We just returned from a long weekend trip to Tennessee in order to meet with family and friends and celebrate the life of Natalie’s father, Geary Ashburn, who sadly passed away last month from complications of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Sadly, he retired at 67 years old and within 6 months, began to show signs of the disease which were rapidly progressive and heartbreaking to watch. He was an active and generous man that was eager to enjoy his retirement years with his family and friends only to rapidly become a shell of himself. He was 70 years old when he died.
Natalie was lucky enough to find the time to spend her Christmas holiday with him, knowing it would be her last time seeing him as we spent the month of January preparing for and celebrating our wedding in Antigua. He died on January 19th, the day before we were married.
Despite the sadness that overwhelmed us all, we were able to truly enjoy and celebrate with friends and family that we have not seen for some time. The ceremony was wonderful and his children and friends did a fantastic job of sharing life stories that we will all enjoy reminiscing about for many years to come.
The weather was a wonderful 75 degrees while we were there and it only made us wonder why in the heck we haven’t considered a move to a warmer climate, but we still cherish our home in Wisconsin where we can always find great friends and entertaining activities to keep us busy, even during the colder months of the year. We returned to 20-degree weather and snow the morning following our return and it only made us smile (sort of), knowing that we probably only had one more month of the miserable weather left before we would start seeing true signs of spring in our future.
