News
The Originals
Richard Peske
27 April, 2006
Message from Nancy:
G. Richard Peske is back in town
Hey everyone! Sorry to be out of touch. My dad came for short visit last October and somehow contracted a particulary nasty form of pneumonia which resulted in 6 months in the hospital and/or rehab. He’s on the mend, getting his strength back in his legs, hands, and arms to walk again—and he’s decided to permanently relocate from Denver to good old Milwaukee.
Dad’s currently in Eastside Rehabilitation Center over on Woodstock near Terrace Ave. and St. Mary’s Hill (phone: 414–271–1020; and he’s got my cell phone: 917–797–6445). The phones are iffy there, so it’s hard to get through. After rehab, he’ll go to an independent living center; we’re looking at a few now. He’s asked about John Dowling’s memorial service in May, so keep us all posted [see below — Tegan].
Nancy
Helen Wellin
26 April, 2006
Helen’s obituary, forwarded by Chris, follows. His email said: “This was a peaceful end to a long ordeal; recent months were good, spent at home, with friends, books, warm support. Peace, Chris”
Helen Virginia Haggerty was born in 1926 and raised in Norwich, N.Y. A gifted singer and musician, she went on to study voice and English before earning her bachelor’s degree in 1949 from Syracuse University. During college she met and married Edward Wellin. The couple, who divorced in the late 1960s, had three children-Susan (of Las Vegas), Sara (of Boston), and Christopher (of Oxford, OH). She also leaves many loving grandchildren. Mrs. Wellin resumed her education past the age of forty, completing a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which she had begun some years earlier at Columbia University.
Before retiring in 1990, Mrs. Wellin served for fifteen years as a juvenile probation officer for the Milwaukee County Court System. In that position, and in her twenty-five years as a Shorewood resident, she impressed all with her deep intellect, humanity, love of literature and music, and her stalwart friendship. A witty and estimable woman, she will be sadly missed. The family wishes to acknowledge superb support during the past year from the Cancer Care specialists with Columbia-St. Mary’s Hospital, and from Horizon Home Health services. A private memorial service will follow later in the season.
John Dowling
28 April, 2006
Hi, all:
We’ve scheduled John’s memorial gathering for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend - Sunday, May 28, from 3 to 7 pm, at Kirstin and Al’s bar, the Harp and Shamrock.
Kirstin has offered to close the bar to the public for that time, so it shouldn’t be very smokey, and the date being a holiday weekend, parking should be ample. We’d like it to be a comfortable - even fun? - social event, and decided to make it a potluck dinner.
So please come, and bring a dish (ethnic food is encouraged, but not required). If you can, please let us know whether you’ll be able to attend. There should be a few non-anthropods in attendence, and I think the mix will be a good one.
Holler if you have questions, Love,
Tegan
8 September, 2005
John died just before 3:00 am on Sunday, August 28. Bill and I drove down to Arkansas, leaving Milwaukee Tuesday evening, arriving Bella Vista Wednesday mid-afternoon. Wednesday evening, Fran had a “friends and family” gathering at the funeral home. Thursday, John’s brother and one of his daughters, John’s other brother’s widow, her new husband and both of her children, drove over from Oklahoma City. We visited for a while and then, as John had requested, we went to the Bella Vista Yacht Club. There we rented a pontoon boat, went for a beautiful, sunny ride, found a lovely, shady inlet where a great blue heron looked on as Fran poured John’s ashes into the lake. I had a CD of Woody Guthrie singing “This Land is Your Land”, which I played as we pulled away and headed back to the Yacht Club. There, as instructed by John, we had a dinner party.
Friday morning Ethan and Colin came to visit for a few hours. Bill and I headed home around noon; we got back Saturday before noon.
Those of you in Milwaukee may have seen the obituary in the paper on Sunday, September 4. Fran would like to have a memorial gathering on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, in May 2006. Please save the date - details will follow eventually.
We thank you all for your many messages of condolence and remembrance. John being gone still just seems to me like some great horrible con - it’s such obvious bullshit.
Bill was the driver of the pontoon boat for our excursion, and he tells me that he had to force himself not to point out to us that we spent most of the ride in a “No Wake Zone”. I think he should have mentioned it then, of course - John would have groaned.
Love to y’all — Tegan
16 August, 2005
John has been fighting esophageal cancer for over a year, now. He’s had all the conventional radiation and chemo that his body can tolerate - it’s very hard to maintain your general health when you can’t take any food by mouth - and he has been receiving an experimental chemo that has no side-effects.
The experimental chemo has no beneficial effects, either, his latest tests have just revealed. Although when he’s lucid, he is determined to continue to take this chemo and fight on, he becomes thinner, weaker and has longer periods of illness-induced confusion and dementia with every passing week. He’s become prone to falling (of course) and to bouts of pneumonia.
Fran has conducted most of the struggle with this largely-downhill roller-coaster ride on her own, with help from a few Arkansas friends. Her dedication, strength and bravery have been amazing to me, and my admiration and gratitude are overflowing. If things go as planned, John will be released today from the hospital, where he’s been recovering from the latest round of pneumonia, into a nursing home that is just 10 minutes from the house, and which has turned out to be an even nicer facility than we’d dared hope would be available.
His hearing is not very good, and his powers of concentration are sporadic, so I don’t think phone calls would be very rewarding for him or his callers, but I expect he will be able to appreciate any cards or letters he might receive. I’m thinking of digging out the boxes of old photos and laying a bunch of them out on the glass of a photocopier, so I can send a whole slew of pictures that he hasn’t seen for decades.
I’ve put his address in the ContactList, for those who might be interested in sending mail. Thanks, folks! — Tegan
”Kids” and grand-children
Holly Tappen
18 April, 2006
Holly’s message, announcing the Art Show, below: Silly, I know, but the group is really quite good. Any ideas on a reunion this summer? Martha, Julia and I are going to Rep of Georgia again, so will be gone in July. Is August a good time? My parents are finally well and adjusting to the senior living facility. They call it “The Home”.
Take care everyone. Great love to all.
-Holly
LIVE BAIT* Art Show
8 Minnesota emerging artists, HOOKED to their art critique group by UM Professor David Feinberg, hope to LURE you to an exhibit of their paintings and sculpture
- subject matter unrelated to bait
|
Louis Allgeyer
Mary Jo Bartos
Anne Facente
David Feinberg
Mary Houghton
Beth Karon
Jeff Lohaus
Holly Tappen
Thrace Soryn
|
CATCH “Live Bait”
April 16 – May 26
Undercroft Gallery
2136 Carter Avenue
St. Paul
651–645–3058
Artist Reception
Sunday, April 23, 2006
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
|
Martha Tappen
16 August, 2005
Hey, Holly: Can you bring us up to date? Or even Hey, Martha: You out there? — Tegan
