Christmas 1998

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!  We hope that 1998 has been a great year for you, and that, as we near the final countdown to the new millennium, 1999 will be joyous and prosperous for one and all!  As you know, the holidays wouldn’t be complete without an overblown missive from the Canterburys, so here is this year’s edition!

 

This year began as the last few did, with the two of us resident in Sterling, Virginia, near Washington, DC.  However, I had found a new contract position providing support to Roadway, the trucking company, at their Akron, Ohio offices.  I was flying back and forth between Ohio and DC each weekend as Nancy and I prepared to pick up and move back to Ohio.  In short order we found a house in Twinsburg (near Cleveland), rented our old house, picked up and moved everything, and took up residence at our new home beginning January 27.

 

However, before we moved we had to take care of one final thing: Nancy’s 40th birthday party on January 24!  Nancy said she wasn’t going to suffer and mope, she was going to go out in style!  We had great fun with lots of family and friends, where Nancy proved again that she the most fun, best-looking 40-year-old I know!

 

Not long after we arrived in Ohio, Nancy began looking for a job, and very quickly had six job offers.  She finally decided to settle on the one with Keybank in downtown Cleveland as a systems analyst.

 

After working at Roadway for about nine months, I finally got fed up with the place.  When PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”, formed when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand) came calling, I about fell over myself accepting the position.  I am now a consultant for PwC.  It’s a job that requires a lot of travel, but that’s OK, because it allows me to see the world.  And, I can occasionally take Nancy along as well.

 

Between the time I left Roadway and started at PwC, Nancy and I decided to take our first vacation of the year.  We headed for Nassau, Bahamas for a five-day trip.  Of course, it rained for four of those days.  L  We stayed in a resort, and unfortunately found the whole experience to be too commercial and tourist-y.  When we vacation, we like to experience the local culture and try the local food.  We didn’t find any of that in the Bahamas, it had all been overrun by the big resorts.  Some folks might like that, but we didn’t.

 

After returning home from the Bahamas, I turned around and flew to Tampa, for my first week of orientation with PwC.  When I arrived in Tampa, they told me where I would be going for my second week of orientation — Rome, Italy!  While in Rome, I got to see the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and just so many other things that I can’t remember.  It was a shame Nancy couldn’t go with me, but now I have an excuse to return!

 

Other travel this year was a visit back to the Washington, DC area for a wedding, as my brother Bryan married Mary Wilson.  We’re also planning a Christmas vacation to Fort Lauderdale.  Oh, and my sister in Atlanta is expecting twins(!) so we’ll visit her sometime, I’m sure.

 

By the way, our two best little buddies, Brutus and Snickers, made the move with us from Washington to Ohio.  Brutus refuses to diet but still moves rather quickly for a cat of his girth.  Snickers, we found, is for some inexplicable reason afraid of the doorbell.  But they both enjoy a peaceful and content existence within the confines of our home.

 

Unfortunately, not all news this year was good news, and so we must deliver this bit of tragic news.

 

On October 13, Nancy’s oldest brother Jim Houston was killed in a truck accident.  Jim had recently been working as a truck driver for A. Duie Pyle.  It was a single-truck accident on an exit ramp in northeastern Pennsylvania.  The exact cause of the accident is unknown.  Perhaps the load shifted, or perhaps Jim swerved to avoid an animal.  We’ll never know.  Jim’s extended family misses him and mourns his untimely passing.

 

Another year has passed us by

In our journey through this life.

We prayed each day would bring us sunshine,

And cursed the days that brought us rain.

Somehow, we survived the storms life brought our way,

Struggling through to see the new dawn. 

And while surviving the storms makes us stronger,

We do not always emerge unscathed.

So celebrate the holidays, that we have arrived here again,

And keep your family and friends close.

But remember in your hearts those of us

Who finished life’s journey this year.

 

With love from both of us,

 

Nancy and Jerry Canterbury