Christmas 1999

THE BAILEYS 2002 NEW YEARS LETTER

with ROYCE, JUDY , JILLIONNA AGE 12 AND JOSIANNE AGE 11

 JANUARY We started out the New Year of 2001 in California with Doralee (Gramee), Harold (Papa) and all of Royce’s siblings, spouses and two nephews. We had a great time, catching up on all the events since the last time together; eating out, shopping...but most of all-being together. Judy and Royce biked 19 miles from Ojai to Ventura and back again. This may not seem like a big deal, but Royce has not felt well enough or had the stamina to exercise like that since before his life-threatening “gut” surgeries. Judy was worried how he was doing and Royce was worried if his ileostomy bag would stay attached.

Four baby goats were born while we were in California. Helen Keller (the mother goat, was named after a book the girls were reading) rejected one of her twins. Grandpa and grandma Woiter bottle feed the baby for two days, then reintroduced her to her mother. Helen still spurned her and we had a baby goat (Mitzi, as in Gaynor, named by grandma Wolter) in our bathtub for one month. During this time she went to Sabbath Schools as a Bible illustration. She is almost all white with a pale cream face, so could double as the pure white sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament which pointed towards Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross.

While celebrating grandma Wolter’s birthday, Grandpa said, “She’s ninety, er...Uh,” and tried to get out of it by saying, “I had a Freudian slip.” Josee uttered, “Oh grandpa, did you hurt yourself?”

On the 26th Judy deeply cut her left thumb on Friday afternoon by pushing down the trash in the trash can. She had just finished rehearsing for a new Christmas album with the Rosewood Trio, and in her haste, while preparing for the Junior Sabbath School Class the following day, she made contact with an open lid on a discarded dog food can hidden under the trash-Ouch! Judy required seven stitches and didn’t miss a harp gig, but did use the big note series with three fingers only on the left hand. The recording was delayed six months.

FEBRUARY Our three year old nephew/cousin Parker (Spokane, WA) got spanked and after time out, said, “Well, at least Jesus loves me!”

Royce queried one of his 90 year old patients in cardiac rehab., “Are you behaving?” The patient replied, “No, it wasn’t in my New Years resolutions.”

Judy won another Angel Award for her album “Praise Harp Collection, Vol. II” in Hollywood. This is her seventh Silver Angel over the past 16 years. We appreciate Doralee and Harold attending the awards ceremony to accept the Angel. Papa looked so handsome collecting the award as shown in the newspaper picture. Gramee called and wanted to know if we had something to tell her. Royce was surprised and Judy was even more astounded by the reported story that said the reason Judy couldn’t attend was because she was pregnant. No, she isn’t expecting, much to Jillee and Josee’s dismay.

Judy’s thumb is very sore but healing nicely.

MARCH One of Royce’s older office patients was over-heard on his first time meeting with Royce and Steve Hildebrand’s new Invasive Cardiologist partner-Sammy Gammenthaler. “What kind of doctor are you?’ Sammy answers without missing a beat, “A good doctor.”

Royce and Judy travel to the American College of Cardiology Meetings in Orlando,, FL. We enjoyed time together—you know the meaning of that.

One of the girls best friends is Dianne Michelle age 12. She said, “You’re lucky to have horses!” An unnamed daughter said, “You’re lucky to have brothers.” (Dianne has three.) We won’t tell you Dianne’s response. One of those brothers, John Franklin (Dianne’s twin), said he was happy we had two girls, but said we needed a boy. “I’ll tell you how to do it,” John volunteered. Judy thought, “This will be good.” He said, “All you have to do is relax.”

When shown the shape of an octagon, Jillee calls it an “oxygen.” On studying “right” angles, Jillee thought an acute angle should be called a “left” angle.

APRIL Working in the garden preparing it for spring, Judy said, “We really shouldn’t be using the clippers to dig holes for the new plants as it will dull their sharp edges.” Josee responded., “That’s OK mommy, I’ll bet Martha Stewart does this when she has an emergency plant that needs to go in!”

Josee is found feeding Clifford (the dog), upside down in her lap and from a baby’s bottle, dressed in her own old baby clothes. It’s a shame to waste mothering skills on a canine.

Dick and Karen Unrue (Judy’s cousins) visited for a couple of days. What fun to have family staying with us. We love visitors!

The girls (all three) bike the Creeper Trail. Royce was on call at the hospital. A gorgeous 18 mile trail (horse or bike) in Virginia.

