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Our Senior of the Month for March, 2018, is none other than our own Suzi Collins.  Suzi was born in Watertown, MN, on November 29, 1945.  Watertown is about 30 miles from Minneapolis and was founded in 1858.  She discovered on a recent heritage tour that the house her great grandparents had is still there and the hospital in Watertown, which was owned by the local doctor, is also still there!

Suzi is the eldest of four children, three girls and one boy.  Her beloved sister, Kathy, died the day after she turned 65 years old and Suzi is still bearing the weight of that loss.  When I asked Suzi about marriages she said, wryly, “More than once but less than Liz Taylor!”  She is extremely proud of her daughter, Stacy Suzanne, who is the Vice President of Conversant, a digital marketing company which just expanded to three additional states!

Suzi has had many occupations including a clerk-typist, a security guard, a realtor, a loan officer, and, for a time, she drove an 18- wheeler across country.  She has been the secretary at the Senior Center for almost 4 years.  She organized the Eagle Point Fourth of July Parade for 8 years and has been on the city Planning Commission for 11 years.  A woman of many talents!

The most interesting thing that has happened to Suzi was a trip to Australia in 2001, right after 9/11.  She says it is an awesome country with beautiful and friendly people.  She says the AAA tour was well worth the expense: the 14-hour flight, not so much!

Suzi’s biggest obstacles included overcoming some terrible losses.  She lost her sister, and her best friend.  She also lost the most awesome little dog, Radar, whom she loved deeply.  He was born with no eyes and Suzi filled that role in his life.  She misses him still.

A genealogy search revealed that Suzi is half German and half Norwegian, and she discovered that she is a Princess!  She is directly related to King Harald of Norway!  Of no less significance is the fact that Suzi met Elvis Presley when she was 15!

I asked Suzi to give me some words of wisdom.  What has she learned over the years?  She said, “I have learned you never know when you’ll be called home so tell your family and friends that you love them.  It might be your last chance to say it!”

What she looks forward to is driving to southern California to her All Class Reunion every year!  She loves the Reunion and she loves seeing her friends who still live there.  She treasures these trips but she can hardly wait to get back home to her beautiful Oregon and her beloved Eagle Point!

The Senior of the month for February 2018, is Jeanine Sterrett.

Jeanine is 62 years old and we enjoy her company at the Eagle Point Senior Center on a regular basis.  

Jeanine has overcome many obstacles and challenges during her life.  She was placed into a foster home during her teenage years. Very little is known about her biological family as she does not have contact with them.

Jeanine has lived in the Dabel Family foster home off and on since 2007.  She is a huge asset and joy to her foster family. She lives with two other MRDD (Mentally Retarded Developmentally Disabled) foster sisters and has grown very close to the Dabel Family.

Jeaninne has many challenges but does not let that stop her!  She has worked for SOU as a janitor and currently volunteers her time and service to the Eagle Point Senior Center working for Food and Friends.  She is a very hard worker!

Jeanine is a lover of animals and has her own goat!  She has 3 rabbits for which she takes sole responsibility.  She also makes sure the 3 family dogs and the cat are fed and watered every single day.  She never forgets her animals and is a wonderful advocate for them.

Jeanine enjoys coloring, camping, and going on vacations, especially to Mexico.  She has visited Mexico 5 times and is anxious to return.

Jeanine is very active in her church.  She attends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints every Sunday.  Jeanine loves Jesus Christ and tries hard to serve him by showing love to all those around her.

We are happy to have Jeanine as part of our Senior Center family.

The Senior of the Month for January 2018 is Millie Wewerka.  Millie was born in Michigan and was raised as the eldest of five children.  She had two younger sisters and two younger brothers. One sister and one brother have passed away.  Her remaining siblings still live in Michigan. Millie has many nieces and nephews and the nephews far outnumber the nieces.

Millie has one son who is a Civil Engineer in Medford.  Millie was widowed in 1995 when her son was in college and she says she is now “set in her ways” and will likely stay single.  She has three grandchildren, all elementary school age. Two boys and one girl, still a preponderance of boys!

