Louise (Holsapple) Westover

(06/21/08 - update received from Louise)
Hi Folks...I'm not a great correspondent these days. I am still working full time nights as a supervisor in a continuing care facility. It is certainly a far cry from my work in clinical research at Yale. ..a real taste of reality. However, I'm grateful to be on my feet and working, even though I need a cane to do it. I'm a little stubborn, I guess.

    Our house is pretty full these days. I have my oldest daughter, Debby,  and her four children living with me along with three cats and a puppy. Her children are Erin(22), Patrick(18),Katie(9),and Kimmy(9). I'm sad to say that I lost my two old dogs (16 years) right before Christmas last year. Nicky and Nicole were both rottweiler/shepherd/lab mixes and great friends. I missed them terribly so in February, I adopted a black lab puppy (Tyler) from the Pet Rescue group. We refer to him as the "Million Dollar Puppy" because he survived distemper with the help of a 24-hour emergency hospital with an intensive care unit. We later learned that both his siblings had died and that one hundred dogs from his original shelter had been put down during an epidemic of distemper. It is pretty rare these days to have a dog with distemper but he was six weeks old and found wandering the streets of Georgia where the virus thrives in the warm weather.

    My other daughter, Kim, is married and living in East Haven with her husband and 9 year-old son, Brian. She works with autistic children and her husband is the Phys-Ed Director for the youth correctional facility in Cheshire, CT. They just bought a house in Tennessee and hope to move there in another year. Her Dad should be back in Tennessee by that time.

    My son, Chris, lives in San Antonio, TX in a house he bought several years ago.  He was working for an advertising company for 9 years but is now trying to get his own company started. I always visit him between Christmas and New Years as my yearly vacation.

    Finally, I still have my mother living in North White Plains. She will be 93 in August and is busy every minute. She teaches art at the nursing home where my father was a patient, takes Tai Chi, exhibits her Japanese brush paintings at the Hammond Museum in Salem, volunteers at the church, and drives all over New York State and part of Connecticut. She wanted to be sure that I sent her greetings to everyone in our class. I have lunch with her when I can catch her with her busy schedule. Her little blue Honda goes everywhere. She usually has Tom Powers "Basket Landing" playing on her car CD as she travels around. We expect her to come up for Patrick's high school graduation on the 24th with Chick Westover and my son from Texas. They just spent a week at a folk festival in Texas. Chick has been writing music and working on a CD since his retirement.  

    Every three months, my mother and I go to Roselle, Illinois to see my sister Mary and her family. Mary has not been very well this past year, but is doing a little better now. Her husband, children and grandchildren are all very attentive.

    I'm sorry about poor correspondence but I loved seeing you all and think of you often. My thanks for the rides and and good company.

    When my son arrives this week maybe I can figure out how to send pictures. I'm pretty basic on the computer. Meanwhile, have a great summer and feel free to email me or stop by if you're in the area.
                                                Louise Holsapple Westover

(Editor's note. The following was received from Louise on 01/08/07)
2007 update. I am still living in New Haven and working full time. I retired from Yale-New Haven Hospital almost 3 years ago and started working as a night supervisor at Haven Health Care. (Rehab and long-term care facility). I have one of my daughters and her 4 children living with me as well as 2 big dogs and 3 cats. It's pretty lively around here. My other daughter is in East Haven with her husband and son, and my son lives in San Antonio. I just returned from visiting him for the holidays. In January, his company sent him to the New York office for a few months and he is commuting everyday from New Haven to NYC. The house is really bursting at the seams now. I am seriously considering an addition to the house to give us a little more room. I wouldn't want to move because the neighborhood is great and I've had the house for 15 years. My mother is living in White Plains, exhibiting her Japanese Brush Paintings and driving all around in her little red car. She has more energy at 91 than most of us have in our sixties. I'll try to send some pictures soon but I'm not very good at scanning them to the computer. My son works with computers in advertising and can help me when he gets a minute. My best to you all and I'll try to be better about keeping in touch. Louise

1997 recap. Louise has 2 grandchildren and is still working full time as a Nurse Manager at the Yale Clinical Research Center in New Haven and part time in a nursing home. She bought a home and renovated it. She enjoys a big dog and an old cat. She celebrated her parents 50th wedding anniversary several yrs ago in Hawaii. She does some traveling with her job and vacationed this past year in San Antonio.

1982 recap. Louise and former husband Chuck have 3 children. Debby (working at New Haven Hospital), Kimberly (will enter Roger Williams in RI), and Chris (who plays baseball and runs track for a handicapped team). Chuck remains an active part of children’s lives. Louise has 5 preoccupations – Head Nurse at the Clinical Research Center at Yale, assisting with handicapped team, working on the UCP Board, working on the Battered Persons Team at hospital, and having visiting children in need of a temporary home. She was married 10 yrs and lived in New Haven working at the hospital, moved to Atlanta for 2 yrs, moved back, divorced, went to graduate school for Masters in Health Education at Southern Con, and took management training at Yale. She enjoys working with special children, drawing, line drawing cartoons, greeting cards, handicapped sports team, battered families, folk music, sports and walking. Her son Chris is having an excellent medical recovery and her own illness is in remission.