:00 PM at the Jansen Fargo Funeral Home, 204 E. Kimberly Avenue in Kimberly, and Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 620 E. Kimberly Avenue in Kimberly on Saturday, March 4 from 9:00 AM until the time of the service at 11:00 AM.
We know that words are difficult.

Please bring a photo or a written thought of Pat to help us preserve her memory.

Related Images:

Prague – Day .5

We arrived at the airport in Prague about 1340, about 20 minutes later than we should have.  Not sure what the deal was, but so much for German precision as Lufthansa didn’t seem to be in any hurry getting us out of Frankfurt.  More on that later.

Oddly unlike other European towns, Prague doesn’t have rail running between it and the city, so we took the airport express bus.  60 czk (about $3) each and about 40 minutes later, we were at the bus drop-off outside the main railstation.

It took us a few minutes to figure out where to go next.  There was just an elevator sticking above the ground so we took it and found much of the train station to be underground.  We gave the address of our hotel to a gal working the information booth, but I figured out about a hundred yards later that she did not point to the right direction.  We turned around, walked across the street, and good thing the name of our hotel had the address in it or we would have walked right by it.  Things are different here…no big flashy signs to identify things.  We just noticed the address.

—————

I’m a bit behind on this since I had to overcome some hurdles getting logged in to the site from over here.  My website host has taken some security measures to protect his service, but I think we are through those now so hopefully more and better updates to come.

 

Here’s the 23rd photo I took in Prague…not too shabby.

Related Images:

Encore for, and from, Ray Price

It was just last week that I was recalling to someone my memory of my Ray Price experience from a number of years ago. I looked up to see if Mr. Price was still alive, and was glad to see he was. I read today that the world lost him yesterday.

In 2003, I was a stagehand and lighting designer/operator working at an area casino. I knew that he was old, but that was about it. I didn’t really have any expectations of the two shows he was set to do, but it wasn’t long in to the first show that I knew I was experiencing something special.

Today I don’t recall a lot about the shows. What has stuck with me though is that he was 77 years old and still touring. If that weren’t enough, when I look back at all the performers who came through there, he outperformed a fair share of them, including some of the big name ones who were half his age.

I understand that even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, he still wanted to do a hundred shows this year. I think that is amazing.

So here’s an encore for, and from, Mr. Price, recorded live from one of those shows in 2003.

For The Good Times by Ray Price

Related Images:

Leaving Manhattan

Kelli and I took a cruise to New England this autumn. The ride out of Manhattan was neat, but not nearly so as the ride back in on day 7 at sunrise. I didn’t get that on time-lapse but here is out ride out.  Enjoy!

670 photos – 1 photo every 5 seconds – 55 minutes elapsed

World Trade Center @ 47 seconds
Statue of Liberty @ 1 minute
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge @ 1:32

Related Images: