The greatest couple from the greatest generation.

The country has lost one of the greatest couples from the greatest generation. My parents came of age during ww2, my dad served in the Air Force and my mother worked in a factory during the war. They were married for 69 years. We lost our father last winter and now our mother has joined him. 

My brother Dave wrote a moving eulogy for our mother and he has given me permission to post it here.

 Mom was always the backbone of our family.  She raised four boys and worked part time to help with the family finances.  She was able to keep the family running amid the chaos of the four boys and our Dad.  She made all of our friends feel welcome and always treated them like family.  We always had half a dozen friends hanging around and she would feed them all.

Mom loved to cook and one of my favorite memories was watching her bake and flour being all over the kitchen table.  She also liked to sew and I think she made curtains for all our houses and her relatives. 

I don't think her childhood was the best - she was orphaned at a very young age. I can't even imagine that because she was such a presence in our lives - always there for us!

She moved to New York for a brief time and always spoke fondly of her adventures there, but then came back to McAdoo and married our Dad. 

I hated that she had to be sick and tethered to oxygen, just as much as she did, but near the end she would always say, "No Regrets", assuring us that she would be ok.

I will only have good memories of Mom. 

Love you Mom.  Rest in Peace. 

Here is Mom’s Obituary;

Mary Midash

Newark - Mary Midash, age 93, of Newark, DE, passed away peacefully on Friday, March 9, 2018 at Heartland Hospice House.

Born in McAdoo, PA on August 8, 1924, she was a daughter of the late John and Mary (Zurek) Matuskevich. She married John B. Midash on July 5, 1947, moved to Delaware and together they raised four sons.

Mary was a gifted seamstress, making custom draperies for J.C. Penney and her family. She also enjoyed making friends and meeting people in her role as a banquet server for several country clubs in Delaware. Mary enjoyed going to Delaware Park and shopping, but her favorite role was wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and homemaker. She was also a member of Holy Family R.C. Church.

In addition to her parents, Mary was preceded in death by her husband of 69 years, John, who died on December 9, 2016; youngest son, Randy; granddaughter, Melissa; daughter-in-law, Deborah; sisters, Helen, Julia and Sophia; brothers Paul, Pete, Michael and Edward. She is survived by her sons, John (Sandy), Larry (Millie) and David (Lois); her caregivers; three grandsons, Larry (Kristie), John (Heather) and David; three great grandchildren; sister, Stephanie Mackin; brother Stanley (Patsy) Matuskevich; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Joseph and Dorothy Midash; numerous nieces and nephews; and good friends, Sallie Midash and Chris and Tom Kelley.

The family extends their deepest appreciation to Shannon and Amy from Heartland Hospice and the nurses and staff at Heartland Hospice House.

Graveside services and burial will be held at 11 am on Friday, March 16, 2018 at All Saints Cemetery, 6001 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, DE 19808.

To sign guest book, visit: spicermullikin.com

SPICER-MULLIKIN FUNERAL

HOMES & CREMATORY

Unexpected trip north

We’ve driven a lot of miles since the last post from Florida and we are now camped in Newark Delaware. Yes we’ve gone from 80 and sunny to frigid and overcast!

1200 miles, Clermont Florida to Newark Delaware

We departed Wauchula Florida on March 5^th and returned to Clermont. The Orlando Thousand Trails Campground here was our first stop back in December and is usually our last stop on the way home. We had originally made reservations for 14 days, but we were getting anxious to return to our “new to us” house and get back to work on our current projects. We had tickets to see Jimmie Fortune at the Strawberry Festival on Monday and had to go to the IKEA store in Orlando to pick up a purchase. Then if the weather looked good in Myrtle Beach we would head home by the end of the week.

On Monday morning a call from my brother changed those plans, my mother who is 94 with a failing heart was not doing too well. We quickly decided to miss the Jimmie Fortune show, pick up our purchase at IKEA on Monday and head home early Tuesday.

We departed Clermont at 8am and drove north for 550 miles, arriving home in Myrtle Beach in the afternoon. By now it was clear that my mother’s death was eminent. The new plan was for me to fly or drive to Delaware while Millie stayed home with our dog, Maggie. Sadly my mother died before we could implement the plan.

Mary A Midash in fall of 2017

As soon as funeral arrangements had been made, we reloaded the motorhome and made the trip north. We traveled up RT 17 because of the Nor’easter that was depositing snow on the I-95 corridor. Winds from the storm were very strong all day and when we got to Norfolk we decided to wait unit morning to cross the Bay Bridge and Tunnel.

The following morning we drove up the peninsula to Lums Pond state Park near Newark, adding another 550 miles to our travels.

March this year has been colder than February in the Mid-Atlantic, temperatures are forecast to be well below freezing each night for the next week. Inside the motorhome is comfortable, outside is another matter altogether!

Pioneer Days

Our Canadian neighbors are staying in south Florida for several more weeks, fore spring does not come to the provinces until May. The northeast is being battered by a strong nor’easter as I write this; I don’t miss those cold rain swept winds. For Millie and I, winter is about over. Spring is popping in Myrtle Beach and we are migrating home. 

roughly 200 mile trip to our next stop

Leaving South Florida this year we drove a different route north, for no other reason than we’ve run the spine of the state (route 27) many times and wished for some different scenery. We left Southern Comfort RV Resort in Florida City on Krome Ave, the straight as-an-arrow road that runs north between Miami and the Everglades. At the intersection of Krome and the Tamiami Trail we turned due west onto the 75 mile causeway across the ocean of grass and water. 

We're not the first ones to think it would be a good idea to "Drain the swamp!"

The state has already built one long bridge on the Tamiami Trail and has another longer one under construction. The adjacent causeway is being removed to allow a more natural flow of water through the glades. It is man correcting the mistakes of those in the past whose master plan was to drain the swamp for farmland and development. Where did they think all those alligators and mosquitoes were going to live!

On the western side of the state we moved onto I-75 to avoid the congestion of the gulf coast cities. Much like the rest of Florida there is a lot of commercial and residential building going on in the southwest coast. Most of it looked high end to me, no poor people retiring over here.

Just shy of Ft Meyers we angled northeast on secondary roads into the very rural interior. Cows grazing on the tropical savanna dominate the landscape with an occasional village or small town at the intersection of long lonely roads.. One of these towns, Wauchula, is our destination for the weekend.

Before the electrical power grid these stationary engines provided power for farms and industry.

Hardy County Pioneer Days is an annual festival held in Zolfo Springs. It has grown each year we have attended with its main attraction being the antique tractors and stationary engine gathering. There is also a large flea market, food trucks, live entertainment, and historical displays. 

This tractor was sold with the claim it would run on almost any combustible oil and would pull its rated horsepower.  That was probably a good selling point back in the great depression.

In addition to walking past miles of flea market tables we watched the Antique tractor parade and enjoyed a performance by a local gal who sings in the style of the British singer Adel. Nineteen year old Nola Price was a contestant last year on “The Voice”, and made it to the battle rounds. 

"The Voice" contestant Nola Price

Our campground for the weekend is the Thousand Trails campground which is just down the street from Pioneer Park. About half the campground sites are out of service due to damaged electric and water lines. They say they are waiting for construction permits to rebuild, I suspect the county is taking a serious look at the wisdom of rebuilding in a flood plane of the Peace River. This part of the campground floods several times a year.

Now closed lower campground was built in a flood plain