Dear Hearts & Gentle People:

Yesterday was a very sad day in the old hometown. Wentworth retired the colors for the last time. Many a tear was shed. Huge crowd of alums and parents in town, and whatever joints we have were jumpin.’ (I’m told.) I took some photos, although you can be sure many more and of better quality will be available on the internet. Here is my feeble attempt.

Most of you know that the terrible announcement came just about a month ago. Apparently it caught the current administration and entire work force by surprise. The Board of Trustees announced it almost as a fait accompli. The town is devastated by this development and the city fathers are working industriously to find some entity to take over the beautiful and historic campus.

On the plus side, it has been a gorgeous few days. Estimates of those in attendance vary from 50 to 4,000. I am certain it is somewhere in between.

Much has been going on in town, some spurred by Wentworth’s closing. Last weekend the Chamber hosted something called Lexington Connect. They identified empty downtown buildings that are available for sale or rent. They were featured in a wide advertising campaign, which targeted business people and entrepreneurs. I understand several good possibilities arose. They did posters with bullet points about the history of the buildings. We desperately need to get some entity to take over the Wentworth compound, and of course need to have vacant buildings filled. For those who live away, don’t despair – downtown looks very attractive, and efforts are being made to bring more life to the town.

There were quite a few notes after #151, but mostly personal to me, and thank you to those who wrote. A few more brought sad news:

Norma Wilson Gadt wrote: Just wanted you to know my brother, Donald Ray Wilson, age 78, passed  3/16/15, and my sister, Virginia Wilson Dennis, age 83, passed  10/29/16.

Conrad Pitz Sr. sent his news: Are you still doing the TLC? I changed my e mail address after my wife passed Last April 4th. Was going through some saved emails today and came across a bunch of the TLC's. If you are still doing them, please add me back to your mailing list. My new e-mail is minutemen1956@gmail.com.

Cool email address, huh? (Conrad: I hope you don’t mind my publishing your address. I rarely do that.)

And old pal Jim O’Malley checked in: Susan, Nice to hear from you!  I'm doing pretty well.  My heart is stronger and the results of the radiation on my lung have been very good.  I will have another CT scan of my lung sometime this month for another look to see if there's any trace of it left.  The radiation doc used a "linear accelerator" for my 5 treatments and at my first check in October he only found debris.  He asked me to return this March to see if my body had finished absorbing the debris by then.  We're optimistic.  Ellie and I hope to visit Lexington for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Maybe I'll see some old friends there and share a memory or two.   If you see anyone I might know tell them hi for me.  

Not a day goes by that I don’t see someone you know, Jim.

Everyone, please send your news – big or little – and I’ll pass it along. Bill Tempel chided me for not closing with a more personal message in #151, so allow me to rectify that in this issue.

Take care. Write to me. Soon!

Your devoted scribe,

Susan