Life as We Celebrate 49 Years of Marriage...

View from the deck into a portion of our son's backyard.

We are spending time in Richmond, VA with our oldest son, John G. Worden and his family.

Photo taken Dec. 2013 - boys now tower over Dad...

Inside our son's Chick-fil-A restaurant...

Following is an email update I sent to some family and friends today.  This version will come with photos to illustrate my thoughts.

Stephen, age 13, Dec. 2013

Dear Folks,
We have been in Richmond for almost a week and it has been filled with lots of activities of this busy family as they prepare for the start of the school year and handle all the usual aspects of life.

Stephen, age 15, had jaw surgery on August 10th.  For some reason, his jaw was out of alignment and he was unconsciously grinding his teeth while he slept. This caused significant deterioration of his teeth.  The surgery broke his jaw in two places and allowed the realignment of his jaw. His two bottom wisdom teeth were also removed and on his right side, a hematoma in his jaw was removed.  To preserve the new configuration of the jaw, his teeth were "wired" together (with very strong rubber bands).  This is projected to require 6 wks of healing before he can begin to open and close his mouth normally.  He will live on a liquid diet during that time.  At Stephen's first follow-up Dr's appointment, the Dr. felt he had an abnormal amount of swelling and bleeding which he feels
could be strong indicators - along with other things such as flexibility/looseness of joints - of a disorder called Ehler's/Danlos Syndrome.  But that is not yet confirmed and will take testing by a genetic's specialist in
the future.

The 2nd post-surgery Dr. visit received a much better report.  Stephen's swelling is decreasing each day and bleeding has stopped. He does not have pain.  He can be understood mostly when he speaks.   He is very good about making his own liquid meals using the soups and items the rest of us are eating.  He has not been complaining about any discomfort and inconvenience.  He of course cannot participate in sport activities now so is catching up on sleep and summer school reading.

Diane is back to school full time with teacher meetings and Kindergarten room prep.

John and I have:
1.  been doing cooking and household fixing projects...
2.  shuttles to volleyball practice which is 5-8pm 3x a week

On our far left is #20 - athletic and beautiful

Stephen and his Mom...

3.  Dr's appm'ts for Stephen and Joanna - she had a fractured ankle













4.  Reading classes at U of Richmond - Wed. am/Lydia;  Wed. pm/Joanna 5.  3 day volleyball tournament this Th. - Sat.

Game Night with Catan...

Braiding Lydia's beautiful locks...

John and I squeezed in an anniversary lunch on Wed. the 20th at the very beautiful Jefferson Hotel built from 1892-1895.  It opened in order to host the wedding parties and guests of a "Richmond beauty to a famous Richmond artist, Charles Dana Gibson."  He would become most famous for the pictures he painted of gorgeous girls based on his wife's beautiful face known as the Gibson Girls. The hotel burned in the early 1920's but was rebuilt and still is host to many people and elegant parties.  This was a sweet way to celebrate 49 years of marriage. 

Jefferson Hotel, Richmond, VA

My delicious lunch at the Jefferson...

August 20, 2015

August 20, 1966

Wedding party August 20, 1966

John and Diane took us to dinner in the evening.  The high school 3 were at a birthday party so Lydia was with us and picked her favorite Italian restaurant.


We took time to share our Moldova mission trip photos and stories last night before bedtime.  Hooked my laptop to their TV so had clear vision.

This next week will be about the same.  The children have one last week of summer vacation.

Will send this with thanks for your thoughts and prayers.  We are thankful to be here to share life with this busy family.

All for now,
Linda and John