FEB-A-5

MY CORRESPONDENCE WITH BEV CROSKERY,

AS SHE RECOVERS FROM PATELLAR TENDON REPAIR

FROM ICY FALL IN CINCINNATI,

AS HER DAUGHTER IS RECOVERING IN INDIANOLA

AS I AM HEADED “INTO AFRICA”

From: Glenn Geelhoed

To: bevcroskery@juno.com

Date: 1/28/04 2:53PM

Subject: Fwd: You have photos from PhotoWorks

Dear Beverley:

I am impressed! A special private duty male nurse is on hand at home‑‑why, he is a man of many parts!

It is wonderful that you are home, and maybe even by now, "out and about," even packing plaster. In view of the recent surgical consumerism in Chez Croskery, you should have sent out the eligible daughter to bring back an orthopedist!

In response to your inquiry about the progress about the house, I attach a few pictures. This roll includes a few I would be quite proud of‑‑‑No, not that half, which may be of greater interest to Robert, on geese and hogs! I mean the front and back pictures on the roll.

The first of them relate to twin grandsons, who, at two years old are into airplanes, helicopters, trucks, trains and all things that make noise and push things around. In a previous roll for which access is included in the attached list, I have pictures of a November visit (just before you had come to Maryland, as Virginia and I came from Iowa) to San Antonio where my son Michael, daughter in law Judy and the twins, Devin Michael and Jordan Lee live. My visit there coincided with the "Wurst Run" (the race directors of the "Flying Pig" in Cincinnati would understand the German affiliation of this race in the town of New Brunfels Texas) which Michael and I ran together. But, the same day, the Texas Air Show assembled all the vintage and ultramodern aircraft to put on a performance. So, the twins are now aircraft afficionados.

It just happens that the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Wilbur and Orville Wright flight came up in December, and Washington's quiet understated way to mark such a celebration was the opening day of the new Udvar‑Hazy (the aircraft leasing baron who was a patron, sponsor of the first $65 million after Congress allocated $8 million of the $311 million for the new) Center of the new National Air and Space Museum's second building, with 30 million cubic feet of display space.

So, in the roll attached, you may see the twins, and us touring the most popular new tourist attraction in the area adjacent to Dulles Airport from which I leave this weekend. Inside this huge museum are all the original aircraft never able to be displayed before such as the Enola Gay, the Sr‑71 Blackbird which holds every aircraft speed record it could not reveal since it was classified, the space shuttle Enterprise, the Concorde, the first 707, the Gossamer Falcon, Wright gliders, and all the items to make little boys (and at least a Grandpa or two) go "ooh" and "ahh" before they have to be carried away in exhaustion. Put this on your list of "must do" activities for your next Capital visit when you can see the new house.

Which is the subject of the latter part of the roll, in which I have my running partner, Joe, and his family come over on my birthday (also celebrated as a holiday for ML King and fellow "19'er" R E Lee) to tour Derwood in its current status with all the interior work being completed in the next weeks. They were the last to visit in July (a photo a few rolls back in the listing attached) for a picnic the day before I left for India and the "Demo" phase began. I was glad not to see all the sledgehammers and bulldozers pushing most of my recollections into dumpsters.

So, they now followed you as the second of the visitors to a "work in progress" before the walk‑through for which Virginia will be here in March. She has done a superb job along with Sandy Shelar, the interior designer whom you met, and all of the custom furniture will be on its way during my next three weeks absence in the Horn of Africa.

I had sent Robert a package of books, and then a later cover letter for his interest (attached) explaining where I would be and what I would be doing (with some further details attached) as I leave now with some hand‑picked student "veterans" to operate in Somaliland and Ethiopia.

Virginia has had a remarkable interval in resolution of several issues, including her thesis and the working out of some personal struggles, progress for which I am very grateful, since I was the one person most powerless to help. I am even more grateful for parental support in this process.

To avoid any mis‑communication, from my impending absence, I may make a "CC" to each of you in extending my best wishes and better hopes (above.)

I am leaving with very satisfying reports on recovery from both of the indomitable Croskery women "on the mend." I am always relating to Virginia the events around me when she is not there with me‑‑which you may have noted can clog up an Email InBox. So, I will try to communicate an edited version of the events of the forthcoming weeks, during which there will be continuing healing in Cincinnati and Indianola, further finishing in Derwood, and a lot of planning for the events that will follow in train.

A cryptic note was attached to my "hard copy" letter to Robert, along with a fistful of essay enclosures. The pre‑eminent endocrine surgeon in Europe is an ebullient Gallic charmer named Professeur Charles Proye, who had written the Foreword to my book on Surgical Endocrinology. This is the volume that was edited and in press when the J & S Publishing Company became insolvent and pulled that plug. The Foreword had the usual bon homme and puffery of "comrades in arms" who had operated together often in numerous theatres, but only now did I realize the significance of his note as valedictory.

Just after Virginia had mentioned a long held ambition to spend some time in France, as I once had, I received his note hoping to see me, with the almost aside comment that he has widely metastatic disease, and wanted to send a note of appreciation as he entered the final phases of prostatic cancer.

So, I am always conscious of the fleeting preciousness of life, health and opportunity, and sharing them with good friends, family and kindred spirits. I am delighted to hear the positive notes that "things are on the mend" and wish you well in speedy further progress!

Cheers!

GWG

>>> Glenn Geelhoed 01/26/04 01:22PM >>>

Here are my only pictures from Cumberland, from the "disposable" camera that stayed with me while the "permanent" ones broke down.

You may also note‑‑not coincidentally, a few pictures of the twin grandsons, a successful Maryland Goose Hunt, the Cumberland excursion in which the biggest catch may be that of Tom using my gloves to pull an armadillo out of its "hole in one!" There follow the pictures of my Birthday Run on "my holiday" (shared with Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King this year) with Joe and the Derwood tour of the Aukward family‑‑the last to visit before the demolition and the first guests to return before the renovations are completed.

And, now, I am off to the "Horn of Africa."

Enjoy!

GWG

>>> photomail@photoworks.com 01/23/04 10:41PM >>>

Glenn Geelhoed

Thank you for your order.

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your new photos right from your online account today.

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CC: rwcroskery@fuse.net; Virg Croskery

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