After his wife Anne passed away in August ’03, Gene worked another year before retiring on sister Marilyn’s 67th birthday, October 29, 2004. He moved to Venice, Florida the day after retirement, and then on a whim made arrangements a few weeks later to pick up 80-year-old brother Warren at a craft show in Georgia and make the long trek to visit Marilyn and her family in Kingwood, Texas for Thanksgiving.
The journey gave both Warren and Gene the opportunity to spend some quality time together that they hadn’t previously spent in many years. It had also been decades since the three remaining children of Bernie and Jennie had been together for a holiday gathering. Marilyn enhanced the setting by serving a delightful Thanksgiving dinner on dinnerware given to her by Jennie forty years earlier. The dinnerware was the very same that Gene bought for Jennie in Germany while serving in the Army during the late fifties. The trip also gave Warren and Gene the opportunity to see first hand the operation of Including Kids, Jennifer's school for autistic children, a successful program that had grown dramatically since its inception a few years earlier, and is still growing as of this writing.
In spite of a demanding schedule with the school, Jennifer took some time to spend with her uncles. Her husband Stephen’s eight-year-old daughter Sarah from a previous marriage was in town for the holiday. A visit to the NASA Space Center in Houston seemed like a good idea for the gang, so off we went for a grand time. Even five-month-old Eric Anthony seemed poised for the venture. While there we elected to succumb to the touristy practice of letting them take a group photo. In hindsight, it was a wonderful move because the significance of that photo was dramatically increased recently with Warren’s passing on January 25th, 2009. The photo is the last one taken that portrays Jennie and Bernie’s three remaining children together, and it is indeed a gem of a picture. We are pleased to share it with the family here. From left to right are Jennifer, Sarah, Gene (standing) and Warren (sitting holding Eric Anthony), and Marilyn.
The journey gave both Warren and Gene the opportunity to spend some quality time together that they hadn’t previously spent in many years. It had also been decades since the three remaining children of Bernie and Jennie had been together for a holiday gathering. Marilyn enhanced the setting by serving a delightful Thanksgiving dinner on dinnerware given to her by Jennie forty years earlier. The dinnerware was the very same that Gene bought for Jennie in Germany while serving in the Army during the late fifties. The trip also gave Warren and Gene the opportunity to see first hand the operation of Including Kids, Jennifer's school for autistic children, a successful program that had grown dramatically since its inception a few years earlier, and is still growing as of this writing.
In spite of a demanding schedule with the school, Jennifer took some time to spend with her uncles. Her husband Stephen’s eight-year-old daughter Sarah from a previous marriage was in town for the holiday. A visit to the NASA Space Center in Houston seemed like a good idea for the gang, so off we went for a grand time. Even five-month-old Eric Anthony seemed poised for the venture. While there we elected to succumb to the touristy practice of letting them take a group photo. In hindsight, it was a wonderful move because the significance of that photo was dramatically increased recently with Warren’s passing on January 25th, 2009. The photo is the last one taken that portrays Jennie and Bernie’s three remaining children together, and it is indeed a gem of a picture. We are pleased to share it with the family here. From left to right are Jennifer, Sarah, Gene (standing) and Warren (sitting holding Eric Anthony), and Marilyn.
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