My Father's 115th Birthday!

Today would have been my father Nelson's 115th birthday if he were still alive today. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 74 in Stuart, Florida, where he and my mother Mary had retired to from Chicago. They both loved living in Stuart, and my father especially loved finally being able to retire from his career as a dentist, which he very much hated. He had only 7 years of retirement down there, but at least he had those 7 years of enjoyment. Many people don't even have that. The photograph on the left shows my father and I in the backyard of our home in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, where I grew up.

My father's father, Claire, grew up in Clear Lake, Iowa, and recently I have been trying to get more information about our family there - where they lived, where they are buried, etc. I know that my grandfather's mother, Sophie, lived there for many years in the family home, and that my grandfather and grandmother, Fleta, and eventually my father, too, often visited there from Chicago, where my grandfather worked for the Rock Island Railroad. As an employee and eventually a retiree, he was able to travel free on that famous railroad, which explains how they could make those frequent trips. The photograph on the right shows the three of them at his mother's home in Clear Lake, probably sometime around 1915. I visited that town, which still retains its 19th Century charm, a few years ago, and was hoping to see if that house still existed. However, back then, letters and postcards to Clear Lake did not have an address, just the name of the person and Clear Lake, and so who knows where it is or was. At the time my father passed away, a friend of my ex-wife Lisa told me that at least he lived a long life. I suppose to a young person that might seem true, but to me, especially as I approach that same age, I think it was way too short. Happy Birthday Dad!