Ethelwynne Alo Chung-Hoon Rycroft Rogers - 1926 to 2010

I lost a sister today, Ethelwynne Alo Chung-Hoon Rycroft Rogers, who was born on December 5, 1926. She lived in Simi Valley, CA which is in Southern California. She is survived by 5 children, Tom, Patty Jean, Bob, Bill and Sandee; numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and extended family. Also 2 sisters Marie and Viola and a brother Paul. She was affectionally called "Eke".

Eke was my father's youngest daughter from his first marriage. There were 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls. There are also 6 children from my father's marriage to my mother, 2 boys and 4 girls. I am my father's 9th child, the 6th daughter. Of my family, she is survived by my brothers Eddie and Sam, my sisters Nani, Ernie and Naomi, nieces and nephews.

I got a message on Facebook from my nephew Tom earlier this evening telling me his mother had passed away about 5pm California time. Tom lives in Washington, DC. She was surrounded by family and had spoken with Tom and her sisters Marie and Vi in the last couple of days.

She had breast cancer several years ago and had a mastectomy. She underwent chemo treatments and was cancer free. Then 2 years ago the cancer came back. It was a strange strain, when she had chemo treatments the cancer went away and would stay away for a time then it would appear again. Last fall she fell and broke an ankle. The chemo treatments had to be stopped so she could heal. The cancer came back and spread and affected her liver. I also heard from another niece and she told me she spoke with Eke's youngest daughter Sandee this morning. Sandee and her daughter Nalani were laying in the bed with Eke. Eke lived with Sandee. Eke's oldest daughter, Patty had flown up to California for the weekend to be with her mom. Patty lives in Hawaii on the island of Maui.

A Celebration of Life is planned for sometime next month.

Regretably, I have not been close to most of my family and had not been in touch with Eke for several years. I feel bad about that, however am comforted in the fact that she had a very close knit family and a lot of them were with her in her last days. I am also comforted in knowing she is no longer in pain. I don't know where she was spiritually; I don't know if any of her family were believers, however, I am praying that somehow in their grief and pain, they will come to know that God's love and comfort surrounds them during this time.

I called Gerry in Idaho to read the message from my nephew. I was doing ok until about an hour or so ago, the tears came then and my husband is not here. I have the assurance that God's love and comfort surrounds me and so I know I will be alright.

Lunch Today with Irene

I met my friend, Irene, for lunch today at Arigato's, a Japanese restaurant in Roseville. Irene and I were classmates at Kaimuki High School in Honolulu. She actually was part of our 9th grade class at Kaimuki Intermediate but we didn't meet and become friends until we started 10th grade at Kaimuki High. She and her husband are retired and live in Del Webb's Sun City in Roseville. We found each other on Classmates web site a few years ago. We contacted each other and were going to get together. Then somehow that didn't work out and we didn't get back in touch until a couple of years ago. I think the last time we got together was sometime last year.

When I found out Gerry was going to be going to Idaho, I emailed her and we made plans to get together. Whenever we do see each other it is usually a two hour lunch. :) There is always so much to catch up on.

Kaimuki's class of 1960 is celebrating their 50th class reunion in April. I didn't graduate from Kaimuki, I graduated from Kailua High. My family moved from Honolulu to Kailua on the windward side of Oahu during the summer before senior year. I started my senior year at Kaimuki, however it was too long of a commute into Honolulu each day so I had to transfer to Kailua High. Irene is going home for the reunion. Kailua High's reunion is the end of March. I hoped to be able to go home for one of them, I really wanted to go to Kaimuki's. I don't think I'm going to be able to do that so Irene said she would take lots of pictures. We are going to get together again before she leaves. So many of the kids in the class of 1960 at Kaimuki were classmates from the 7th grade.

After I left her I went to a store called Home Goods. There is a store in Vacaville which is west of Sacramento on the way to the Bay Area. We have stopped at that particular store when we've been in the Vacaville area. The store in Roseville hasn't been opened too very long. It is a super neat store. I didn't find what I was looking for so I stopped at Marshall's in Citrus Heights and then Ross Stores in Citrus Heights where I found some of what I was looking for and then came home. I left home at 11:00 am and got back about 3:45pm.

