Joe and Christine start the latest branch of the family.
Esther is 3 years and 0 month old.
Katherine is 6 months old.
Last night, we went over to Teri’s apartment for Monday Night Football. She had invited us and a few people from work. We watched the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Indiannapolis Colts, while we ate pizza from Glass Nickel. The food was good, the game was good, and the company was good. Although the Steelers lost (and our host was quite depressed), everyone had a good time.
I moved offices today. With the completion of some of the buildings in Verona, Epic has been shuffling their staff around. A bunch of people recently moved into the new office space in Verona. Unfortunately, Verona doesn’t have enough room for everyone, so a lot of us are staying in Madison for the next two years.
Epic has also desparately needed new training space. Most of our existing training rooms were on the third floor of First Business Bank — where my cube was located. Epic decided to move my team to a new building and use the entire third floor for training space. I was moved to the first floor of the TDS building (space that was freed up when other people moved to Verona). Most of the day was spent waiting for the movers to take all of my stuff (computer, manuals, files, etc) over to the new building. Once it arrived, I had to unpack it all and set it up in my new cube. Aside from losing a day of work, the move wasn’t too bad.
A picture of my new cube is online at the photo blog.
Christine and I spent most of the day working on the video of our wedding. Fortunately we had 3 versions thanks to family and friends. We edited the three tapes together (picking the best shots from each), made sure all of the audio and video were synchronized, and added credits. We’re rather pleased with the outcome.
We still need to take the extra footage of the reception and edit it together into a series of “Special Features”. Once we do that, we’ll create a DVD of the entire thing. Hopefully we’ll finish before our first anniversary.
Our first Thanksgiving together was definitely quieter than either of us are used to having. All of our new friends were either out of town or hosting their own families. We ended up cooking together and eating together — just the two of us. We still had fun eating turkey, stuffing, corn, mashed potatos, and pumpkin pie. (We didn’t have a sweet potato crunch receipe, so it was my first Thanksgiving without sweet potato crunch.)
Unfortunately, the day couldn’t last forever. Christine is busy preparing for her Wisconsin licensing exams, so she finished the day by studying Wisconsin’s pharmacy laws.
We put pictures of the day online at our photo blog.
We had dinner with two new friends, James and Liz, that we met through Blackhawk’s Young Married group. (James also works at Epic.) After a month of conflicting schedules, we finally found a night we could all get together.
James and Liz live in Verona (home of Epic’s new campus). Finding their house was an adventure due to the lack of good signs. The streets and highway exits weren’t as well marked as Madison’s are, primarily due to Madison having a larger population and spending more money on signage than Verona does. I’m sure Verona will catch up in a few years.
Christine and Liz collaborated on the meal, leaving James and I free to do our part: stay out of the way and avoid mucking things up. After dinner, we played Phase 10. Christine and I were soundly outplayed by James and Liz. Christine had a reason to be happy, however: the girls collectively outplayed the boys.
This is the euology I wrote for my grandfather’s funeral. It’s close but not identical to what I said on stage. If I can get a copy of the recording of the funeral, I’ll update this with what I actually said.
I knew my grandfather for 22 years — and it wasn’t nearly long enough. Growing up, I looked forward to his visits every year. I only saw him once or twice a year, but I enjoyed every minute of those visits. I enjoyed flying kites with him at Sandbridge — even when he lost my favorite kite. I enjoyed doing “lots of work” with him, moving sand from one side of the beach to the other. I loved the way he read to me — even when I was forcing him to read “The Bingity-Bangity Old School Bus” for the 100th time.
Our relationship changed over the years as I got older and my life started to get more complex. As I entered high school, Grandpa became my biggest cheerleader. He always wanted to hear about my latest successes in work and school. He always wanted to hear about the girls I was interested in and the hobbies I was working on. Whatever the issue was, he always had an encouraging word, a wise observation, or just a listening ear. He believed I would conquer the world and he forced me to believe it too. More importantly, he encouraged me to stay close to God more than anything else.
