2004 

 

Michael and Mary Hanrahan

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

We start the year planning for a March trip to England for Michael, Mary and Kathleen. We get picked up at Heathrow by Mary’s sister-in-law, Carolyn, and we arrive at their place near Stratford early afternoon.  Michael and Mary go for a walkabout and Michael is humbled that his body cannot cope with the bitter chill; too many Texas summers have softened him.  Mary’s brother arrives home and pronounces this one of the coldest days ever, which cheers Michael up a bit. In the evening we meet up with Michael’s (high) school mate, Adrian Canale-Parola, and catch up on several years. Next day we visit Strafford, have a back garden fireworks display and enjoy an unexpected snow fall.  After visiting Mary’s Aunt Joan and Uncle Jim we head up the M1 to Leeds.  On the way Kathleen starts complaining.  Tuesday morning Michael gets up and makes a medical run to Boots at Leeds City Station.  Wednesday morning we believe Kathleen is improving and we visit Pat and Ann and then Mary and Ossie. Kathleen stops improving and starts to get worse - she cannot swallow.  About 8 pm on St.  Pats day we take her to Leeds General Infirmary and she is admitted into a room at midnight with tonsillitis and throat ulcers.  We head back to the rent car and discover it has a flat tyre! Mary spends the night with Kathleen, the AA replaces the tyre and Michael heads back to the hotel and has to check out the next morning.  Mary and Ossie graciously put one or the other of us up during the next few days as Kathleen recovers enough to be discharged on Saturday.  We head back south, see John and Carolyn and Natty and Sophie again and then end the trip in Basingstoke with Pat and Clive. No long visit to London as we’d planned, no museums and no shows. 

We make it back to Dallas, but Kathleen spends the next few months being mostly sick, with very brief intervals of not being sick.  She has her tonsils removed, gets an MRSA, spends several weeks on a nebulizer morning and night and eventually hits a period where she breaks the cycle and remains well.  In between Nigel completes his arduous scout wilderness trip at Philmont, Shawn learns the joy of working customer service at Sears and then goes back to Texas A&M, where he develops an unhealthy interest in insects. (I’m not sure what is crawling in his room, but he insists on bringing home a nasty looking millipede).  Nigel and Kathleen start school with Kathleen playing in marching band (wearing a uniform and attending all the football games!)  Nigel starts part-time at Wal-Mart and seems to be able to cope with demanding customers.

Mary spends a large amount of energy working election issues during the year and even works as a voting precinct official on voting day and our precinct does heavily vote for the democrats.  The rest of Rockwall and beyond though heavily votes for the other guys and Mary is very, very bummed out.  To keep matters interesting during the year, Mary gets appointed to the City Historic Advisory Board; the first case produces a firestorm with a local Baptist Church who wants to tear down one of the oldest historic houses in town to build a parking lot.  (The church got its parking lot, and the house was moved to another location).  Michael comes in second in his first Tennis Singles League in over 15 years.  He loses one game in a split-set decision to a 25-year old, who is the champion with 66 points, and Michael ends up with 64 points.  Of course having our 50 gallon water heater burst during breakfast and flooding the bedroom was not the best preparation.

Kathleen is now doing well and has had good check ups from her neurologist, ENT doctor and the reconstructive surgeon, as she approaches the 2 year anniversary of her surgery.  She has made a remarkable recovery and there have been no signs of any reoccurrence of the tumor.  About the boys, we are not so sure, young adult males seem to believe that they are invincible.

Michael gets told by TI that his job is going the way of the dinosaur after 27 years of service.  Hhhm, we start researching and planning and thinking about what we want to do when we grow up.  Please submit your suggestions (polite ones only) via email.  Nigel has been offered a place at UTD(University of Texas at Dallas), complete with a substantial scholarship, to major in Physics.  His first choice is Guelph, near Toronto, but that application is not completed or submitted yet, they will talk to us in the New Year.  Anyone who knows about the transferability of credits from Canada to the USA and the USA to Canada please respond by email.  Nigel becomes a life scout, now he has exactly 6 months to get to Eagle Scout before his 18th birthday.

Mary and Mick ARE going to work on the new master bedroom and it WILL be finished before John and Carolyn, not to mention Natty and Sophie come to visit in March.  The weatherman has predicted a very cold snap this coming week so it will be cold for Christmas.  We will be huddled up here in Rockwall trying not to eat too much and to stay warm.  We hope that you will all have a great holiday season and a fabulous 2005.

 

Look forward to hearing your news and maybe visiting with some in the coming year.

 

Love,

          Mary, Michael, Shawn, Nigel and Kathleen