2017 Postings

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I have just returned to Birdseye after spending the weekend in Katonah, same Holiday Inn of 50th, at my sister Jan Fay and Bruce Thompson's 50th Wedding 'picnic' for family. No rented tent, nice day, great food truck, Quarry Acres rocked with corn hole, washers, a ton of everyone's kids and grand kids including some of mine, but not my two greats and #3 on the way.

We did all the Cape shenanigans we do every fourth at Dave Lyon's Den in Wellfleet. He was there with all his kids and grands. Bruce just retired from local gov't work well township. Jan and Bruce still live at 298 Todd Road, 'Quarry Acres', same house they bought the year they were married. Taxes a bit different. Lynda Brooks Crowley of Chappaqua and Maine and her three-generation entourage were there, she and I were bridesmaids.

Up to date old stuff is Rodger died March of 15, after seven years of 24/7 care giving for his Alzheimer's Cancer and heart disease I did two years of total renovation on my weary soul. That old Marine Viet Nam Vet with 35 years as Ca. State Parole officer in East L. A. went out fighting as he was born to do.

I've never lived alone but on the first day I woke up and realized I was only responsible for me, and only me, well what's so hard to get used to about that? I have thoroughly enjoyed most years of the 57 years of marriage, true not to 1 husband but 4. I've decided time served is time served. I am happily done.

Love the solitude and other than writing I'm just doing what I want to do. My children, now three grandfathers, tell me " Mom you're done. All you got to do now is whatever makes you happy." Good plan, huh? I'm following it to the letter.

Judy Fay Wilson 806 State Road 145 Birdseye In. 47513 812 630 3363

The sporting world has applied many titles to Tom Gilburg throughout his long and successful career: All-Star, All-American, National Football League draftee and player, Head Coach, Hall of Famer.

Franklin & Marshall College will soon apply Gilburg’s name to the centerpiece of its new multipurpose stadium. Pending successful completion of fundraising for a new A-Turf playing surface, the College plans to name the field for its former head football coach, whose 160 career victories over 28 seasons remain tops in the program’s storied history.

An offensive and defensive standout for the 1959 national football champion Syracuse University Orangemen, Gilburg was a first-team All-America selection in 1960 and played five years with the NFL’s Baltimore Colts as an offensive tackle and punter, including in the 1964 NFL championship game against the Cleveland Browns.

Also a four-year lacrosse star at Syracuse, Gilburg began his career at F&M during the NFL “offseason” of 1964, coaching men’s lacrosse. He took over Diplomats football in 1974, compiling a 7-2 record in his first season, and remained at the helm until his retirement in 2002. His teams won the 1976 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Southern Division title, two of four Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association (ECAC) bowl games and five Centennial Conference (CC) championships following the conference’s creation in 1983.

During the second week of the 1989 season, the Diplomats rallied from a 14-0 deficit in the final 12 minutes to capture a 15-14 victory at Ursinus on their way to a 10-1 season, still the most single-season wins in F&M football history. The victory also marked the 100th of Gilburg’s football coaching career, coming in just 134 games.

Under his tutelage, eight Diplomats became first-team All-Americans. Eleven more were named the conference’s most valuable player, and six earned Academic All-America honors. Remembered among his players for his frequent exhortation toward that extra measure of effort, “It’s time to put the hay in the barn, boys,” Gilburg was inducted into the F&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and the MAC Hall of Fame in 2014.

I am still living on Colonial Place in New Haven, CT, with my oldest daughter Debby, and three of her children who are currently attending college in New Haven. Her oldest daughter lives in the next town and is the mother of two children, who come to visit frequently. I retired in the summer of 2013 after over fifty years of nursing and have been enjoying time with family. I now have five grandchildren, two great grandchildren, a black lab named Tyler and a very bossy calico cat named Zoie. My medical situation has been a real challenge for the doctors at Yale, who have been trying to find solutions for persistent and rare infections that have resulted in multiple hospitalizations. This year was particularly rugged, and we got to know the members of the "911 team" and the ER folks very well.

Our house is almost one hundred years old, but has been really comfortable for us. I am getting around with a cane/walker at home and have a transport chair for distance. I can live on the first floor and have everything accessible. I sit on the back porch several times a day to watch Tyler race around the yard and bark at anything that moves. I have an apple tree next to the porch that is doing well and has over 100 Macintosh apples right now. It was supposed to be a dwarf tree, but the garden center obviously made a mistake, because the branches are almost as high as the second floor windows.

My other two children live out of state. Kimberly is married and living in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee with her husband and son, Brian, who is in his second year at University of Tennessee, Kim is working in the school system with specially challenged children, and her husband retired from the Connecticut prison and is now restoring old jukeboxes, game machines, etc. They spend a lot of time at the lake and enjoy water sports with their dog. My son, Chris, has been in San Antonio for the past fourteen years and has no plans to move back to the colder climate. He and his long-time girlfriend have a house in the northeast section of San Antonio and have adopted two dogs and a cat that arrived on their doorstep. Chris was in advertising for over ten years, but wanted to have a more peaceful job with some regular hours that would allow him more time at home. He is now working in retail electronics at Walmart and can walk back and forth to work. His girlfriend works in an assisted living facility in the same area.

We recently lost two very important people in our family. My mother, Louise McKelvey Holsapple, died at home on February 8, 2017 at the age of 101. She was well until the last year and a half, when she required twenty-four hour care and was no longer able to do many of the things she had previously enjoyed. She had many friends of all ages and a wonderfully supportive pastor from her church. Many of you may remember her as a classroom teacher and a ballroom teacher with Jeremiah Richards in the Chappaqua dancing classes. When she retired, she became a professional oriental brush artist and exhibited her paintings at the Hammond Museum and many other places. She sold some of her prize-winning paintings, but gave away just as many to family and friends. We all miss her every day. She is survived by her brother in Richfield Springs, NY, with whom we celebrated his 100th birthday in July at his farm. Then in May, we unexpectedly lost my children's father, whom we had thought was in good health and happily writing songs and traveling all over the country. He was there for all of us, and was particularly kind to my mother. We all traveled to Nashville in June for his funeral and musical remembrance.

My sister, Mary Holsapple Sarubbi is still living with her husband, Kenny, in Roselle, Illinois. Mary has had some complicated medical problems that that require help from family and keep her from being as independent as she would like. Her five children are grown and have families of their own and live within a few miles of her home. Last year Mary and Kenny bought a new house, and moved out of their townhouse with their youngest daughter and grandson, who is entering college in the fall.

I enjoyed looking at the 2017 reunion pictures and think everyone looks pretty great. If anyone travels to the New Haven area, you have an open invitation to stop in at 21 Colonial Place.
My best to everyone, Louise