After I met Christine, he always believed we would be married — even before I did. He heard about her and couldn’t wait to meet her. After he met her, he became her biggest fan. In fact, I think he viewed our wedding as a personal accomplishment. He may not have been wrong: I don’t think I had a choice about marrying her after he’d met her and approved her! He’s been a huge influence on my life and definitely helped to shape the man I became.
What I’ll miss most about him is all of the little things: holding his hands while he prayed over breakfast in the morning; the way he answered the phone whenever I’d call; the way he’d say my name; the long rambling conversations we shared: conversations about family, college, friends, work, sports, politics — anything and everything. I’ll miss listening to his stories. I’ll miss the way he dated every event in his life by either the girl he was dating or the car he was driving. I’ll miss his constant cheerfulness, his reliance on prayer, and his quiet strength. Whenever I needed a friend or a listening hear he was available. He was my life long friend and I’ll miss him until I see him again. God was ready to bring him home, I’m not sure I was ready to see him go.
On Tuesday, Nov 8 my grandfather passed away. His death was relatively unexpected and definitely heartbreaking. I heard about his illness while I was on a business trip in Houston, TX. Suffice it to say that that was not an easy trip to make. Saturday morning (Nov 12), Christine and I flew to Cleveland for the viewing and the funeral. (We are back in Madison now.)
I heard the details from my brother, via telephone, and from my mother, via e-mail. The following two e-mails were sent to my parents’ Wycliffe mailing list. Following that is the obituary that appeared in the local newspapers.
We found out just two weeks ago, right before our current Team arrived here at the WA Volunteer Centre, that my father, Bryce Curwin was diagnosed with myeloma (bone cancer). He had been in pretty intense pain for the past several months, but it was not determined what was the cause.
Blood work and a bone marrow biopsy confirmed the doctor’s suspicions. Since the diagnosis, he was admitted to a nursing home to undergo physical therapy to help him become mobile again before returning home to my mother.
The past two weeks, Dad has been shuttled back and forth from the nursing home to the hospital on several occasions for new problems.
Sunday, was one of the best days he has had in the past couple weeks. His color was good, he was sitting up laughing and chatting with the nurses and my mother, made several phone calls to friends….all in all a pretty good day.
Monday morning, my mother received a call from the nursing home that my dad was having uncontrolled bleeding and he would have to be taken back to the hospital. Sometime during the time he was admitted and the staff was working on him, Dad suffered a severe stroke.
Since that time he has been totally unresponsive and the prognosis at this time is very grim.
It was a very long, very difficult day for my mom, and brother watching as Dad’s body slowly shut down. He suffered a severe, debilitating stroke early Monday morning, and fell into unconsciousness immediately afterward. As Tuesday dawned, fluid began to build up around his heart and lungs and his kidneys began to fail. He really struggled fighting death. The nurses said his heart was very strong.
The battle FINALLY ended at 11:50PM Tuesday night local time…both my brother Dan and Mom had gone home to rest on the advice of the staff, so neither were there when Dad was welcomed into Heaven. Now he has been reunited with my brother David, his parents, and his older sister whom he has missed dearly since she died.
David Bryce Curwin
March 1, 1924 – November 8, 2005
Birthplace: South Bend, Indiana
Resided In: Strongsville, Ohio
David Bryce Curwin, 81, of Strongsville; cherished husband of Wilma (nee Doty); father of Daniel (Vicki), Debra Martin (Russell), and the late David L.; loving grandfather of Nicole, Joseph (Christine), Nathaniel, Philip, Kevin, Matthew, Eric, Hallie, and Laura; brother of Jane Reese, Frederick M. (Liz), and the late Sarah E. Jamison; devoted friend and companion to associates and brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the years; went home to Glory November 8, 2005. In lieu of flowers memorials may be forwarded In David’s name to Parma Heights Baptist Church, or Wycliffe Associates, P.O. Box 2000, Orange, California, 92859. Services to be held on Monday, November 14 at 10:00AM, at the Parma Heights Baptist Church, 8971 Ridgewood Dr., interment at Lutheran Memorial Park. Friends may call at the BUSCH FUNERAL HOME, 7501 Ridge Road, Parma, from 2-4 and 6-8 Sunday.