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Still A Kicking

4205raymond4205raymond Member Posts: 3,281 ✭✭✭✭
edited November 2023 in General Discussion

This will probably be a long winded post. My apologies. I probably owe a explanation. Please don't you folks feel sorry for me. Thank you all for your concern. I have had a rough time of it for a couple of years now.

Started with my friend Bill about two years ago. He fought in Normandy and passed away around two years ago at 93 years old. Bill was a master carpenter and helped me remodel my house in the early days. I learned so much from Bill. He was on my Gun Clubs Pistol Team. This team had several NY State Champions for years and back in the day they shot shoulder to shoulder with the cadets at West Point and beat them. Bill was also a rifleman and shot big bore with me at Blue Trail, Ct. and several other places in NY. Bill was not a small bore shooter. I shot small bore in the Winter League at West Point for quite a few years.

Then my best friend in the whole world Gerhard (Gerry) passed away. We chased Whitetails for 55 years together in the Adirondack Forest Preserve and when we got to old we dropped down to the southern zone where the mountains were not as high. Gerry escaped the Communist sector in Berlin and came to this country for a better life. He was a Berlin trained tool and die maker and finished his last 20 years at IBM in R&D. On Saturday (Vet Day)I sat on a five gallon bucket next to Gerry's marker in Goshen Veterans Memorial Cemetery and wept. I was glad I went because they had installed a marker beneath Gerry's for his wife Ursula.

Then my friend John who was recording Secretary of my gun club passed away. He was my sponser and encouraged me to join club in 1964 I believe. We had same heart surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian and he also did Bill Clinton and Barbara Walters.

I will post now and continue on to make sure I can still post.

Just before Christmas last year, the love of my life Diane passed away after 59 years of marriage. Diane was the Deans Secretary at West Point and the Dean's office admin. I was Westy's driver at the Point. She had atypical tumor in left lobe the last two years of a six year care by me. By the "Grace of God" my daughter Heather and I kept her out of a nursing home. She passed away holding my son and daughter's hand in each of her hands at home.

I thought there is still hope for me. My little dog Willie is my Salvation. I will take my guns and Willie and get out of this Communist State of NY and go live in my house in Virginia. Then the end of March my little Willie passed away. In my 80 years, I have had three other dogs and nothing ever effected me like Willie's passing. Now i know, Ken and others are right, I should have probably looked for another dog. The pain in my heart was unbearable, I never loved anything/anybody like I loved Willie.

On September 26 my life long friend and Army buddy John from Piedmont, SC passed away. We had a long talk a couple days before. John and I were the last two in our company at Ft. Jackson in 1961 after basic and AIT to get orders and the only two that were sent to West Point. We never knew why. John was a sky diver and jumped at Stewart AFB via 2nd Aviation and at Wallkill. He tried so hard to get me to jump but I never did. In the early days John and his wife Katie came to visit my family at Lake Norman, NC ( where the Nascar drivers seem to live). In 2005 my Army buddy's and I had a reunion in Las Vegas and I took Diane with me. We had a great time. A few years back, John drove up from Piedmont, SC to visit with me while I worked on my house and property in Virginia. John was the real deal. My heart is broken over John but he will live there forever. RIP brother, Well done.

I came home Saturday night after sitting on that five gal. bucket in the Veterans Cemetery with my hunting partner's marker and thought maybe GOD has forgotten about me. The world is on FIRE now and he really has his hand's full. But you know he did not forget me and was watching over me the whole time.

On Sunday morning out of the clear blue sky my daughter Heather walked up behind me while I was on the computer and surprised me. It is a long 2+ hr. drive from upstate. She unzipped her jacket and there was the cutest little puppy I ever saw, just like my Willie. He commenced to licking my face and i was completely overwhelmed. He is eight weeks old and has the same personality as Willie. His name is Parker but I will call him Willie Junior maybe JR. My SIL has a good friend in Albany who is Amish. They use the barter system pretty often and his Amish friend has a friend in Norwich, NY who had Willie Junior. It was a complete surprise and my BIL in Houston and my daughter split the cost 50/50. I will probably lurk for a while as I will need to give Willie Junior lots of love and attention. ---------------------------------Ray

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