The girls have started a game in the car. Any time they see a Volkswagen Beetle they say, “Bug car, can’t hit back,” as they hit the person next to them.. Unfortunately, there are lots of VW’s around here.

Both girls are in braces. We’re doing our part to keep our orthodontist in business.

MAY Judy and our friend Vangie Archer had their annual Manners Class practice at Captain Gilmer (Adventist Elementary School) for the 8th grade. Grandma Wolter, witnessing some of the correct protocols at the table, said, “I can’t believe I’ve lived to this age without knowing that.”

Judy’s parents are still pastoring on the weekends in Blythwood, SC. They enjoy it and the church loves them. This is Pastor Wolter’s 5th church he has pastored since he retired.

Gramee Bailey met us for a weekend with the Quiet Hour at Calloway Gardens in GA, where Judy played the harp. While out here in NC, Judy and Gramee had a marvelous massage at the newly opened Grove Park Inn Spa. Gramee helped the girls de-lice the chicken’s house and clean-up their fenced-in area.

The family goes to Grand Cayman. We visited with our Adventist friends the Thompsons and Janet Bodden. Snorkeling every day and feeding the fish was a treat. We also enjoyed riding in the submarine past some of the local wrecks and seeing the reef wall.

We incubated 20 chicks, six guinea fowl and one out often turkey eggs hatched to add to our menagerie of animals. We haven’t had any peacock eggs to try and hatch yet.

JUNE Judy was to make some chocolate chip cookies for a church party but couldn’t find the opened bag of chocolate chips. The reason is, once the bag is opened, it is fair game for treats and Judy must continually find new hiding places for them to keep little fingers out of the bag. She looked and looked but couldn’t remember where she last hid the bag, so she had to ask the girls where it might be? Sure-enough, they knew right where Judy had “hidden” it.

We had baby pharaoh quail hatch, in our electric hen(incubator), from 25 chocolate spotted tiny eggs on the 13th.

Jillee’s 12th birthday party. She was born at 10:45 am.

Judy seems to be always tuning her harp. But really only spends half the time really tuning, the other half of the time she’s playing an out of tune harp. You know the difference between a harp and a car? ... You can tune a car.

The girls both advanced to level 6 in their swimming lessons.

While Judy was tuning her harp for church, Jillee came up to Judy and said, “Mommy I accidently hit Josee in the face...but she deserved it.” We then had to have a little talk about revenge.

We took the horses (Sassy and Louisa) to the neighbors to be bred with a beautiful Paint-”Cowboy”. Gestation is 11 months and the girls can’t wait.

Hal, Jodi and Parker visited for a week. The girls got to keep Parker for several days while Hal and Jodi attended a wedding. They loved playing mommy and we loved little Parker....

JULY We had another baby goat born on the 2nd, Royce’s birthday -“Felix.”

We had our annual 4th of July potluck, swimming party and fireworks, with friends.

One of Royce’s patients said as he gets older his body has become backwards. “My feet smell and my nose runs.” This same patient got up real close to Royce’s face and declared, “I have AIDS.” Royce never moved as the patient wanted him to draw back in horror. His patient laughingly told Royce about his new hearing AIDS. This is the same patient when asked how he feels, says, “With my fingers.” So the next time Royce saw this patient instead of asking how are you feeling he said, “You look good.” The patient’s reply was, “I can’t help that.”

Judy helped in Vacation Bible School and the girls did another round of swimming lessons.

Judy is busy. Royce declared, “That breeze that just blew by-must be Judy.” How busy you say? This was a typical week. Judy played in three weddings. Practiced and played with the Hendersonville Symphony. Practiced and performed with the Blue Ridge Harp Ensemble at Bel Chere (Annual Street Festival in Asheville, NC). Practiced and recorded her new album with the Rosewood Trio (Harp, Pam Caldemeyer-Flute, Diana Cordell-Voice, Arlene Beckman-Cello—Symphony friends) “A Wreath of Carols” (Classic Christmas Sounds). Wow, just makes me tired thinking about it.

We did vespers at various retirement centers. We end up taking Judy’s and Jillee’s harps, Josee’s flute and Jillee’s dulcimer, plus music stands, tuners, benches, and of course, the right music. That takes two vehicles to get all the stuff there and back.

AUGUST One of the girls friends reported to Judy, “I’m going to have to start playing with Jillionna differently, because she’s taking on the form of a woman.”

