Eagle Point Senior Center

Let’s get acquainted with Marilyn Arnold – Marilyn was a weekly Bingo player and decided to join the Senior Center.

She was born in The Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, CA on November 26, 1950.  She is the oldest of four children, with 1 brother and two sisters.

Marilyn and her husband Cris will be married 35 years in June.  They have a son, Seth, 32 and a daughter Sarah, 31.  Seth has a BA in computer forensics and works for Disney Studios, and thinking about working for Princess Cruises; Sarah is a medical assistant and is married to a medical assistant.  Sarah has blessed the family with a Granddaughter, Abagayle (Abby) and that is the reason for the move from O’Brien to Eagle Point in May so they could be close to Abby.

Marilyn started working for “Ma Bell” when she was 17 and worked for them for 18 years.  She’s also had several home-based businesses.

When asked what her most interesting thing that has happened – she recounted that her husband, who worked for several major studios as a Teamster driver, made it possible for her to go to Browning, Montana for four days over the 4^th of July.  There she met Robin Williams.  He’s a lot smaller than I thought, she said but was so very gracious and nice.  He made everyone feel welcome.  They had a huge 4^th of July BBQ with fireworks everywhere.

She says her biggest accomplishment was raising their two children mostly on her own.  Cris’s job as a driver meant that he had to be first on a job site and the last to leave.  They were both very happy when he was able to retire and reunite their family in 2009.

In February 2018 Marilyn fell, hurt her back, broke her left shin, right arm and had quite a few facial bruises.  She’s working on getting back to how she felt before the fall.

Words of Wisdom – “the grass is not always greener” in many situations in life.

I’m looking forward to getting my health back.  My daughter has challenged me to walk around the golf course without my cane.  My goal!

Let’s get acquainted with Doug Wills – Doug joined our Center in December.

He was born in Oklahoma City, OK in November of 1941.  He was raised in Dallas, TX.  He liked it then, but later when he returned, it was so congested and grown to the point where you couldn’t tell one city from another.  Not for him.

Doug has been married three times.  He had two children with his first wife.  His third wife, Nancy brought two boys (1 & 8) to their marriage.  Together they had 2 girls and much later a “surprise” son.  Nancy was 3 days from being wed to Doug for 52 years when she passed.

A finish carpenter was his trade.  Worked in Michigan for a time.  He never lacked work – as soon as he finished a barn, another farmer would hire him.  He helped build the Medford Mall here in Oregon – working there for about 2 ½ years.  Taking great pride in his work always brought work to him.

Doug was in the recon unit of the 101^st Airborne.  He just missed being shipped out to Viet Nam.  Only two of his unit returned, and he wondered if he had gone, if more would have come back or maybe he wouldn’t have returned.

Doug belongs to the “Buckskiners”.  The group dresses in buckskins and they do reenactment of pre 1840 fur trade era.

His biggest obstacle is – head on learning to live without his beloved wife.

Biggest accomplishment for Doug has been his work ethic.  He’s always had more work than he could handle.  I’m proud of what I’ve done.

Words of Wisdom from Doug – “Treat people like you want to be treated”

He looks forward to his kids being “OK” when he’s gone.