Hello fellow classmates of North Allegheny Class of 1968, It was a wonderful weekend. A group of us (Glenn Gross, Jim Bayer, Ken Holmes, Candace Skacan Brandt and her hubby, Audrey Allshouse Bybee, Andrew Golden, Bob Whitten, and myself – Bob Newman was scheduled to come but ended up in the hospital the night before after trying to do a stress test and is still there in Houston trying to find out the source of a heart problem – please send him an email with you best wishes at bob.newman@newbart and for a speedy recovery.) Hutto, Texas is like that scene from the Tom Hanks movie Castaway…at the end he is out in the country to deliver the only package he was able to save from the crash and almost nothing to seen for miles around but flat land and farms. He is standing at the cross road trying to decide which way to go…beautiful farm country and the skyline yesterday could not have been more beautiful…and windy! Hutto is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. Hutto is one of the fastest growing small cities in America. Recent City information has it as the second fastest growing small city in Texas, at a rate of approximately 880% for a span of 5 years (2000-2005.) In 1980 the City of Hutto was 545 people within its limits; in 1990 that number was only 630, in 2000 Hutto was 1250 people, and in August 2004 the population was calculated at 5,568 to allow the City of Hutto to go to a home rule charter type of government. In 2006, the City of Hutto population was approximately 14,000. This is just the population within the city limits; within the school district there are approximately 17,000 people. As of 2010 the population is 14,698. Within the general metro area there are many additional people that live closer to Hutto than their own communities of Pflugerville, Round Rock and Taylor. We all arrived by 1:00 p.m. and Jamie his daughter had told him she wanted him to come down and meet her lady friends at her little get together she was holding in the guest house (he did not want to do it but she told him he was anyway and so he even put cologne on to meet the girls). He powered himself down at 1:00 to meet the girls and low and behold was surprised to find the room empty when he came out and then we came out of the bedroom to surprise him. I think for the first half an hour he was really having a hard time comprehending what was going one and that we were there to see him and bring a little reunion to him. He kept saying how disappointed he was he could not make the reunion…over and over. Jamie made food for us and everyone had a great time visiting and catching up with each other. Candace said she could not believe she had never made a class reunion, but she was happy she made this one and that she would finally make it in to the book Glenn brought lots of gifts for Jimmy…two uniform shirts from their grade school days in little league, sport shirts from their favorite Pittsburgh teams, a Steelers lap blanket the wives made for him, lots of sports paraphernalia to decorate his room…and the best gift was a book Glenn created of pictures starting before grade school following through to weddings of Jim, Glenn, Ken and Jim Bayer and his brother and a few other fellows they hung out with. It was pretty emotional. Jim had lots of time to share stories…many funny stories of Colonel Sanders…who supposedly wasn’t just that smiley guy we see on the front of the buckets of chicken…about some very tough situations he lived through while working there and talked about his current situation and it is here that we all should get on our knees and be thankful for our blessings. It is important that once in a while when you have some free moments that we make a call or drop him a line or send a card. He does not have much to look forward to these days so any effort we make to stay in contact or reach out will put a smile on this man’s face at least for a minute. His daughter Jamie is a saint. His total care is on her shoulders and I know that this does not make Jim happy either…but that angel lovingly cares for him every day, in every way. Even in the mist of this tragedy, Jim is working with Jamie to start a new business to serve others like him. To have outside care is financially prohibitive for most people. Just to get assistance to go to a doctor appointment costs $56.00 per every fifteen minutes the caregivers has to wait while they are in the doctor’s office. The cost to rent a van to transport the “patient” to the doctor is exorbitant. They are working to start a business that will provide this service for others like Jim or just the elderly who need assistance at a much reduced cost and then help to provide income for Jim’s continued care. The only expenses that are covered by his Medicare now are only some meds and catheters, all the rest is out of pocket expenses. Because of the kind and generous contributions of our class and other friends he has been able to get a much needed hospital bed and additional equipment for his motorized wheelchair. They redid the guest house with a roll in shower that fits his wheelchair, widened doorways and tile floors for easy maintenance. Ramps that go between the house and the guest house which is connected to the shop garage where Jamie runs a business for large truck repairs and maintenance. I have committed to go and seeing Jim at least every 4-6 weeks. Some of the rest of the group have made similar commitments and we want to make sure that Jim has regular visitors…it is important for his well being, but notes and calls will help to. If you feel compelled to send an extra twenty when you have one, which will help too, will be much appreciated…you don’t know how much. It was a very good day for our classmate…I just hope we can make more of them. Please don’t forget to send Bob Newman a note too! Have a blessed day! Linda Goshy Carter
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 17:46:57 +0000
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