This year there are no apologies for our annual letter. We’ve been doing them too many times out of necessity (because of our tardiness in getting out personal letters) that it has now become routine to be late! Although they are “form” letters, we hope you know that we intend them to be more than junk-mail. Our love and concern for you is present, even when it is word-processed. This is especially true this year, a year of great personal happiness for us, yet one of general unease for so many we know and care about. We would like to share some of that joy with you; it would be better done through hugs and smiles than in mere print, however, our gratitude for the good in life is there … as well as our prayer that what is now in turmoil will be calmed during this Season of Hoped-for Peace and Goodwill. We have all undergone change during these past twelve months; in most ways that change has been growth in spirit.
Kip was graduated from Westfield High School, the first class to do so, and has entered Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. (The school’s most noted alumnus had the initials LBJ.) He is currently considering to be a geography major: something had to be put down! Since a young lady in whom he has an interest is a senior at Westfield, he is in Houston almost as much as in San Marcos.
Ken continues to be a loyal Aggie, i.e. a creature who is associated with Texas A&M University. He has lived and worked in College Station during the fall semester and will be enrolled in January as a psychology major, having tasted both electrical engineering and business administration. He is involved as much as possible in singing and in the Newman Center, the Catholic student group.
Deb remains a Texan by residing in San Antonio, where she has an apartment and a job as a librarian in the city system. Now that she has a full time job and the money to go with it, she may become more hedonistic than she has been thus far.
The main event for Pat and Karen this year has been the celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary. The whole family was in town for the renewal of their vows at a special Mass celebrated in their parish, Christ the Good Shepherd. Once the younger ones were back in their own parts of Texas, the older pair went on a two-week vacation in England, Wales and Scotland … an adventure they have been waiting for a long time. With a well-used Britrail pass, they went from London to Penzance (no pirates but as far west as possible in southern England), on to Bath, Cardiff, York, Inverness (as far north in Scotland as one can readily go), and Edinburgh. It would be difficult to say what were the most enjoyed and remembered parts of the journey. All of the cathedrals seem to run together after a while; but Pat took 18 rolls of film to help sort it out. (So far, none of their friends have seen the results; Pat doesn’t know why!)
On the business side of life, Pat remains with Baylor College of Medicine; Karen left the Chancery/Vocations Office prior to the fall trip and is now working part-time in a Catholic bookstore in Houston. (It’s the only one; there is some doubt whether she gets paid in money or in books!)
A significant part of the year was consumed by more classes for Pat’s Diaconate. He will be ordained a Permanent Deacon on February 25, 1984. He still needs your prayers.
N.B. The reference to “general unease” is difficult to identify some forty years later. An Internet search for 1983 yields some references to bombings in Beirut, London, and the Senate-side of the Capitol Building. The U.S. invaded Granada. Japan had a major earthquake; there were fires in Australia. A nuclear war, by accident, with Russia was prevented. The Soviets shot down a Korean jetliner. There were riots in Seattle. The AIDS virus had been identified. All-in-all, it seems like a typical year, albeit, one for the twenty-first century rather than the last decades of the twentieth.