Two weddings for the Gerow household this spring.
Kelly and Richard
got hitched on April 25th 2009.
Kelly and Richard got hitched, their words, at a lovely evening
ceremony in Richmond. The local Gerow congregation and the Lucyshyn family
joined forces to welcome the new couple. There was a very party at the Bankuet
Room and at the Jefferson Hotel the next morning. Judy and I feel blessed that
Richard has joined our family, and we know his family are very excited about our
Kelly joining them as well. We both enjoyed meeting Richards family and wish to
thank them for their hospitality and special kudos go to His mom, Gwen.
Christie and Doug got married on May 16th 2009
Though the weather did not look like it was a good idea for an
outdoor wedding during most of the week, Saturday proved to be a
delightful day. Christie and Doug got their outdoor dream wedding overlooking
the James River inside the James River State Park. The wedding party had the use
of several cabins for the weekend and others took advantage of the camp sites
and hopefully got some quality time visiting family and friends. Doug's' mom,
Marilee, put on a terrific buffet on Friday night for all of the visiting family
members and she even had a cake made to look like Christie's wedding invitation.
Saturday, though a bit breezy, was otherwise perfect. All of the planning really
paid off handsomely. Christie's new brother-in-law, Richard, officiated the
ceremony and did a splendid job. Christie's friend, Jenn, did a really nice job
in decorating and Our unofficial daughter, Nicole, helped to keep everything
moving in an orderly manner. Our cousin, Martha Bassett, and her friends, Pat
and Sam, provided some wonderful music and atmosphere. We had barbeque and
drinks, some dancing, and lots of friends who trekked out to the park that day.
Our friend, Gary Peters, took a very nice video of the ceremony. Martha's mom,
Mary Taylor put on a great breakfast Sunday to the delight of all of those that
stayed in the park Saturday night. Her other daughter, Emily , helped as well.
Thank you to all of you who helped create a truly magical weekend.
Judy's Summer Garden 09
It is time for the ideas to flow from Judy's mind as to how her garden will look
this year. I have been enlisted to build her a fence around her veggies and
flowers and as long I have a Lowe's nearby , I am happy to oblige. I have put
some pictures of the construction process here for you to enjoy.
.
36 YEARS AND COUNTING...
Judy and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on June 24th,2008. It is
amazing to me how people can find their soul mate amongst the millions of people
out there. I moved to Richmond in late August,1970 after my parents were
transferred here earlier in the summer. I started my professional college career
at Virginia Commonwealth University that fall and joined a Catholic youth group
at the Newman Center located at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Richmond.
Several months later, I met this cute little girl from West Virginia who was
reading a a book in the Lord of the Ring series. I asked her about the book,
having just finished myself a few weeks earlier. Her accent was unlike anything
I ever heard before and as I said earlier, she was pretty cute to look at. If
memory serves me well, I seem to recollect that she took a class on Tuesday
nights and I had hoped I would get to see her again. Tuesday seemed to take
forever to come around again.
Somewhere along the way we met again and I then knew I had found the one I
wanted to keep. I had to convince her though that my idea was actually a good
one. I knew I could I could win her over if she would meet my family. That was
the trick for not only did she get me, she got my 12 siblings and my parents. In
the process, I got her mom, Dorotha, Ed, her older brother and his family and
her large number of Aunts and Uncles from West Virginia. So by my accounting
process, we both won big time.
Mom and Dad liked Judy right from the start. She was actually at our Christmas
celebration in 1970. My little brother was born in July of 1969, so he grew up
with Judy already in place. I have never asked Robert about his early memories
of her or if he had thought of her as a sister. My parents even asked Judy to
baby sit our family while they were away. Judy is 2 years older that I, so that
must have of been the point of maturity that I had yet to meet.
In the spring of 1971, I asked her to marry me and she said " Yes, but not now"
and we waited about another year. When I told my dad of my intentions, I was
surprised that he did not try to talk me out of it. This is when I realized that
they loved her as much as I did. Actually when my dad told my mom , they immediately
drew up plans to redistribute all of the beds and refigured the lay out in the
bedrooms. With me leaving in a year, that would make it easier to for the other
twelve siblings to find spots on the floor to sleep.
In 1968, Judy started her career with Peoples Drug Stores and they morphed into
what is now known as CVS. In Sept of this year she celebrated her 40th anniversary
and it was while I was visiting her every day at work, that I found my calling.
