Dear Friends, December 2015
Greetings from Dee and Allan for 2015. We’ve had a good year, especially since a lot of it involved time enjoying our grandchildren Genevieve and Aakash. We are grateful that we’re both still healthy and only a bit more forgetful than we were a year or two ago. Genevieve is now nine, and has become an accomplished young lady – a whiz on the computer, and a great cook. She found two recipes and made them for Thanksgiving with her father Paul and me assisting. She is in fourth grade in Michigan now.
Aakash, two and a half is a cheerful non-stop talker who loves trucks, curious George and animals. His parents Ben and Trina just bought a house and moved to the Boston suburbs. We spent time with them all in Boston, San Francisco, Long Beach and Vermont this year, and had lots of Skype calls. We’re happy that the converted Vermont barn we inherited from Dee’s parents now has a third generation of children enjoying it and our family times there together, now including Allan’s brother Dale and his family and Ben’s wife Trina’s parents.
Dee began the year with a sibling trip to South Africa with her sister Katie, brother Dave and sister-in- law Margot. We were fascinated with what we got to see about the history and diversity South Africa today, and, like everyone else we know, loved the countryside and wildlife. One special mission was learning more about our paternal grandmother, who grew up and met our grandfather there in the late 19th century before immigrating to Australia. We were able to find quite a bit, visited a school she attended and even met a distant cousin. In November we had a fall trip to Washington DC and New York, where we visited family, reconnected with old friends, and managed to see Hamilton in New York – up to the hype, and The Gin Game starring James Earle Jones and Cicely Tyson, a stunning performance by two legendary actors older than we are. We also loved the new Whitney Museum, and heard a concert by Dee’s former choir, Long Beach Camerata Singers. Dee did some lobbying with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington.
Dee continues with the Public Library Foundation and Human Trafficking Task Force and sings with a group for hospice patients. We are both active in our Quaker meeting.
(Ed Note: Dee’s book suggestions can be found in “What We Do”/Great Reads)
Like the rest of you, we can only wish for some sanity and compassion in our country in 2016 .
Dee Deferranti Arahamse and husband Allan
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