A note from Geigers in Florida

Dear family and friends,

Thought you might enjoy seeing this photo of Sandy and Fletcher, the greeter cat at Green Cove Presbyterian Church. Even though it was raining a bit, Fletcher faithfully remained at his post, both before and after service. We are told that he lives nearby and know personally that he seldom, if ever, misses a service.

First Presbyterian Church of Green Cove Springs is a small, beautiful century-old church where we have just become members. (Although we were intrigued by the greeter cat, we joined after visiting a number of churches in the area, most of which were mega-churches. The one we chose is Reformed, friendly and small.) We also attend the church here on campus upon occasion, especially when special events are held there. However, it is nice to belong to a church that has people who are young and old

Florida is great. So far the weather has been just fine but we know the really hot weather will be coming. We had thought we’d just spend the spring and summer at Penney Retirement Center as we have heard a lot of people from here do go away, some for as long as four months. That leaves the volunteer work schedule hard to fill. However, our son Patrick’s health continues to decline so we have agreed that we should go north while he can still enjoy our visit with him. His infection of the brain is making it harder to communicate when we have telephone visits. A priority during the time we are with him will be to talk with his doctor. Last May Patrick said that doctors gave him six months to a year to live. His condition remains untreatable, although he is being given experimental drugs

Yes, we made travel arrangements with an airline that went bankrupt and closed down. Thankfully, we were able to make new arrangements for the same time period and will be leaving the sunny South on April 29th to spend a few days visiting Patrick. Renting a car, we will visit friends in Lorain County where our oldest son, Bill, and his Mongolian wife, Jill, will be able to join us for two days. After visiting with Patrick again, we will return to Florida . Please keep Patrick and our travels in your prayers

Then it is back to our volunteer work, which we are thoroughly enjoying. Both of us serve supper once a week at an assisted living facility. It is a hectic two hours of hard work, but the residents really love Pete telling jokes and making up crazy flavors of soups and ice-creams that he claims are on the menus. Most days Pete can be found at the computer and electrical shop unless he is busy editing “Penney for Your Thoughts”, the monthly newsletter. Sandy spends her time at Hagan Care Center , a memory care center, at the resale shop (working and shopping) and helping at the estate sales. She is also on the food committee and will soon be taking training to do hospice care. We both love the library on the grounds and there are more programs and meetings daily than we can possibly attend. Sandy has been named co-wedding planner for our new church. So far that has not been time-consuming. She has assisted with just one wedding. The music for the service was done entirely by acoustical guitar and, to our surprise, the recessional was a Beach Boys song, “Wouldn’t it Be Nice”. We are still laughing about it

Some folks have come to visit but we are hoping for more. Check your schedule and come on down. We’d love it.

Missing Mongolia and Ohio but loving it here in Florida ,

Sandy and Pete

The new emal address for the Geigers is psgeiger@bellsouth.net