Millie worked as a librarian in the Library of Congress for 40 years.  She lived a few years in Washington DC and then moved to the suburbs of Maryland and commuted for many years.  She got used to driving the commute and dealing with all that traffic. She says her driving habits have changed substantially since moving to Eagle Point!  Her son met his future wife in Maryland and she was a Southern Oregon girl so they moved out here and when Millie retired, she joined them in Eagle Point. She is glad to be here.

While living in Washington DC, Millie was called to be part of the jury pool for the Watergate Trial but was not selected.  She did, however, serve on a Federal grand jury which was called to hear fraud cases. Not only was the prosecution permitted to ask questions of the accused but the jury was as well.  In one instance the jury asked questions of the accused and his answers added up to an admission that he did it!!

When asked what her biggest obstacle was, Millie said her reluctance to try new things.  She feels she has two things that are her biggest accomplishments. In her personal life, she is justified in a feeling of accomplishment associated with raising her son who is professionally successful and a good Dad.  In her professional life she is proud of the fact that she worked on cataloging library standards that were adopted by libraries throughout the United States.

Millie says her best advice would be to trust God even if you are fearful or anxious.  Millie looks forward to continuing to be productive and helpful. She not only works for Food and Friends, which is how we know her, but she is also on the City Planning Commission, she is a neighborhood coordinator for the Eagle Point Food  Project, and she is a voluntary tax preparer for AARP and therefore, entering her busy time of year.

We are proud to know Millie and glad that she is part of our Senior Center Family.

This December we celebrate Harry Garber.  He is a regular with us at the Eagle Point Senior Center.  He joins us for lunch and plays Bingo on Monday and games on Thursday.

Harry was born in 1953 in Pittsburgh, PA, on May 8, which, Harry mentions, is also Truman’s birthday.  He is adopted and has no siblings.  Harry has not been married and has no children nor does he have any connection with the military.  He was a class officer and a cheerleader for all four years of his high school tenure.  Harry is an upbeat individual and always has a kind word for his colleagues.

When asked about the most interesting thing that has happened to him, he will recount that in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he met Mikhail Gorbachev in a Holiday Inn.  Harry was serving as a concierge in the hotel and he brought Mr. Gorbachev and his wife food that they had ordered.  He said the Gorbechev’s had a taster and the fellow was very careful that what was brought was safe for the famous couple.

Harry tells us that his biggest obstacle is understanding and operating a computer.  He is still working at it!

He feels very fortunate in that he has two mothers!  He was adopted the first time when he was three days old.  His first adoptive mother passed away from cancer when he was 10 and he was adopted again by his Aunt and Uncle who were in their 60’s.  HIs second parents were named Mary and Russell and Harry says he was fortunate that they were such positive influences in his life.  Russell, his Dad, always said, “You don’t have to follow in my footsteps but if you do, do it well!”  And his Mom, Mary, told him to “put his big boy britches on and get going!”  These were definitely smart people and these are words of wisdom.

When Harry was asked what he looked forward to, he said he is trying to find his real family and is looking forward to the knowledge that he will gain when he finds them.  Thank you, Harry, for being our Senior of the Month for the Eagle Point Senior Center.

Our Senior of the Month for November 2017 is Bobby Swartz.  He is a frequent visitor at the Senior Center and often enjoys lunch with us.  Bob is one of 13 children born to his parents in Montana. He is registered as being born in Missoula but he was actually delivered with his 10-year-old sister serving as a midwife, cutting the cord and performing other required duties that she learned having helped deliver livestock on the ranch.   Bob was born on May 27, 1939 and is midway in the succession of children. He and I laughed over the letter we recently saw in Dear Abby where a woman is complaining that her husband was sharing a sink with this sister! Bob’s family of 15 resided in a two-room house so sharing was the order of their lives.  His mother was 12 when she married his father and she had her first child at 13. While his father died rather young, in his 60’s, his mother lived to be 100 years old!

Bob was married once and that marriage ended in divorce.  Later his wife passed away with cancer. Bob says the treatments were what killed her.  They have two children. They adopted a boy and two years later, became pregnant with a girl.

They owned a beauty shop in Santa Barbara and both Bob and his wife practiced cosmetology and styled hair.  They employed 8 people and the business was a success. Bob spent 4 years in the Navy and can find his way around on the ocean, no matter where he is going.  He has a lot of Scandinavian blood in him and is quite the seaman.