It was a nice day, there were some clouds and the sun peaked out some. I didn't need a jacket. Soon as I got home though, the clouds got heavier and it is now raining.

I talked to Gerry earlier and he will be heading home on Thursday. He said it should be good weather, no snow is predicted. Rain is predicted off and on here so there may be snow when they get to California.

Sunday

I met Elizabeth and Jenni, two of our daughters, at the Olive Garden for lunch today. I was so happy that Jenni was able to join us. She took her kids to her mother-in-law's so she could come. Elizabeth's girls stayed home by themselves; they're all teenagers. Anyway, we had a very enjoyable time together. It would have been really nice if Denise, Joyce and Wendi could have been there too. Of course, Denise lives in Alabama, Joyce lives in LaPuente (So. California) and Wendi is in Idaho on the ski trip. She lives with Joyce and her family.

I had a dish called Pork Milanese, a new dish. It was two pieces of pork scaloppini that had been breaded and pan-fried along with cheese tortellini that was in a garlic/butter sauce with fresh spinach. It was very good. I brought half of it home. Jenni had Fettuccine Alfredo and Elizabeth had a Baked Ziti dish with five different cheeses and marinara sauce. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Both girls are camera shy so they would not have wanted me to take pictures.

I came home after we were done. Elizabeth was going home to do dishes and Jenni had some errands to do. We will have to get together again some time soon.

Our weather is still cloudy days with the sun peeking out once in awhile. Rain is forecasted again for the middle of the week.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with a high school friend who lives in Del Webb's Sun City in Roseville. We haven't seen each other for a few months so it will be nice to get together. We are meeting at Arigato's in Roseville for sushi.

Well, I should head to bed. I didn't sleep very well last night. Gerry told me this morning he didn't sleep very well either.

Saturday Night

I was going to post last night but I watched TV until late. Yesterday I went out to the Placer County Fairgrounds in Roseville where the Gem Faire was being held. I pulled into the parking lot and the line for the ticket booth was almost out to the street. If a person is on the mailing list and received a flier in the mail, there was a free pass for Friday only so that probably accounted for the crowd. It took just a couple of minutes to find a parking space even though the lot was pretty full. As I walked away from the van, a guy from the fairgrounds was walking down the row and telling people that all the cars parked in that particular row were parked illegally and would be towed. Well, since I was parked in that row, I had to move the van. There was no sign or anything at the beginning of the row saying you couldn't park there.

I was only in the show about 30 minutes. It was jammed packed in the building and I can't stand crowds. Most of it was beads for making jewelry. There was some jewelry, mostly Chinese people from San Francisco and Los Angeles who had alot of overpriced jade and pearls. I didn't see anything interesting so I left. When I came out to the parking lot, some of the cars parked illegally had moved, however people were still trying to park in that row.

From there I was going over to Rocklin, the next town over to a scrapbook store that was closing. For some reason I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to get over to the scrapbook store. I probably took a round about way to get there!! I walked in to the store and the first thing I notced was that the checkout line snaked around about a fourth of the store, the store is quite large. I picked up some cardstock and then decided I didn't need it that bad to stand and wait in the very long line. So I did something I've never done in a store before ... I just put the cardstock I had picked out on a shelf and walked out. I didn't even try to put it back where I found it. I felt bad about it later. That is so out of character for me.

I hadn't had any lunch yet and I needed to stop at Bel Air for a few things so I drove over to the Bel Air by the church we use to go to. Next to it is a Chinese restaurant. I went in and had some lunch then went to Bel Air.

The sun was shining while I was in Roseville and Rocklin. I got home about 2:30 pm and the clouds had already moved in and the temperature had dropped quite a bit. Another rain storm was suppose to be moving into the area but it didn't start raining until early this morning. It has been foggy all day. Tomorrow it is suppose to be sunny.

Gerry has called at least a couple of times each day. Today he went skiing with his oldest son and he told me they had a good time. His son didn't try to do anything crazy and take him down any scary runs. Then this afternoon he went out by himself for a little bit. He is wanting to do some snowshoeing. He took a class last year, I think, and really enjoyed doing that. It might have been the year before he took the class.

