Holiday Letter 2009

December 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

So many sad things to report during our last year, so many happy! Sometimes they blend together in rollercoaster fashion, so it’s hard to separate them.

Perhaps saddest of all was the unexpected death of Karl’s brother Eric from complications associated with colon cancer surgery. Eric was not only a brother but also a quasi-parent to Karl, and a dear uncle/friend to all of our family. At the same time Eric’s memorial service occasioned a remarkably happy time as 23 descendants of John and Edith Kurtz (including spouses) gathered in Boston, along with hundreds of Eric’s friends, to celebrate his life. Eric’s many string quartet partners played for hours the music that suffused his life. It gave comfort to his family and friends. We especially think of Dick and his loss in this holiday season.

Just a few weeks after Eric’s death, our sister-in-law Marie, wife of Karl’s brother David, also died unexpectedly after a brief illness. We join David and his family in grieving her passing.

2009 was an extraordinarily momentous and changeful year for our daughter Emily. In the space of 5 months, from May to September, she starred as Golde in Boulder High School’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, graduated from high school, took trips to New York City to indulge her passion for musical theater (with Janet and Merilee) and Hawaii (visiting Sarah, a gift from Eric and Sarah) to celebrate her graduation, spent a week at a church work camp at an Indian reservation in North Dakota (with Andrew) and enrolled at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and declared a music education major. Whew! She handled it all with élan. Emmy is flourishing at Willamette, singing in a women’s choir, co-hosting a weekly radio show with a friend and involved in lots of other extra-curricular activities. She enjoys a nice single room in an upper class dorm and appreciates the richness of college life and new friends.

Andrew, now a sophomore at BHS, is our only child left at home. His life revolves around school, sports, a charming girlfriend and “hanging out.” He had a good season as one of the top players on the freshman basketball team last winter. This fall he is playing on the sophomore team and is also occasionally moved up to the junior varsity. He also played on the freshman-sophomore soccer team this year. He did well in a sport that he had not participated in for more than 3 years. Andrew was the captain of all 3 teams he played for this year. He has just obtained his driver’s learner permit and is enjoying learning how to drive.

Further on the sad milestones front: Our 11-year old golden retriever, Eldorado, succumbed to kidney and liver cancer earlier this fall. Cancer was the official diagnosis but we speculate that he died of a broken heart when his best buddy, Emily, departed for college. Eldo accompanied Janet to work on many days and from his lair underneath her desk served as deputy (dog) director of the YWCA. Andrew cannot remember a time when Eldo was not part of our family’s life. His passing has left a hole in our lives. We scattered Eldo’s ashes in S. Boulder Creek above Eldorado Springs at Thanksgiving, when Emmy was home from college.

Our older children—Eric and Jeanette and their children, Micaela, Talia and Jasper in Denver, and Sarah and Sean with their children, Elena and Abby in Hawaii—continue to flourish. Sarah has gone back to work as an occupational therapist, as the accounting and temporary employment service that she and Sean own in Honolulu has suffered a downturn due to the bad economy.

The YWCA has had another banner year, not yet suffering from the economic downturn, although there are signs that that may occur in 2010. Janet has had a complex management challenge dealing with the possibility of a merger and acquisition in which the YWCA would take over a family therapy and counseling center in Boulder County. As yet, the funding that would allow that to occur has not appeared, so the project is on hold for now.
Karl has had extraordinary opportunities to work internationally for the National Conference of State Legislatures in the last year. He has been involved in legislative strengthening programs in Algeria (twice), Oman and Kosovo. These international activities in support of democracy-building in other countries are an extension of the work that NCSL does in the U.S. He has found them challenging and exciting.

Janet accompanied Karl on one of the visits to Algiers and indulged her fascination with all things Algerian going back to her year as an exchange student in southern France. She loved the (somewhat faded) elegance of the L’Algerie Hotel, a peaceful oasis in the midst of a teeming city. The hotel was General Eisenhower’s North African headquarters in 1943. During both of Karl’s trips to Algeria, the country was gaga over the Algerian soccer team’s efforts to qualify for the World Cup in 2010. We witnessed wild and crazy celebrations over their victories. The Algerians succeeded in this quest through an overtime victory over archrival Egypt and will be playing the United States in the 1st round in 2010. We’ll watch that with unusual interest as a result of our Algerian experience.

Karl was happy to have a “young man’s” cataract removed in one eye two days after his 64th birthday (an event that was celebrated by family and friends singing the Beatles’ “When I’m 64” at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park). He is enjoying greatly improved eyesight as a result and looking forward to having the same treatment to his other eye after the first of the year.

Janet and Karl cashed in on taking Emily to Willamette U. by adding on a wedding anniversary trip to the Oregon coast. While Emmy was experiencing an outdoor education orientation for incoming freshmen, we had a delightful few days at Cannon Beach. During this trip we had the opportunity to connect up with one of Karl’s college roommates who lives in Portland and with old friends of Janet’s from her college days who were on a group vacation in Oregon. It’s a beautiful state, and we look forward to getting to know it better.

Our family luckily avoided a potentially disastrous situation when we were driving on I-70 on the western slope of Colorado on our way to Redstone for the 4th of July. A stack of unsecured tires riding on the flatbed of a truck ahead of us suddenly bounced off. One of them came to rest in the lane in which we were traveling. Without time to stop and hemmed in by traffic, we tried to clear the tire in our Honda Pilot, but it ripped out the underside of our car. Fortunately, we were able to keep the car under control, and no one was hurt. The Pilot, though, was a total loss. Andrew recently asked Karl if he was happy to have had the accident and gotten a new (used Lexus) car (which he loves) out of it. Karl said that he was sadder about the accident than he was happy about the new car.

So it goes with happy and sad! We know that all of our friends and family have had their own mixture of joy and grief, and hope that you have come through these mixed experiences as well as we have. Among our blessings we count the continued vitality and health of Janet’s stepmother, Wilma, still going strong at 98.

By the time you receive this letter, we will be in Hawaii, staying at a Marriott resort on the southwest coast of Oahu and visiting Sarah and Sean for 11 days. Hence the visual graphic of this stationery. Our photo this year was taken in spring for our church’s directory and is the last family portrait with Eldo.

A full moon is scheduled for New Year’s Eve and we look forward to raising a glass on the beach that night to all of our friends and family, saying good-bye to a tumultuous 2009 and wishing for peace in 2010. We bid you all a happy holiday season!

Love, Janet, Karl, Emily, Andrew