Remembering My Mom

My mom left this life on Tuesday, May 19 after a month long struggle to regain her health following a relatively simple surgery. Her body just didn't respond as quickly following the surgery. She battled an infection and had difficulty breathing and keeping the oxygen levels up in her blood. But she was making progress in the last days and we expected her to leave the hospital on Memorial Day week end. She quietly slipped away before that could happen.

Now its my brother and me left to carry on.

My mom grew up in a large farm family that lived in northern Indiana. Her dad was a hard man (by her own description) and they never got along. She was the second youngest of 13 children. They moved around a lot as my grandfather rented land trying to raise the best crops and make a living during the trying times of the Great Depression. At age 16 she left home never to return.

As a teen ager she married a soldier when went off to fight in Europe never to return. Before she was 20 she was a widow of WWII living in the 1940s. She married again shortly thereafter but that didn't last and nobody really talks about that much.

In the late 1940's she met my dad. My brother and I came along a few years later and we grew up in a house attached to a small grocery store. My parents worked together for nearly 50 years raising two sons and earning a living. We also tended to eat pretty well. My mom was a good mom, active in the lives of her boys when she could be and working hard to earn a living. I'm sure the fear of another Great Depression motivated both of my parents but we never lacked for anything.

Not long after celebrating 50 years together my dad passed away following open heart surgery where he'd suffered a stroke. My mom was devastated but she carried on. It was not easy. A few years later I moved away to Illinois and then Wisconsin but we kept in touch and visited when we could. My mom was lonely in those years but would never consider another relationship or moving away.

Just last summer my mom came to Wisconsin for several weeks to visit and see what was happening in my life. She loved it here and always said how different and beautiful it was compared to Indiana. I agree. Last Thanksgiving she and my brother made a trip up here for a week. She stayed in my new house and we enjoyed our last Thanksgiving dinner together. I saw her at Christmas time but never alive again.

I miss my mom. I miss the times I'd call her on my cell phone on the way home from work or driving to Stevens Point in the morning for a meeting. She was always glad to hear from me and would call me often as well. We were closer in the last years than maybe any other time.

Losing a parent is hard. I know two other people who lost their moms during the same relative time period. Its hard for each of us but we carry on. I'll remember the good times and the way she took care of me as a young boy and even as a grown man. She was always my mom.

She was Catherine Marie Lewallen Huys.
Born March 8, 1924
Died May 19, 2008

Keeping Warm

This is one of the ways I survived my first up north winter. That and a couple of good bottles of red wine. Did I say a couple? Well, by winter's end I was getting pretty creative. I "discovered" the Wausau Curling Club and participated in my first bonspiel and was completely hooked on the sport. And in late March I finally put on a pair if skis and skied at Granite Peak. So as the winter season approaches again I have many more ideas and ways to enjoy and participate in winter acitivties. More on those subjects in future posts.

Winter--Part II, Its Just Kept Coming

We probably didn't have nearly the total accumulation of either Milwaukee or Madison during the winter of 2007 but our snow came and stayed. There was never a time when we got a thaw. The closest I can recall is in late January the temps rose back into the +20 degree range for a couple of days and you'd have thought it was summer. I even had a window rolled down on the MINI.


The snow at the end of my driveway topped 7' (feet) at the height of the season. The MINI was dwarfed by the size of the piles. I had no idea if anyone was coming down the street once I entered the tunnel of snow at the end of the drive. When I look at my yard now its hard to imagine there was so much snow. But its late August and only a weeks away from fall and then....

Over the Winter--How I Survived My 1st Up North Winter

Winter came to Wausau on Saturday, December 2, 2007 with a dump of approximately 12" of heavy snow. As I looked out on my driveway that first morning I was stunned to realize that if I was going to get my car out and drive to the store I'd have to shovel a whole lot of snow first. Throughout the fall I'd been telling myself that a little snow shoveling would be good exercise but when the reality of it hit that morning I had second thoughts.

While the snow meant work it was also quite beautiful. Winters in Indiana and Illinois were hit and miss some years but from that first day in December, the winter of 2007 in Wausau was here to stay.


It took a couple of hours that first morning and a lot of hours over the next several months as the cold weather stayed in place keeping the snow from melting even a little. At one point in mid-winter I was walking in my back yard standing about 25" to 30" up off the ground and it was not on a drift.

Thanksgiving in Wausau

OK--admittedly posting a Thanksgiving message in late August the following year is a little on the slow side. But I'm trying to catch up with this blog and its the place to start. My mom and brother made an adventurous trip to central Wisconsin and spent a week here over the Thanksgiving holidays. For my mom it was a return visit (and ultimately her last) and my brother's first.

The two intrepid travels left Indiana via Amtrack train and went to Union Station in Chicago. There they boarded a VanGalder bus and headed to Madison where I met them on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was a long trip for my mom who was pretty tired and I recall she slept well that night. Over the next few days I was back and forth from work to home while they hung out at my place. My brother (Mike) was taken with our sweet way of life up here and was about ready to sell his house and move north.

Thanksgiving Day was a day of lots of cooking and good food. It was the first time the three of us were together in many years. Jourdan had gone back to Indiana and wasn't able to be here. We were up early preparing food and by late afternoon things were ready and we were starved. These pictures give you a little idea of what the day was like.