Bob says if you want to know his belief system, you should go to ECKANKAR.org.  He says we are incarnated many times but only have one spiritual life. Bob’s sister, Dorothy, committed suicide and he knew immediately that she was instantly reborn into a baby in Canada.  When one commits suicide, one’s reincarnation is immediate and worse than the incarnation you chose to leave! Interesting! Go to that website to expand your understanding.

When I asked him what his biggest obstacle was he told me that it was trying the make a marriage work and it just did not!  Bob was confident that he could do anything he set his mind to and he was mightily confused when this just would not work out.

His biggest accomplishment was running a successful business and raising children until they were old enough to care for themselves.  He was put out at 3 years of age and his older sister took him in a raised him.

His words of wisdom for all of us are, “The Golden Rule is real.  We must do unto others what we would have done unto us. What we do to others will be done to us!  It is all about balance!”

What Bob is looking forward to is a quiet departure with all debts paid!

We are lucky enough to have Judy Vaughan as our Senior of the Month for October! She started the interview by stating that she is the wackiest woman around and further, she said, “I do it on purpose!” She is funny! Last winter, we had an issue with our heater and it was cold in the Center. Judy said, “If it doesn’t warm up in here, I’m going to have to go out on the street and find a MAN!”

Judy was born in Crescent City, CA, in 1938. She is number three in a family with four children. She has two brothers and one sister who is 13 years Judy’s senior.  Judy was often “stuck” watching her younger brother. She says he would eat or drink anything sweet so she would give him something made with the bark of the local cascara tree, long used as a laxative, and “it would keep him in the house for a couple of days and I could have some  time to myself!”  🙂

Judy tells me that her cousins and siblings are quiet but Judy has one weakness, she never shuts up! All her siblings are gone. Judy is the ‘last leaf on the tree.” Judy lost her parents when she was 10 years old. Her Dad was a heavy smoker and had a heart attack. Her mother died shortly after from what the Doctors called leukemia but Judy thinks she died of a broken heart! Judy was very close to her Dad and she said she threatened her kids with “great bodily harm” if they ever tried smoking. None did! Judy has 2 sons and one grandson.

Judy has worked as a mail carrier in Josephine County for four years and she took care of children in Klamath Falls. For a time, she took care of a cabin in the Yukon. The cabin was on a lake and when it got to thirty degrees below zero she would have to break up the ice on the lake to get the days water! She said the most interesting thing that happened to her was on the Yukon highway once. They often saw bears in their travels and once she said, she saw 6 bears! “5 on 4 legs and 1on two legs in a blue uniform! The ticket cost $140!”

Judy’shusband did a short stitch in the Navy and both her sons have served. The younger son was in the Army for 4 years and her eldest son served 8years in the Navy, much of it on a submarine.

Judy’s biggest obstacle was related to her health.  She had double pneumonia when she was 18 months old and it resulted in asthma!  She said the asthma just went away three years ago. She remembers her Dad sitting up with her to get her through the pneumonia.  He had a wide rocking chair and he would rock her for hours. Her Dad was small but mighty. He was a featherweight boxer but gave it up.  She spent lots of her youth “fighting for breath” and she feels like “living to be 79” is her greatest accomplishment.  Judy also is an accomplished cook and loves to travel. She would like to see Yellowstone Parl<.

The best advice Judy has for a young person is to stay in school but follow your heart. She was a complete tomboy as a kid and wanted to be an Indian.  She would read about the Indians and try to be just like them including cooking over a fire, hence her love of cooking. She says she “was just as wild as any Indian ever invented!” The worst mishap that ever happened was when she was living with her sister. They had joined the Mormon Church and brought some “high mucky mucks” home for dinner expecting Judy to prepare it. They had left her a pork liver to cook for dinner. Only problem was she didn’t know how so she just threw it in a pot and boiled it up!  Imagine what she presented to the group, a platter with a whole chuck of unidentifiable something that looked like … Well, I can’t imagine!

The senior of the month for September 2017 is our own Judy Jorgensen. Judy is a regular at the Eagle Point Senior Center and we are glad she is part of our group.

