Onyx Anneau Spring 2021

their outdoor walks and cooking adventures. Carolyn Boehnlein Parrish has been caregiver for seniors the past two years. Her mom had dementia and diabetes. When her Dad died (May 1987) age 65, Mom lived in a nursing home. As caregiver, she works clients’ homes, run errands, etc. She loves it!! She is finally continuing to write her own book this year. God bless America and all her classmates! Mary Angela “Angel” Brown Menestrina and husband, Rick are both enjoying retired life even with the social restrictions due to the pandemic. They are hoping to close on a place in Panama City Beach within two weeks. It will be a warm escape from these Indiana winters plus they will be just across the street from her brother, Rick, and his wife, Kay. Margaret “Meg” Swift Rogers and husband Allen are both retired. Their oldest daughter and her husband moved to Duluth, Minnesota in time to welcome their second child, a boy. It was an awful pregnancy, so she got to shelter in place with them and granddaughter, Aubrey who just turned 4. Their youngest daughter got married in 2019 and lives nearby. Meg drove her mom from Indiana to San Diego where she spends her winters and back home in March because she refused to let her fly during this pandemic. Frances “Fran” Christian Olender’s son Sam and his wife Katie who live in Arlington VA had a baby boy, Jackson on February 21 just before COVID hit so they could be there to meet him when he was born. She was also able to visit again over Fourth of July. They came to Fran’s for Thanksgiving. The whole family quarantined for two weeks prior so they could celebrate safely. Such a blessing. As for Tom and I ( Catherine “Cathy” Ley Cornel ), we’ll be celebrating our 40th Anniversary this May. Not sure if we will be able to travel this year. Luckily, we live near the grandkids and since we are all quarantined, they still get to have Friday night sleepovers at ‘Grandma’s house’. C L A S S N O T E S ’81 Corinne Kreiner-Bardgett 6100 Wanda Ave Saint Louis, MO 63116-2225 cbardgett@aol.com Michele “Shelly” Maher Aff and husband Terry’s 40th wedding anniversary is in July. Daughter, Annie had their first grandchild, Evelyn Grace. Aaron’s wife is expecting a baby boy in April. They are spending their retirement (near Nashville) golfing, boating, quilting and visiting family. They are serving on the SMWC Board of Directors. Beverly Groeber Williams and husband, Jimmy finally became grandparents last year. Charlotte will be almost a year old before they get to see her! Parents, Ben and Sarah live in California and had an adventurous 2020 — between COVID, wildfires and random rolling blackouts! Daughter Katie moved to Austin, Texas, in January 2020. She is hoping to see Constance “Connie” Land Beasor soon and June Karabinos Didier in the grocery store.