Al Jones, her manager at the time, suggested since I was at the store so often,
I might as well join the team. I stayed for 17 years, all the while
climbing the ladder of management. I ended my career at Virginia Commonwealth
University after I got a letter form the school saying that I was taking up
space and since Space was not on the curriculum, I had to go. I had been working
at the McDonalds at the Westland Shopping Center on Broad Street and though I
enjoyed it very much, the drug store would be my growth vehicle for the next
decade and a half. In 1985 my career at the drug store ended when I was no
longer a manager and I ran into an ole friend from the Newman Center who was now
working at J.Sargeant Reynolds which is a local community college. As we talked
I told he I never graduated from any college and she decided to help me do so. I
was working for Bob Parker, a terrific fellow at Peoples and he but the best
spin possible on getting a degree telling me that it should be in a field where
the minimum wage associated with that field was better than I was doing at that
moment. His son was an Optician and Gary took me to the Reynolds school that had
an Opticinary program. I graduated in 1988 and after a few years with Galeski
Optical, I joined National Vision where I am still employed.
Judy in the early 1970's lived with her mom Dorotha. I had a hard time
understanding how Judy was able to cope with all of the aspects of her own
apartment, a job, a live in mom, night classes and doing it on a weekly salary
of about $50. Judy was a lot of fun to be around but I must confess it was
mainly due to her West Virginia accent and that she is left handed. I don't
remember hanging around a lefty before and everything she did seemed so
backwards and she sounded funny doing it. Today whenever she is around her
people, as they say in WVa, she drops back into that heavy accent of hers and I
can just look at her and remember it all over again.
Judy hung around with a crowd of really nice people and though I never felt as I
belong to that group is has been amazing that these friends of hers are still in
touch. Yvonne Carignan, Sarah and Mike Corbitt, Susan Robinson, Judy Wright plus
all of her high school friends that I have gotten to know so well. Once you get
to know her, Judy is a friend for life.
After we married in 1972, I moved into her apartment on Monument Ave. in
Richmond. Sarah, her roommate for a year left to marry Mike Corbitt a few months
later. Just after we started our life together we joined by a couple of new born
kittens, Alvin and Gus. They were our entertainment. We watched as they learned
how to walk and talk and as they climbed over everything we had. Judy and I had
an hibachi, a small grill, that we kept on the balcony of our third floor
apartment and we would use it to cook many of our dinners and when I had the
kitties on the porch they would eventually go downstairs but had yet to figure
our how to get back up. It seemed to me as though it was a constant trip up and
down for me, but they were so cute. We had Alvin and Gus for 14 years and the
died only a few days apart. We paid $99 per month for the apartment that we
lived in for only a year. Our daughter Kelly would look at an apartment in the
same building 30 years later and it was then $999 per month. We got out just in
time. It actually was a very nice place and centrally located for a couple of
kids with no money to go anywhere. There was a large Sears store around the
corner and it was a popular hangout for us as we would go and look at all of the
things we wished we could afford.
Judy would take me back to West Virginia to visit her relatives all of the time.
Her mom, Dorotha, whom our kids called Dorfie, was the the only girl and most of
her brothers were already elderly but I could not ask for a finer bunch of
characters to have as my in-law family. They were all so good to Judy and I and
when our kids came around they extended that same hospitality. Judy asked me
after about 6 months of marriage if her mom could move in with us. Her eyesight
was failing due to cataracts and where she lived was not very nice. Dorfie
stayed with us for the next ten years and I never could of imagined how valuable
she would be to us in raising our children.
After a year or so we moved into a mobile home and moved to just over the
Hanover Co. north if Richmond. That put us further away from my mom and dad, and
it was a home for several years. Judy became pregnant in the fall of 1974 and we
were so happy. I would put my head on her belly and feel my daughter moving
around as she waited for the most inopportune time to come, softball season.
On May 7th,1975,Christie gloriously entered our lives. I had gone home with
Judy's mom the evening before at the suggestion of a nurse at the hospital but
Judy thought I was spending the evening in some hard chair in the men's waiting
room. I was called at 7am to return because my daughter was coming and by the
time Dorotha and I arrived, Christie was waiting. Before I go any further I
should set the record straight as to how men and delivery rooms were in the mid
seventies. I was offered none of what is now the current options for men. It was
not assumed that the man would have any interest in seeing the procedure and no
effort was made to prepare us if we in fact did wish to go in, it just wasn't
done. So the fact that I missed the action was the custom at the time.
