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Monica Haban (Brown)

Father Robert AKA Steve Hodges and Deacon Bill Reid leading our remembrance of deceased class of 1966 members.  Father Robert then gave us his blessing.  

Thomas McKeon

What a great time.  I love our class and everyone in it.  Tess and I will remember this for ever as one of our favorite places and things we have done together.  Mary Claire and Bonnie put on quite a marvelous evening that I think all who attended will agree.  God has blessed us with such a great group of friends and I consider us all to be family.  

Thomas McKeon

And Bonnie is actually Janie love to all 

Michael McLeod

Thought for the day:

"People need love the most when they deserve it the least."

I'm not sure where that came from; I can only tell you who I heard it from: Jim Tressel.

Go Bucks!

So nice to be reading your reunion remembrances.

ok I guess it should be "from whom I heard it." 

But that would sound pompous and there is debate on the supposed ban to not end sentences with prepositions.

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Lorraine and I kept the vibe going as we were seatmates on our flight back to the West. What a wonderful event our reunion was. Blessed to be there and have such great friends... Too early to start talking about 2026? Thank you, everyone ... 

David Mitchell

Gosh, it did not occur to me until Clare made a comment as the crowd was thinning down late in the evening - we completely forgot to take a full group photo.

(Or maybe some of us would rather not have that on public record)

And still smiling to myself about Steve's Oscar movie recitation - one of the strangest, yet interesting things I have ever heard. What a kick!         So comforting to know that such an accomplished friend shares my O.C.D. - (Just think. We all knew him back when....)

My favorite part - "The Bridge On the River Kwai, where Gigi and Ben-Hur built the Apartment for West Side Story.........."   (we should have caught the whole thing on video)

In the future, I propose we levi a fine on those who should have come but didn't - I won't mention any names but their initials are something like John Jackson and Mike McLeod.

And some sort of trophy for whoever travels the farthest - would that be Joe McCarthy? And maybe runner-up medals for Jeanine and Dr. Jim? 

Mary Ann Nolan (Thomas)

On behalf of three best girlfriends from OLP we thank everyone who planned executed and delivered a wonderful night of love, laughter, hugs and catching up!  
We personally want to thank Janie and Mary Clare, Toni would have been so proud❤️
Mary Clare your home and beautiful yard made for a perfect venue even during the rain.

We so enjoyed meeting your husband and your darling grandchildren who were most gracious and extremely polite. I have only one regret Mary Clare and that is I wish I would have known your friendship as well as others back in the days of Watterson and OSU. After all we share a birthday!

Love and thanks to everyone for all the memories.

Mary Ann Nolan, Kathy Burk and Barb Boggs.

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Thanks, Mary Ann and all. It was a great turnout despite the rain. Dodging the raindrops during the first hour or so actually helped us bump into people we might not otherwise have talked to so it was all good. The look & feel of lasting friendships was on display all evening but especially when I would talk with your OLP & the Sacred Heart & St. Agatha groups. Hope everyone from far and near has returned home safely, with wonderful memories and renewed connections that will bring us back together for the 60th in 2026!! Make plans now!!! 
Love,

Mary Clare

PS. I've told you before but I never knew anyone else in the whole world who shared my birthday.  It's nice having a birthday twin. Let me know if you're coming to Columbus ever and we'll toast our many years!!

Michael McLeod

Sorry I missed it Mary Clare, Mary Ann and all  -- but even though I did I feel like thanking you all of you who worked on it for your generous hearts in pulling what sounds like a fabulous event together.

Michael McLeod

I'm a sucker for understatement. 

From her book-length obituary in the Times: 

Elizabeth’s own children seemed less immune to marital calamity.

May God bless the queen. Hers was as close to a fairy tale as real life gets. And we'll not see the likes of it again. Not by a long shot. 

Michael McLeod

Do yourself a favor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFyuOEovTOE&ab_channel=beralts

I'm researching him for a story about a performance by his granddaughter.

My lord what a voice. I'd forgotten.

He experienced horrendous racism but persevered with dignity and, o my, eloquence.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

#NeverForget 

"O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths
and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.
We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here—
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and
Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives
with courage and hope.

We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.
God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.

Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

Pope Benedict XI--Prayer at Ground Zero
New York, 20 April 2008 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Folks,

Before flying back to Colorado I just had to make a quick trip down the Ravines of Clintonville after all that rain to see how Adena Brook was flowing through the Overbrook Ravine. 

 It    It was flowing full!

   Jim

Michael McLeod

Thanks Jim.

I've seen a bit of the world and there's nowhere any more beautiful and flat-out idyllic than that little neighborhood. A part of me wishes they'd close off the streets - maybe to anybody but home-owners - but I guess that's impossible. 

Michael McLeod

Because I know you were all wondering:

Queen’s corgis will live with Prince Andrew and Fergie, spokeswoman confirms

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

To be able to turn east off High street or west off Indianola and go along Overbook or Walhalla to experience the different ecosystem that is the Clintonville ravines is truly amazing. 