Shirley Smith Bergman and Mike celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary attending a beautiful Mass and ceremony for couples married 50+ years in the Diocese of Palm Beach. They culminated the day with lunch at a wonderful Chinese restaurant. The bachelor degree in home economics from SMWC nearly 40 years ago came in handy in 2020 as she sewed face masks for family and friends. Eileen Pfeiffer posted on our 1981 Class page that Judith “Judy” Richardson Drummond passed away in January 2021 from pancreatic cancer. Corinne Kreiner-Bardgett vacationed in the COVID friendly mountains of Colorado. Lost many elderly family and friends over the year not due to COVID. Have been working from home and clearing clutter. Family is well. Our grandchild has been accepted to Rosati Kain High School. Time flies. Reminder it is our 40th Reunion! Need to celebrate. Don’t forget we do have a class page on Facebook to keep in touch throughout the year. ’82 Sally King Backer 5968 Ponderosa Ct Saint Louis, MO 63128-4304 sally.bckr@gmail.com Diane Welsch teaches history and humanities as an adjunct. She has been taking care of her best friend and mother who died Dec. 11, 2020. When the reunion was held in Florida, she loved coming with her. The most important part of life is spending time with those you love. ’83 Anne Marie Keough 600 S Dearborn St #1907 Chicago, Illinois 60605 ak4c2d@yahoo.com What a year 2020 was! I hope all of you and yours have been spared in this pandemic. I’ve always been a bit of a homebody, and retirement didn’t change that much, but when matters of the public health make staying home a necessity, it starts feeling restrictive. I’m resolved to get out more when this pandemic ends. Patricia “Patty” Griffith Benton reports her life is the same old, same old. COVID didn’t change much, except for wearing a mask when going outside, and Patty works from home anyway. Patty said she’s that meme about not realizing until a pandemic starts that maybe one is a bit anti-social. Eva Gankiewicz Merkel reports she will be retiring as superintendent at Lakeland School Corporation at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. She and Glenn will be moving to Key Largo, Florida, for some new adventures! Bridget McCormick Meschen says she stays in regular touch with Mary O’Brian Wade , Mary Ann Bannister Schulte , and Helen M. Andrews . She said her most recent involvement with The Woods was a Zoom meeting with the Southern California SMWC alums and President Dottie King, where President King covered the new dorm and dining hall. Bridget says she hopes this new format of Zoom meetings will help us to stay better connected, COVID-19 or not. I think it will. I had a Zoom meeting last night with Nancy Payonk ‘81 , Alice Sherfick Shelton ‘87 and other

class secretaries and agents to discuss SMWC matters, and I think this new technology holds great promise. I got a brief e-mail from Joyce Murtaugh Funk in December to wish me a very Merry Christmas, and hopes that life has been treating me well. It has indeed. At a time when people were losing jobs, then homes, if not their lives or loved ones from COVID-19, I still have a home and a secure, livable pension. I was blessed through the whole ordeal that was 2020. Kathleen “Kathy” Hahn Keiner reports her family has survived the pandemic, and are doing well. Her son Danny is head chef at a local brewery, her daughter Marie is a physician assistant in South Carolina, and her son Jacob is a social media coordinator for a senior living company in San Diego, California. I received a brief note from Jacqueline “Jackie” Giordano Morgan in the mail. Jackie says that after many years, she’s going through a life-style change, which included a move to a new address in Noblesville, Indiana. She’s not certain where this road is leading her, the road up until now having been rocky, but the path ahead looks promising. Keep us posted, Jackie! And how am I spending my retirement days? I started a blog several years ago, and I now devote more time to it. I’ve long been fascinated with how many different forms of divination (in popular parlance, fortune-telling) there are in the world, and my blog is devoted to documenting them. Some people collect thimbles and spoons, I collect divination methods. The web address is something like divinationlessons.wordpress.blogspot.com if you care to give it a look. Only there, I call myself by the alias, ‘Euphonia Carstairs’ because I have trouble owning-up to being the miscreant I am, and I like how Victorian it sounds. On another note, my elderly, Alzheimer-plagued Aunt Peg (Margaret Etter Bement) succumbed to COVID-19 on May 7, 2020. Fortunately, she was the only family member I lost to COVID, but it was still quite sad. I want to end these class notes with a reminder that our 40th year class reunion is coming up in 2023; I hope you’ll consider attending. Jan Giddens Lorenzano 13246 Brandy Ln Fishers, IN 46037-7449 jan.lorenzano@bright-ideas.org ’84 Jan Giddens Lorenzano is happy to announce her oldest son Dominic was married Oct. 31. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. Her daughter Natalie and her fiancé Luke are planning on moving back to Indianapolis from Dallas and own their own dental practice. Vince and Jan have a few trips planned this year and are excited for a change of pace. On a sad note, my 90-year-old father passed away Feb. 12. She says, “I love my work as the SMWC Alumni Board President and encourages anyone interested to reach out for details.” Mary Bee Baroody Haworth’s daughter Mim will be graduating university this spring. Christian is nearly half-way through, and Hannah is in grade

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