Christmas 2014
Dear Dad,
I hope you enjoy the Christmas album.
You have three beautiful great-granddaughters in Texas: Arianna (11 years old); Olivia (8 years old); and, Sophia, born earlier this year, June30, 2014.
From the photo album you will become a bit acquainted with them, I hope.
Arianna is very athletic and loves the outdoors: she loves to swim and she loves bicycling. She is also a very good student and thinks about becoming a marine biologist.
Olivia is also very athletic but instead of swimming she enjoys soccer. She has been invited to join several soccer teams in the local area, and she presently plays on three teams. She hopes to get a college scholarship for playing soccer. She is also a very, very bright student.
We don’t know much about Sophia yet, she is only six months old, but it is very easy to get a smile out of her. She is a very happy baby.
It’s hard to believe that all of this began with your own parents emigrating from Norway, immigrating to the USA and ending up in South Dakota.
If they could see your family album they would see the years you spent on the USS Wakefield in two great oceans. They would see your early years driving truck and then finally ending up in Bismarck, and then Williston, North Dakota, with a very beautiful wife.
In a dreary, windy, and remote outpost, you and mom raised six wonderful children who in their own ways have become very successful.
Along the way, you built one of the premier businesses in western North Dakota and perhaps what has become one of the biggest insurance agencies west of the Mississippi. You and Craig were singularly responsible for finding an oil underwriter that has put Karla and Robbie where they are today.
You saw six children not only graduate from high school, but all six attending college, and colleges across the US, as far west as Washington State, and as far south as Arizona.
Your parents would have been happy to see two of your children remain close to home so you always had someone looking after you. Craig left early but he, along with Karla, was probably the most steadfast of your children, staying focused on his agency and his family.
Your parents would be proud of your service in the US Coast Guard, and your oldest child made a successful career in the US Air Force and your granddaughter Kiri, our older daughter, spent several years in the uniformed service as a nurse in the Public Health Service.
Although Mom did not particularly “like” North Dakota, she was given much moral support by you and her children and survived the harshness of the state. In her “retirement,” she was able to have her own home in that part of the country where she grew up as well as a beautiful retirement home at the entrance to Glacier Park, perhaps her favorite place to be.
I think your parents would be very, very happy for how your life turned out; and, very, very proud of all our accomplishments. Bruce Conway has told me that Willistonites are very, very aware of all your philanthropy over the years.
Your own children have been very well provided for. Besides all of them receiving a college education, you have continued to support them emotionally as well as financially. Several of your children and several of your grandchildren probably appreciate your monetary gifts more than you could ever know.
I hope you enjoy the album; I hope it helps introduce you to three of your most beautiful granddaughters. We mention you and your accomplishments to them often.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love, Bruce and May
No comments:
Post a Comment