To me those ravines are right up there with photographing the golden autumn aspen groves on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

For our classmates who were not raised in zip code 43214, if you have not been through them I highly recommend you do so, both now when they are green but also in the fall as the colors change. 

Jim 

Michael McLeod

Take a breath down there in that tree-lined glen and you realize you're suddenly taking in a richer mix of oxygen.

One more reason I just shake my head at how idyllic childhood was for many of us.

Not that it was a Disney cartoon by any stretch. But it was a golden era. Most of us lived it out in a privileged place, and as innocents in many ways, not just because of our age but because of the particular timelline and belief system that cushioned our childhoods. 

Mark Schweickart

Perhaps not as innocent a memory as Mike's, but for one who didn't grow up in that neighborhood, my memory of Overbrook was as a place of seclusion to park late in the evening. Although it was not so idyllic if occasionally an officer's flashlight came tapping on the car window. Ahem. 

Michael McLeod

Ha. Thanks for the reminder Mark. Somehow I never got in on the misadventures of the Overbrook glen scene. Seems I've heard a story or two from maybe you or Jack Maxwell, not all of them as romantic as yours.  

David Mitchell

A complaint from:

The Department of Absolutely Nothing to Do With Anything:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I simply haven't been getting enough news about Ben and Jaylo lately. 

David Mitchell

A little over a week ago, I took a drive north.

I had had so much rain lately and wanted to get away. I left in a driving rain storm. The next day it rained hard again as I headed into Cincinnati to spent a few days with my youngest daughter.

And then hated to leave.

So I headed further north - and a bit east - to a place the radio station used to call "The Big C".  

More rain along that drive. 

There was a party at an old folks home that included a few friends. No actually, a lot of friends, but mostly very old. How they had gotten so old I could not tell. 

And guess what? It rained some more - and hard.

But I stood out there in the rain with the rest of those old people and had a wonderful time - but not enough time. Not enough time with Tom and Tess, or Beth. Not enough Keith and Tommy. Not enough Clare or Janie, or Susan, or Jeanine, or Sheila. Barely enough of big Mike or Steve (some long lost priest who wandered in from the "left coast"). Almost no Julie or Dan or Nina, or Jack, or even my "neighbor" Mary Ann, etc. etc. etc.  

And how about you? Did you get enough?

No,,, I don't mean rain.    I meant enough old people? 

But I cheated. After a fun pizza luncheon the next day, I had a final lunch on Tuesday with Kevin Ryan - one on one, and one of my main men - just on my way out. But it was way too short. We should'a ordered something more expensive. We'd would have had to sit longer.

I'm sorry to complain so much, but I just didn't get enough of y'all.

And again, I hated to leave.

Can't we do this more often? Like every month?

(Bob Berkermer thinks so - I just had an email chat with him and he missed due to back surgery)

Guess what?  Driving home from one of my Vietnam buddies near Atlanta (my last stop), it poured - hard.  We have "standing water" all over the place - - - but no "old people".

Never been this homesick in my life.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave et. al.,

Yeah, that was a lot of rain, something that we need more of out west.

But, look at the good side, Dave, it really made Hayden Falls look fantastic!

Jim

Mark Schweickart

Dave – Sorry to hear that your party-in-the-rain was so unceremoniously crashed by a bunch of old folks. I guess that is bound to happen as the number of our reunion increases and the attendance decreases. These events, I am sure, are not intended to be a momento mori, but yikes, how can it be otherwise. It is one thing to avoid mirrors in one's own home, but seeing our teenaged classmates transmogrified into their seventy-something selves... well, as I said... yikes.

I didn't attend the reunion, but I was struck by this momento mori feeling the other night when I was watching an unusual Rom-Com on Netflix called "Destination Wedding," starring Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves, both around 50. Aside from their age being a little old for most Rom-Coms, the film was highly unusual in that these two leads have the only speaking parts in the entire film, which I thought was a bold stylistic (and no doubt money-saving) choice to have been made by the writer/director. The film was also unusual in the unwavering cynicism expressed in the non-stop banter between these two characters. The age-reminding exchange that provoked an "Oh, Ouch!" response from me went something like this: Keanu is talking about his step-father’s new girlfriend, and Winona says,”You can’t call a 78-year-old woman a ‘girlfriend,' that’s ridiculous.” Keanu then asks, “What should I call her?” Winona shrugs and replies, “I don’t know… an ossified, pre-dead corpse friend?”

As I said, "Oh, Ouch!"

Michael McLeod

thanksalot mark now i'm planning on looking up momento mori while making a guess before i do, remembering as always my mother's advice as a clue for the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase  - "look for the latin root" - then groping around in the dark with the assistance of words I'm familiar with, like morbid,  moribund. mortuary. By the time I got to the dictionary I was already depressed. 

David Mitchell