Remembering Trish’s Dad

The very day that it was time to leave for New Orleans for Jonathan and Kahran’s wedding, the call came from Trish’s brother that their father had died.  We had been keeping in close touch for several weeks as he was getting weaker.

So, I headed to the airport to fly to New Orleans while I left Trish to pack and today to fly to Detroit.

Trish’s parents, Ralph and Betty Jones were married 68 years and still living in their home in Lake Orion, Michigan where they had lived for more than fifty years.  He died at home with family as was his desire.

Sixty-eight years of marriage!

Mr. Ralph was born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  It was there that he met Miss Betty when she came there from her home town of Poteau, Oklahoma, to go to nursing school at the old St. Joseph’s hospital.

They were married and had Trish and her three brothers while he had a full career of twenty years in the United States Navy.  After retirement, they moved to Lake Orion as the boys lived and worked nearby.  He became the Head Custodian at the new Pine Tree Elementary School, a position in which he helped raise hundreds of elementary school children while Betty continued her nursing career.

Ralph could fix almost anything: clocks and watches, locks and keys, most things mechanical.  He also gardened and kept bees at home.

My great treasure is that I got to join this wonderful family when Trish and I got married.  This includes her brothers, their wives, and their children and grandchildren as well as her dear parents.  My sadness is that I came along too late to know Mr. Ralph in the prime years of his life...I must depend on their stories!

The whole family in March of this year.