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Gratitude Notes, Feburary 2014

“To the Captain of the ship and her first mate: Thank you for a job well done!!!!!!!”
— Ann Hadfield

“Cuddles to you and your staff for helping us to weather the storm. It proves that Pine Run is truly our home.”
— Doug & Jen Frelick

“I’m a dour old coot. Not a trace of blarney. But I have to sing loud praises for the work your troops did during the blackout. They led us through the powerless mess with alacrity and amazing grace. Hooray for them all!”
— Gene Grayson

“It was nice to call all of the families and let them know that their loved ones were safe and had all they needed because of the awesome team of caregivers we have! So many family members expressed, I am so glad Mom/Dad is at Pine Run because you all care so much.”
— Kristy Rickabaugh, LPN, Resident Care Manager at PRHC

GETTING MARRIED?

If so, Answer These Questions.
(Abstraction from the Atlantic City Press, 1985)

Are you an imbecile? Under the influence of liquor or a narcotic drug? Of unsound mind?

Have you applied for a marriage license recently?

If you have, the above questions may look awfully familiar. They’re among the queries that some people would like deleted from the marriage license application because they feel they are archaic, unnecessary and just plain nosy.
Or, in the words of Selma Troy, registrar of vital statistics in Atlantic City, “superfluous and silly.”

“Who’s going to mark that they’re an imbecile?” she asked. “Who’s going to answer truthfully that they’re on drugs or alcohol?”

So far, nobody has really objected to the questions, she said. “They usually laugh and say, ‘Maybe I am an imbecile – I’m getting married, aren’t I?’”

Troy has also noticed another problem. “Every time they go to check where it says, ‘Are you of unsound mind?’ they usually put ‘yes.’ They misunderstand; they think it says ‘of sound mind.’ Then we have to point out the mistake and they have to cross it out…”
After five years as registrar (and 12 years prior to that spent working in the registrar’s office), Selma Troy decided last year that it was about time somebody updated the application forms.

It seemed a simple enough request. But when she contacted her superiors in Trenton, they said they knew the forms were outdated, but the applications were worded according to the letter of the law, and the only way the law could be changed was by the Legislature.

So Troy decided to give it a try. She wrote to her senator and assemblymen and to the state Public Advocate’s office. Sen. Steven Perskie was sufficiently convinced to introduce a bill, S-1569, which amends the act concerning marriage licenses.

The original law – a model of legal obfuscation – reads as follows: “No marriage license shall be issued when either of the contracting parties, at the time of making an application therefor, is infected with gonorrhea, syphilis, or chancroid in a communicable stage, is under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a narcotic drug, or is an imbecile or of an unsound mind. Nor shall any such license be issued to a person who is or has been an inmate of an insane asylum or institution for indigent persons, unless it appears that such person has been satisfactorily discharged therefrom.”

Perksie’s bill would simplify the law to state very simply that “no marriage license shall be issued when either applicant is infected with a venereal disease in a communicable stage or is currently adjudicated incompetent.”

The bill passed.

— Selma Troy

The Irene Roser Story

Later Years of Family and Travel

My husband and I arrived in the USA to meet his German mother and English father near Philadelphia. The hard thing about our marriage was that my husband’s job took him away from home for many months in a year, so we bought a small house-trailer. When he had jobs in the States we traveled all over together. I had two small children by then and they had some wonderful experiences. Our family gradually increased to four with three sons and one daughter.

Over the years I have taken the children abroad several times. We travelled around the coast of Cornwall, England and one time when the tide was out, walked to the Isle of Aran to see a church which was built in the year 700 AD. We had to stoop to get in the front door. I took my daughter to Edinburgh, Scotland to see the Edinburgh Tattoo to watch the bagpipers march down the seven hills onto the castle balconies. It is often done at moonlight and is a sight to remember.

Gordon and I finally decided to buy a time share in Puerto Vallarta, mainly for the purpose of trading it with other time shares all over the world. Because the children were then able to care for themselves, my husband decided it was my turn to travel more. My first exchange was in France – on the border of Italy – and I took a wonderful tour all around Italy for three days. Then I went the following year to Mexico and climbed the temples. I had to climb down on my knees as it was too scary to walk forward. I then had an exchange to a wonderful old mansion in Southern Ireland and travelled all around the coast there. The scenery was magnificent.

Then there was Morocco. I stayed in a very old private hotel. About 15 of us had to use the elevator to get to our top floor. It was a clangy old machine and halfway up it stopped and we could not move it. It was at least 20 minutes of agony – 15 people in a cage built for 12 – and a temperature of about 95 degrees. Finally a hole was bashed in the roof and we were hauled to safety through it. I wound up lying half-dressed on a carpet with someone pushing a glass of “something” into my mouth.
The next day, on a trip into the desert to see the cave homes, we got caught in a blinding sandstorm. The driver did a good job getting us out. By then I had seen enough of Morocco!!!

I had started working when all my children were in elementary or high school. I started as a school secretary and wound up teaching Special Education children. In getting a degree where I could teach Special Ed I attended the Salamanca University in Spain for three exciting courses. I still spoke acceptable Spanish. The courses would help me understand different methods of special teaching, so I thought. However, I also learned about other useful things such as bull fighting which I was taken to see and still think is cruel!

I retired in 1990 and have many letters from previous students who have grown to be successful people, and who still remember their school days as enjoyable – so important!

All my four children have been successful in their chosen careers. My husband and I let them make all their own decisions with just occasional help and guidance from us.

Lee, my oldest son, is a professor in Japan. He has been there for approximately 30 years. He teaches Asian religions, etc., at Temple University in Tokyo. I have been to Japan three times, living in Kyoto the first time and then in Tokyo. I love Japan and have ridden their famous “bullet” train to the northern area, and visited many interesting museums.

Stephen, a year-and-a-half younger, is a minister in a church in New York. It was very badly damaged, together with his home, by Hurricane Sandy. However, they overcame the experience admirably.

Michael, born eight years later, had a terrible accident when he was 17. But with great determination, he survived, graduated from college and started his own repair and remodeling business.

Leslie, two years younger than Michael, became a wonderful nurse and very helpful in her knowledge.

I have left one of my saddest experiences to the last. My father studied natural food diet ever since the problem I had at birth. However, due to a childhood of severe poverty, when food was hard for his parents to supply, he never could change his eating habits. He died of cancer at age 55. Prime Minister Attlee, head of the Labour Party, visited him in hospital and then wrote a beautiful letter of condolence to my mother.

I have been very lucky.

— Irene Roser (Villager)