Marion Fletcher:  

October 15, 2018 Retirement is good. My 3 grandsons continue to excel. The oldest thrives on working and going to college; the middle one loves to invent and is in touch with a large company who has offered him more guidance; the youngest just won a spot on a traveling basketball team at school. As you can tell, my daughter stays very busy! Now I'll have more time to soak up all this good stuff. October 16, 2015 Dad's November memorial service in Chesterland was a very nice tribute to his life. Thank you to those of you who were able to be there. This holiday is difficult without him. The Christmas holidays have been warm, in weather and spirit, right here in NE Ohio. I'm busy teaching my grandsons how to play ping pong. We always play a lot of board games, charades, and card games with extended family and friends. The teacher in me recognizes that this kind of enrichment "is priceless". (Yes, just like the TV commercial about 'pick-up sticks'.) My middle grandson finally is on a pump for his diabetes, and it's getting him off the 'glucose roller coaster" and into a balanced life. I enjoy my job, as always. In a few days we'll all be of into a new year. Happy New Year to everyone! Sunny May 2014 Dear Friends, My dad, Ted Willis, died of heart failure on April 2, 2014 after a very brief illness. There will be a memorial service forthcoming. I stayed beside him for 48 hrs. before he died, singing him the love songs from the WW II period he had taught us all as well as our silly Camp songs; reciting poetry he loved, esp. "The Children's Hour"; massaging him, putting lotion where his skin was chafed; telling him the stories of our youth- he even laughed at some of my confessions (and some of you were busted with me- sorry); I fought off Hospice with him, and we lost; and I stayed with him after the end. This is when he smiled and I felt his peace and finally knew Heaven through his hand in mine- a moment I cannot explain. This is what lets me be strong. My siblings have their memories. These are just a few of mine. As most of you know, my dad was both my mother and father. He timelessly brushed the tangles out of my long hair when I was young and gave me attention mom couldn't. He accepted that I could not be still and I climbed and jumped on everything. He actually answered my zillions of "why" questions, treating me with respect for my ability to understand the answers. (Of course, he also 'answered questions' I did not ask, was not particularly interested in, and/or disagreed with.) He understood how I was so serious about things as I got older and how easily I could become restless if I wasn't kept busy. I went to Lincoln (The Factory) with him most Saturdays for years and played by the trains, tried typing, used the gas spectrometer and electron microscope for my Science Fair projects, and found many other 'toys' and people to keep me busy there. (If left at home unto my own, I drove my family nuts-and vise versa!) Many Sunday afternoons I spent with him shooting skeet at African Acres across Sperry Rd. There were hours and hours spent skating on our pond and riding horses. Did you know that Dad loved chaperoning our dances? Yep, he wore burmudas, his white ducks with his bowtie and tux jacket! As many of you remember we celebrated the Christmas/New Years time with a formal Ball at our home. Dad loved those! He was even pretty socially in tune with the times then! After all, he wore long pants and a long tie! He wasn't happy about his daughters having boyfriends, so he interviewed our potential dates. He only broke 1 guy's hand by shaking with him in Dad's "I know what I did when I was that age." way, though he did absent-mindedly close the door in the face of another guy. He fondly remembered taking 3 of us to Minerva, Ohio for french horn trios. He liked to stir things up a bit at Alpine Valley, getting us busy with lessons so he could have fun on the slopes. He remembered our friends (even in his 90's), asked about them and welcomed them as his own. He was especially happy meeting my friends at OWU. He even drank part of a beer once while sitting with a couple of you guys at The Jug, though usually he took my roomates and I out for dinner, or he cooked out along the Olantangy many times with a few of us. He always visited the college President to discuss the anti-war efforts going on at OWU that he was 'worried' about. I guess these were his ways to keep me in college, when I was so homesick and didn't want to be there. Dad so loved everyone at Christ Church in Chesterland! After our fire, not only did you feed us and put clothes on our backs, you all even guarded our property in the bitter cold! Your love brought tears to his eyes. At our cottage, I would get up early just to have some quiet time with Dad before the whole place woke up and his every second was taken. He would take me on our own canoe trips to Snowshoe Lake when he wanted to get my attention on a matter, or keep me away from a boy up there. However, there was a one-eyed, huge bass that would follow us around that little lake and we were so determined to catch it that Dad would be too distracted...and the boy up there just followed and joined us. Dad would do the dishes with us kids and our friends and we would sing along with the Musicals (how he loved our high school Musicals! "Guys and Dolls", "Brigadoon", "The Music Man", and others). "The Sound of Music" and "The King and I" were very special to dad and I. When he took Kerie and I to see "The King and I", it was Yule Brenner's last performance. We sat in the middle aisle of the second row. Playing records in the big kitchens made our chores worthwhile. Dad would make almost everything fun. I try to continue that in my life. Though some of you knew him as stern and serious, I don't think he ever ign...Expand for more