21 Feb 2021
I heard from a few classmates over the last week or so.
First up is Deb Kirkhuff. As some of you may know, Deb was diagnosed with stage III endometrial cancer a few months ago. She underwent surgery late last year and is currently about halfway through chemo treatments. She should finish those in May, and her prognosis is excellent. Deb says she's walking 3-5 miles a day and riding her indoor bike trainer. She points out that medical literature recognizes the value of exercise in treating cancer from a mental and physical standpoint, so she plans to do as much as she can. Her husband (and our chief reunion planner) Miles tells me Deb's goal is to compete in the Lake Placid IRONMAN competition in July. The way she attacks things, I'm certain she'll do so! Positive thoughts and prayers coming your way from all of us, Deb!
Next, I heard from Steve Vogt. Steve wrote to tell me of the passing of Tony Chavet, a pilot training classmate of ours from Class 83-08 at Columbus. Tony died recently after a short battle with Parkinson's Disease.
In catching up with Steve I learned that he took the early-out offered by Delta back in September and is having fun chasing his grandkids around and making travel plans with Gina for when COVID restrictions are finally lifted. On a bit more troubling note, I learned that both he and Gina had COVID back in December. Steve said it was about 2-1/2 weeks of what felt like the worst colds they'd ever had followed by several weeks of slow recovery. He had a couple of complications, one of which was a recurrence of the bout with Bell's Palsy he went through back in 1990. They're both recovered now and have been donating convalescent plasma.
And finally, Martha Jones wrote to pass along some news on the AOG election that I'd missed. Turns out that as of 15 Feb, our class was #2 (behind '66) on participation percentages for the election! Our class was at 19.7%, while '66 had 25.1%.
The AOG needs 25% participation overall to pass the bylaw changes, so if you haven't already, please cast your votes now! To sweeten the pot a bit, the AOG will donate $500 to the class funds of the leading class in each decade. As of 15 Feb, we were solidly on top for our decade, but things could change quickly. So cast your votes and help keep us in the lead!
You can see the latest election updates by going to this page.
My best to all of you,
Jim
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