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After Basil's retirement in 1982 we decided we would spend the first few years exploring the world or at least as much as we could afford, and the best way for us to do that was to travel by Cruise Ship. That decision turned out to be the best decision we could have come up with and for about 10 years we traveled over a big part of the world. The best trip of all was a thirty day cruise taken to celebrate Basil's retirement and our 40th wedding anniversary.
Our traveling companions for many of our cruises were Max R. Thomas and his wonderful wife, Evelyn Marie. We especially enjoyed them on our thirty day voyage. His wife was Evelyn Marie and I was Marie Evelyn and although he is gone now she is still with us though in very poor health. We have been friends since we first met in 1947 when Basil and Tommy worked together in the Post Office. He later left the postal service and the two of them established a very successful business located in the Covina Ca. area.
Our first cruise in 1976 was with our Thomas friends and was a two week trip to the Caribbean, aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise line's ship, the Sun Viking. From then on we were hooked on cruise ships and proceeded to plan for our next trip.
Other than that we traveled aboard the Greek ship, Golden Odyssey in 1977, again with Evelyn and Max Thomas. This time we visited Greece, Turkey, most of the greek islands, Malta, Corfu, Yugoslavia and Italy. After two weeks we flew home from Venice.
In 1985 we took two of our granddaughters on a cruise to Alaska aboard the New Amsterdam of the Holland American Lines and enjoyed every day. We also had a chance to visit our granddaughter's other grandfather who lived in Vancouver B.C. Canada. Their mother is from Canada and grew up in the Vancouver area.
All in all we had four grandchildren, three girls and one boy. I promised all of them that we would take them all on a cruise of the Caribbean Islands if they graduated from High School with an A average. All the girls made the cut but the grandson missed the mark by a couple of points. The disappointment with him was not that he failed to make the cut but that he was by far the one who could have breezed through if he really wanted to. It was a wonderful time and money well spent to see how much pleasure and fun the girls had. Our daughter wanted to go along to be with her daughter and that was a big plus because she wanted to do and see most of the things the girls were interested in and so we had a ready made guardian for the girls.
We were able to make two or three additional cruises, some with the girls, and some with friends right up to the time my health began to fail in the late nineties. In late 1997 my health started to fail and it seemed to go down very slowly but consistantly. I had to have both knees replaced , one in 1997 and the other in 1998. In 1999 I seemed to be slowly getting worse and in one of my many trips to the emegency room a maglignant tumor was discovered in my left lung. I wanted it removed immediately but an examination uncovered another problem that had to be taken care before the cancer. One of my Carotid arteries was almost closed with clots and the other one was about 50 per cent blocked. Before the doctor would operate on the lung cancer he had to replace the carotid artery. This delayed my cancer surgery for several months but finally on October 31, 2000 I had the tumor removed. We hoped all was well but in 9 months the cancer showed up again in my right lung, but this time it was pronounced incurable and inoperable. We immediately went for therapy and in about a year or so the cancer was in remission. However
problems didn't stop with the cancer. In 2001 I developed additional trouble with my heart and this required a pacemaker on April 16, of that year.
I continued to have difficulty with my heart until I was hit with a very bad heart attack resulting in a stint being inserted. Since that time I have had several lesser heart attacks but we are able to control them so far with medication.
Recently my cancer doctor discovered a small spot on my right lung and we are now watching the scans very closely to determine our course of action. In addition to these problems I have been been reduced to being unable to walk or even stand wilthout assistance. I now have Peripheral Neuropathy in both legs leaving me with no feeling in either and very little circulation. All this boils down to the fact that without my wonderful husband I would not be able to survive. We have known each other since we were 16 in high school and have been husband and wife for 64 years. He is my life and my love and without him I simply could not survive. We are blessed with his strength and fairly good health which makes it possible for us to live as husband and wife and maintain our home. He does all the house chores, all the cleaning, cookig and so forth. Our son drives us to the doctor when he can because he worries about his dad driving in this heavy traffic at 82. Our daughter also helps when she can but she has had some major health problems lately and cannot do as much as she did at one time.
Prior to the time we discovered my lung cancer and before I had surgery on my right lung, my husband and I planned a cruise that would take us through the Panama Canal from the west and allow us to then take one last tour of the Caribbean Islands.
One problem loomed ahead and almost forced us to cancel our trip. My surgeon seheduled my lung surgery about a month or six weeks before we were scheduled to sail and I was not about to miss our last cruise. When I informed the doctor I was going to take that cruise even if it killed me, he just laughed and advised me to go right ahead and enjoy the sights.
So, a few weeks after the operation we packed our bags, made sure we had wheel chairs available, boarded our flight to Miami where we spent one night and then took a flight the next day to Costa Rica. From there we took a bus to the port on the Pacific side of Costa Rica and there boarded the New Amsterdam and prepared to enjoy passing through the canal. While in the port however we had a couple of days to sight-see so Basil took a side trip into Nicaragua and visited a Coffee Plantation. That was very nice but the real high-light was a special horse show set up by the owner of his beautiful show horses. Basil said, for the first time in his life, he saw a real blue coated stallion, the most beautiful horse he had ever seen. To prove to us he was not telling a fib, he filmed the entire show and we all had the pleasure of seeing what he saw.
The following day we got underway and soon found ourselves enjoying passing through the locks of the canal. The entire trip through the canal was well worth the trip and we still wonder at the engineering feat that was required to complete that giant project.
After exiting the canal in the Gulf of Mexico we proceeded to once again enjoy the Islands of the Caribbean. My husband insisted we go ashore when possible so that I might be able to do some shopping. He had to struggle a little with the wheel chair in places but we both enjoyed the sights and had lots of fun.
As happens with all cruises, ours was over all too soon and we soon found ourselves boarding a flight back to California and home. Even with all my medical problems we still feel so very blessed. We planned our retirement with lots of cruises in mind and with the exception of the one we planned for last we were able to complete them all.
Due to my health situation we both understood our traveling days would end sooner than we wanted them to, so we made plans for our last and best one of all. To begin we would fly to London where we would visit with some dear friends and tour the city as well as the country side. From there we would visit Scotland, then Ireland, and from there, travel to Scandinavia and for the first time get to see, and tour, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It was not to be however because my health continued to worsen and we were forced to cancel our last trip. The sorrow of missing out on this last voyage hurt just a little but we could never complain because God has so blessed our lives, brought us together at the very young age of age 16 and gave us our beautiful family. When we tell people that we knew at 16 we would be husband and wife, they smile and say, "Oh sure you did". We really did and there was never a doubt with us and three days after Basil turned 18 we eloped to Hugo Oklahoma and were married. On November 5, this year, 2006 we will celebrate our 64th wonderful year of marriage. Oh yes, we still like to hold hands as we did at 16.
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