Born in 1958!

Joe & I are just back from a weekend in Memphis visiting Joe’s sister, her husband, our nephew Jacson & three other nieces & nephews who were staying at the Grizzly House on the campus of St. Jude’s Hospital. Some of you have been asking about Jackson, so I wanted to give you a brief update. He just finished up 10 rounds of chemo today and is heading home for two weeks. He is really doing pretty well and had fun playing with his siblings, going to the zoo, etc. while we were in town. While we were there, his dad John started up a website for Jackson. You can keep track of God’s good works at: www.caringbridge.org/visit/jacksonroberts.

Thanks for being faithful in your prayers.

Love, Andi

Right, so as most of you know, my six brothers and sisters and I lost our Mom last March. I’ll probably try to blog about that later on. Maybe. In any event, as you may or may not know, my Mom and Dad went to Rockridge High School where they were high school sweethearts. Dad’s brothers and sisters went there. Mom’s sisters all went there. And aunts and uncles, and even my Grandpa (back when it was Reynolds). I went there, as did Michelle and the twins… When I was there, Dad was even on the school board (you can imagine how much fun that was for Michelle). Anyway, at Mom’s graduation from High School in ‘71, Mom & Dad got engaged… enraging most everybody… but they promised to finish college… and off they went to Western Illinois University together.

Mom & Dad graduated from WIU in ‘74 and, skipping graduation, got married. And that was pretty much it for them until the day Mom went to dance in heaven last year. Eventually all of Mom’s sisters went to WIU (her grandma had even gone there when it was a teaching school). Not surprisingly, Michelle & I ended up at old Western too.

If you knew Mom, you knew she was big into kids (she did have seven of them after all). And big into education (she went back and got a second degree in early childhood education and ran a pre-school). So, long story longer, there is a new scholarship in her name at Western set up to benefit a Rockridge High School senior who decides to go there (once it has enough to be vested). It’s called the C. Robin Frieden Memorial Scholarship.

If you decide you want to give to this scholarship (tax deductible and all of that)… you can do so at WIU’s website by going to https://www.wiu.com/giving/. After selecting your “relationship to WIU”, you are taken to a page for various information. Under the heading “Gift Information” select “Scholarships” and in the drop down menu, go to “Frieden, C. Robin Mem.”

If you’d like more information, you can email me at andi@friedenfarm.com