Christmas, 2014

Happy Holidays, One and All!

One hundred years, two weeks and three days.

When I wrote last year’s Christmas letter, we didn’t really expect my mother to make it to Christmas. When she passed that milestone, we decided that maybe she was holding out for her hundredth birthday in February.

She did. We had two very small parties for her which she enjoyed immensely. At the end of the second one, as we put her back to bed, she turned to my sister Marty and said, “Now what do I have to live for?” Two weeks later she went into a coma, and three days after that she just quietly slipped away. She lived one hundred years, two weeks and three days.

Needless to say, we all miss her, but she had a wonderful life, and Marty and I have no regrets about the time we got to spend with her those last few months. We all did a lot of laughing, a little crying and then a lot more laughing. She was a wonderful Mom and a terrific friend.

After Mom’s death, Marty and I drove down to Florida, arriving on March 3rd, which only gave us a few weeks in our winter homes, but it was good to get back here even for such a short time. I hadn’t seen Dick since just before Thanksgiving, so it was especially good to be reunited with my favorite husband! (I want to give a shout-out here to Dick, who held down the fort in Florida and was wonderfully supportive while I was doing what I needed to do for me and for Mom. I’m a very lucky woman.)

Dick & Gee Sauvageau
5606 SW 58th St.
Ocala, FL 34474
(352) 873-4301

Dick & Gee Sauvageau
295 Sebago Rd. Lot 26
Naples, ME 04055
(207) 693-1185

Cell phones:
    Dick: (203) 512-2057
    Gee: (203) 744-4193

Email addresses:
    geesauvageau@hotmail.com
    dicksauvageau@hotmail.com

May found us back up north, enjoying our trailer in Maine. Aside from some cold, rainy weather in May and June, our weather the rest of the summer was really pretty nice. While much of the country was suffering, we had a mostly sunny, cooler and dryer than usual summer.

August brought the arrival of all three of our sons and their families to Sebago Lake. They all overlapped a few days, and we got to spend time with all of our grandkids and their parents. It was the first time in 4 years that Tim had been able to get out here from Spokane, so it was a real treat to have him and the boys at the state park. The cousins had a great time, and our boys and their wives enjoyed being together too.

A set-back happened in September with the death of my closest Maine friend, my crafting buddy Vivian. For 4+ years she had battled Multiple Myeloma, one of the few cancers for which there is no known cure. We all knew her time was limited, but no one expected her to die when she did. She was a very special woman who made the best of everything and always looked on the bright side. I learned a lot from her over the years, and I miss her, but I’m glad that she’s no longer in pain.

We arrived back in Florida in mid-October and left again five days later to go with 40 other members of our community here on a bus trip to Myrtle Beach. We had a great time, seeing four shows, touring Brookgreen Gardens, visiting Charleston and getting to know some of our neighbors better than we did before.

As I write this letter Thanksgiving morning, we are leaving again in two days to go on a one-week Caribbean cruise – a special deal we got at the last minute. Life is good.

As for grands – Teddy is a freshman in the honors program at UConn (University of Connecticut) and loving college life. Kayleigh is a high school sophomore, enjoying life living on a horse farm. Alden and Ethan are now 9 and 7, and are very sweet little boys. Ayden is 11, has his father’s sense of humor, and is an overall happy youngster. Alea is now 6 and wears her heart on her sleeve. She loves everybody and is bereft when anyone leaves.

Our sons and their wives have no major news this year. Their status is quo.

Dick’s still golfing – not as much as other years, because his golf league down here fell apart and he’s never really had anyone else to play with in Maine. I’m still into paper crafting, and we both still square dance.

I guess that pretty well wraps up another year in the life of the Sauvageau family. We wish you a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, and a healthy happy 2015!

Love,

Dick & Gee