Jessica - Chris - Therese - Mona - Mark - Lucille
I’m living in Little Canada, Minnesota, where I have been since 1956 following my marriage to Bernie Nadeau. Bernie passed away in April of 2008.
We
were fortunate to have 51 years together and parented six children: Mark—1957, Mona—1959, Therese—1962,
Paul—1964, Christopher—1966 and Jessica—1984.
All except Paul live in the Twin Cities area—he lives in Austin,
Texas. I have ten grandkids ranging in age
from 29 to 11. John is in California,
Portia, Tony, Tyler, Frasier and Allison are in Minnesota. Jamie, Garrett and Sydney are in Texas. Eli passed away in 2005 at the age of
fourteen.
Mark - Mona - Therese - Paul - Christopher - Jessica
After
our marriage, I was employed by MNDOT as a clerk-typist until Mark was
born. I was a stay-at-home mom until
Christopher started school, then worked as a T.A. at 916 School District
(special education) for twelve years until Jessica’s arrival. When she reached school age, I worked for
Roseville Schools as a T.A. (K – 6) until retiring in 2000. Bernie had been retired from Ellerbe Becket
Architects (34 years) since 1994, so this gave us the opportunity to spend time
in Texas. We pulled a 5th
wheel and wintered in McAllen (Rio Grande Valley) for five years.
Since
Bernie’s passing, I’m kept busy with family and “holding down the fort”. My neighborhood is ever-changing and I have
given some thought to moving, but haven’t found quite what I want. I’m active in my church—Saint John’s Catholic
Church in Little Canada, do some volunteering at Loaves and Fishes and Saint
John’s Hospital and belong to various clubs (senior, card, TOPS, WOW and
health). I travel to Austin, Texas most
winters for several weeks and I went on an Alaskan cruise/land tour in 2009.
As
many of you have, I too had the big “C” experience. I had surgery for colon cancer in 2011. Prognosis was quite good—so opted out of
chemo. Oncologist visits every three
months with annual colonoscopies (UGH!) / scans are part of my life at this
time. So far, so good!!
Since
September of 2012, I’ve been seeing Jim Wagner (from good Millerville
stock)! It’s been fun—remembering and
reminiscing (and disagreeing) about our growing-up years! We enjoy playing cards, traveling (Texas in
February and California in May) and visits with family and friends. From experience, we have learned how fragile life can be and we treasure each day as a gift from God.
I'm looking forward to our reunion in August!