Tomorrow I am meeting my oldest stepdaughter for lunch at Olive Garden. She was going to call her sister that lives in Citrus Heights and see if she wanted to go. It has been a long time since I've done anything with my stepdaughters so it should be fun.

Well, I am going to play some Mah Jongg and then go to sleep.

My Second Day Alone

I left lights on last night when I went to bed. It was after 11 pm when I went to bed. I got up a couple of times during the early morning. I slept very lightly and kept opening my eyes to look around the bedroom.

I got up at 6:30 this morning and turned on the TV. It was foggy and yuck outside. Well, I basically spent the whole day watching TV, didn't get my shower until almost noon. I intended to work on my closet, however I did not get there. Actually it felt good to be completely lazy.

About 4 pm it started raining and it has not stopped. At times it has been pretty heavy and the wind is blowing too.

Gerry called about 8 pm and we were on the phone for almost 2 hours. My husband is quite the talker. I just listen. :)) They got up to the condo after 3 pm. Two of the grandsons went out to snowboard for awhile. While we were talking Gerry told me the wind was blowing pretty hard outside and it was blowing the snow all over the place. He said he took quite a few pictures driving there. He was going to send them to me but they couldn't get an internet connection so they will have to call the lodge office in the morning.

Tomorrow the rest of the California group is flying in, they will stay until Monday or Tuesday of next week. Gerry and his son will probably head back Wednesday or Thursday, depending on what the weather is like by then.

I sure hope the rain stops tomorrow. I want to go to the Gem Faire in Roseville. Also I got an email that a store I go to often to find colored cardstock lost their lease and is closing the end of the month. Everything is 25% off in the store so I thought I'd go by and try to get some cardstock. They have a wide assortment of colors.

I probably should go clean my dinner dishes. I panfried a pork chop, baked a potato and microwaved some frozen peas for dinner. It was very good and filling.

Yearly Idaho Ski Trip

Gerry left early this morning to drive to Mt. Home, ID for the yearly ski trip with his kids. His youngest son who lives in Roseville went with him. They use to fly, however last year they decided to drive. They have to pay extra for their ski/snowboard bags and then when they got to Idaho, they would rent a van for a couple of days to be able to transport everyone up to the ski resort. This year he was taking the ski equipment and a baby carseat for a cousin who is going on the ski trip. She, her husband and their baby are flying up to Boise tomorrow (I think). One of his daughters and a granddaughter who live in Southern California are also flying up.

Gerry's oldest son who lives in Mt. Home organized these ski trips 10 years ago. They go to Bogus Basin outside of Boise to ski where they rent a couple of condos to stay at. I think this is Gerry's 5th trip. He doesn't ski a whole lot.

He called about 5:15 pm to let me know he was at his son's. He said they had to chain up getting out of California. Then in Nevada there was snow on the road so they followed a big rig so they could drive in its tracks. He said it snowed through Oregon and into Idaho. It rained here early this morning so snow in the mountains was to be expected.

So I am by myself for a week. I'm planning to get some cleaning done, like cleaning out my closet. It is worse than a national disaster, I can hardly get in it. And work on getting my craft room organized again. I've got a couple of lunch get togethers too so I should be able to stay busy and make the time go quickly. I do okay during the day, the nights are rough though.

It was a beautiful day here today until about 2 pm then the clouds started rolling in. I think more rain is expected the rest of the week.

Well, I'm going to watch some TV until I just can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Today

The day started with the sun shining and in the 60's early this afternoon. However, soon as the sun went down the clouds came in and it is cold now.

We drove out to Old Town Folsom today and ate lunch at the Sutter Street Grill. Sutter Street is the main street through Old Town Folsom. Sutter Street Grill is always very crowded. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table which wasn't too bad. We both had breakfast, Gerry had eggs, potatoes and sour dough toast. I had a diced ham scramble with an English Muffin.

After we were done eating we walked for a couple of blocks looking in some of the shops. When we got back to the van, we noticed a huge sign. Evidently Sutter Street is going to be revitalized. A couple of guys walking behind us stopped and looked at the sign for a minute. One of them said it was going to look like a miniature Disneyland. It will be a shame if the revitalization really changes the look of the street as it is now.

I noticed on the weather page in The Bee that more rain is expected this week.