Judy was born in 1940 in Hibbing, Minnesota. Hibbing, at that time, was the home of some huge open pit iron ore mines. These mines, and the iron ore that came from them, were crucial to the war effort. Judy’s Dad was given a deferment from the draft as he was an electrician at the mines and considered to be of more benefit there than in the military.

Judy has one brother and two sisters. Judy is number 3 in the progression of siblings. Judy’s sister has lost two daughters to cancer within a very short time from each other and close to when she lost her husband. Her sister is tough! Judy has been married twice and while both marriages ended in divorce, she is convinced that all parties are better off! She has two children, a son and a daughter. Her daughter has given her 2 grandsons and 2 great grandsons! Her daughter wishes for a girl but it is not yet to be! Her grandsons have done well for themselves. One is a phlebotomist in Ashland and one is a skydiver! The skydiver, Jeremy, is one of the people who “drop” into Eagle Point on the fourth of July. He always says, “Gee Grandma, I sure hope I don’t hit that goal post!” Judy hopes so, too!

Judy has had a wide range of professions in her life. She worked in retail sales in a children’s shop and she loved that. She liked doing the little kids’ fashion shows. As a kid in High School, she worked at Glacier National Park. And she worked at Biomass in White City. She operated the truck scales and really enjoyed that! She worked the night shift and would read murder magazines. The truckers would ask her if she would get scared reading about those murders in the dead of night. She said, “Well, I didn’t think about it until you mentioned it!” They would tell her that they liked to get her mad because she was more fun when she was mad! She said it was quite an accomplishment to learn how to run a truck scale after herding toddlers in fashion shows! She said she did 2 years of home health care.  She didn’t care for that job.

Judy says she has not encountered many obstacles. She says if she came across something she didn’t like, she’d change it!

I asked Judy what advice she had for her 10 or 12-year-old self.  She said, “I would say ‘Get your s— together!’ I was a wild child.  I didn’t like school. Should have had a tutor. I did get my GED though.”

What Judy looks forward to would be peace. She says the world is too mean to animals and kids. “If I could die and that would fix the meanness, I would do it!”

Our Senior of the Month for August is Larry Baldridge!  He is the manager for Food and Friends that serves meals from the Eagle Point Senior Center every weekday all year long.  They will be serving nearly 10,000 meals per year out of the Senior Center and we are certainly glad that Larry is heading up this worthwhile project.

Larry was born in Van Nuys, California, in 1948.  He comes from a family with two children, Larry and his brother.  Sadly his brother died 18 years ago and Larry misses him even today.

Larry has been married twice and had four sons from those marriages who range in age from 25 years to 43 years.  Larry started work in electronics for Boeing Aircraft  in 1969 in Seattle.  He moved to the Rogue Valley in 1976 and worked in the timber industry for 31 years.

When we asked Larry about the most interesting thing that ever happened to him, he couldn’t name any single incident.  He said, “There are too many interesting things to mention.   I have had a very interesting life!”

When asked about the difficulties he has faced he referred to what he called “The bad year” about 18 years ago.  Everything came at once.  The company that he worked for shut down after 21 years.  His wife of 16 years left, leaving him a single parent raising two young children aged 5 and 8.  He home schooled one of his boys while working graveyard shift trying to make ends meet.  And that was the year he lost his best friend, his brother.  Any one of those things would have been bad enough but to have them all come at once was overwhelming.  But Larry got through “the bad year” and we at the Senior Center are glad he made it.

Larry raced sailboats and was part of the Rogue Yacht Club.  Their races took place as Howard Prairie Lake.  He loved that and found it to be lots of fun.  He also loves his HAM radio and has been licensed for 30 years.  Larry says it is like a “world wide phone book”.  You can find him listed if you go to QRZ.com on the internet and put in his call letters, KB7RHS.

Larry considers his biggest accomplishment his four boys.  He says that he loves and is proud of every one of them even when they get on his nerves!

Larry always tries to encourage young people to go to college.  He puts a lot of stock in an education.  He says to them, “Don’t drop out of school.”  He also says one should maintain your relationships as friendships are crucial and fellowship is vital.  “In the end, our friends are all we have” Larry says.

When asked what he looks forward to Larry said “My goal is a 1000 pound per year specialty garlic crop!”  He loves his job with Food and Friends.  “It is a perfect little retirement job because I love being around people!”