Christmas, 2025

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all!

What a year 2025 has been, both good and bad! January 4th saw the birth of our second "great", Shiloh James, born to Grandson Teddy and his wife Sarah. Shiloh is baby brother to Benji who, at the time, was not quite 20 months old. They are both adorable…of course!

In February our community put on a show called "Broadway Plus 2025" which included mainly singing and comedy. Dick was the emcee and introduced each act with a short joke. He also did a short "Comedy Central" schtick. Gee and her sister Marty did the song "Sisters" from the show "White Christmas" and "Bosom Buddies" from Mame. A good time was had by all, and we are back in the planning stages for "Broadway Plus, 2026".

On a less happy note, this year has brought us some health challenges. Dick has had several Mohs surgeries for skin cancer; cataract and glaucoma surgeries; and a "small" stroke with a small brain bleed in April. I put small in quotations because technically, it was a small event, but, despite the prognosis, he has not come back as fully as anticipated.

Speech, language and numbers were the areas affected, and he IS doing much better, but he often has trouble coming up with the word he's searching for, he mixes up pronouns, says one number but writes a different one, and has some difficulty making sense of…or retaining…what he's reading. Needless to say, this produces some frustration for a man who has been a very verbal numbers guy all his adult life. Fortunately, his sense of humor is still intact, and he's still able to laugh at himself and at humor in general.

The day after Dick came home from the hospital after his stroke, Gee's sister Marty went into the hospital with abdominal pain. Eventually, they did a hernia repair which was a success, but, for an unknown reason, her body crashed, and she coded. They intubated her, stabilized her and moved her to ICU. She had another month in the hospital with things going from bad to worse but eventually finding enough improvement that she could be moved to rehab, where she spent another 2+ weeks regaining her strength and relearning how to take care of herself.

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

Dick & Gee Sauvageau

Naples, Maine
        
Cell phones:
    Dick: (203) 512-2057
    Gee: (203) 744-4193
        
Email addresses:
    geesauvageau@hotmail.com
    dicksauvageau@hotmail.com
        

She will now tell you, nearly six months later, that she's at about 85%.

We delayed our northern migration until Marty had been home for a few weeks and was better able to fend for herself, so we didn't get to Maine until July 9th. Unfortunately, our trailer had been "home" to a number of rodents over the fall/winter/spring and I spent the first 2 weeks we were there cleaning up acorn shells and mouse poop, sterilizing as many surfaces as I could.

We were lucky that our next-door neighbors there, Maureen and Gary, had found the mess in the spring when they did a walk-through of our camper and Maureen spent part of every weekend getting rid of the resident mice. We are truly lucky to have such great neighbors and friends!

About 3 weeks after we arrived back in Maine, all of our kids, grandkids, great grandkids and even both former daughters-in-law came to the state park 2 miles from us. They weren't all there the whole time…in fact Cristy and Tiffany were only there about 12 hours…but we still managed to get some time with our entire famdamily. The picture on the next page shows just about everybody who was there except for Jennifer who spent part of a couple of days there but wasn't there for the picture-taking and Cristy and Tiffany who also weren't there on that particular day.

There aren't a lot of changes for most of our kids or grands. Scott and Amy continue to live and work on the horse farm, although Scott also works as a programmer for Travelers Insurance. Kayleigh (26) still lives and works on the farm as well while she edits and reworks her novel.

Teddy (29) and Sarah had Shiloh; bought their first house; Teddy started a new job AND they're raising both kids, so, yup, a lot of changes for them!

Tim has changed jobs although he's still working as a hospice nurse. Ethan (18) graduated from high school and completed his second year of community college. He's also gotten a part-time job working at a skating rink. Alden (20) doesn't seem to be doing much of anything. He takes one college music class, has no job and lives at home. He's a nice kid but seems to be thinking he can get through this life on just his charm. Ember (who turns 5 on January 1st) is in kindergarten in a Montessori school and seems to be a bright, happy little girl.

Tim's ex-wife Cristy continues to be in our lives…mostly by telephone, although she and her daughter Tiffany, who turned 5 on December 12th, did fly from their home in Hawaii to Boston where her brother, who lives in Maryland, picked them up and brought them up to Sebago for a day while we were all there.

Michael and Ayden (22) share an apartment, as do Michael's ex-wife Jennifer and Alex (17). Ayden is finishing his community college classes and will be transferring to UConn. He had a wonderful girlfriend – Imani – a young woman from South Africa who was an au pair for a family in New York. Imani's time in the states ended in October and she has returned to South Africa. I'm sure it's been a tough transition for both of them. Alex is a senior in high school and is beginning to think about the possibility of community college for next year…and this is a girl who used to hate school!

Well, that wraps up the Sauvageau family news for 2025. We wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season.

Dick & Gee