Josee’s turns 11. Josee was born at 4:15 pm..

We enjoyed Sabbath picnics with friends, for August is much cooler than usual this year.
Royce compiles his weight loss lectures into book form and calls it, “You’ll Rust Out, Before You Wear Out, If...” It has been very popular in the proof form (free). it is not easy to get all the typos out of it, just when you think you have gone through the last revision, somebody finds 10 more mistakes. Look for the final draft in about 10 years.

During daily worship the question was asked, “What building material did the Israelites make in Egypt? Sun Dried _____? Josee, not paying attention, answered, “Sun dried tomatoes!”

We just got our first super Walmart. Two acres under one roof, replacing our very tiny old Walmart. We have married friends tell the experience of their first visit and how they got separated. They could not find each other in that big store, so they called each other on their cell phones to locate each other.

Teresa from Royce’s Office commenting on her husband’s response to their being married so long. She says, “You got the prize.” He says, “No, I got sur-prised!”

SEPTEMBER Grandpa Wolter was shopping with grandma and saw a dress with two columns of buttons on it. Grandpa claimed “You can use the one side of buttons when you’re skinny and the other side when you’re fat.” But Jillee maintained, “Yes, but grandma is in the middle!”

Josee had her first harp lesson on the 7th. So now both girls are taking harp lessons. Our music room now holds four harps, two pianos, one hammer dulcimer and one flute. So by their request each girl has three instruments to practice. They perform at least once a month in churches and for family and friends. They also continue to play in the handbell choir. The girls keep asking Royce when they can record an album like mommy. Soon, very soon... The one subject in school they don’t like is music theory. Royce is asked at the girls performance what he plays? He states, “The radio.” He also adds, he’s the critic.

Royce entered three of his pictures, which hang in his office, in the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. He took them in Saudi Arabia in 1981-2, while he was there with the Loma Linda Overseas Surgical Heart Team. There were about 40 pictures in each class and he won two 2nd places and one 3rd place. No, he won’t quit his day job.

We all coped differently on September 11 with that tragedy. The girls (all three) didn’t want the TV on. And for worship wanted to read uplifting Angel stories instead of some of “Patriarchs and Prophets.” Royce’s monthly Health Nugget in church was about what a Christian’s response to terrorism should be: “The Christian’s first response should be to fall on our knees and plead (wrestle with God like Jacob) for our very souls. Then we must stay informed. Now is the time to decide to be on the Lord’s side, not when you are sick and dying. Royce has looked death in the face and if we keep our trust in Jesus, we do not fear anthrax or any other form of mass destruction. We have not been guaranteed victory over the first death, only the second (Rev. 20:6). It is part of the wages of sin to die on this earth. We are all dying at this very moment. We have seven people that have died from anthrax in this country as of today. However, one American every 33 seconds is dying of a heart attack and we don’t hear that on the news?. We are here on this earth for a very short testing time with eternity in our future. We’re here to vindicate God’s Holy Name. We will not die in vain, if our hope is in Christ Jesus. Our death, if it comes to that, will be another nail in Satan’s coffin. Victory is ours whether we live or die.”

We went on a canoe trip down the Edisto River (the longest black river in the US; yes, longer than the Suwanee) in SC. We got to spend a night in a tree house. What a relaxing, quiet and serene event compared with Sept 11.

We flew to Cancun. Hotels like the Ritz Carlton were only 20% occupied. On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) the 26th of this year we were in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and we felt safer there, than if we were in New York. At the Mayan Temple to the Sun-Chichen Itza, the girls climbed the stairs five or six times. It made Royce tired to watch after his only time up. It was clear from the ruins and stories of these peoples, where our real worship and treasures should be directed t Judy was afraid to fly home, so she’s swimming back.

OCTOBER On our return we couldn’t find Blackee the dog (one of the boys, named so because Royce is surrounded by women). He had not been well all summer-bad hips the vet said. Jillee came in crying saying that Clifford (Blackee’s brother) lead her to him in the woods, “He’s dead.” Only six and 1/2 years old. We buried him in the woods where he took his last breath. His cause of death appears to be from eating poisoned squirrels. We live- trap our squirrels (Trapped nine this summer), but the neighbors poison them. They are pests. They get into the bird feeders and the barn food for the animals.

Royce and Judy celebrated 16 years of marriage and have never had a disagreement. Obviously dementia is setting in quickly.

Jillee commented during the news about the war, “If the world lasts long enough, I can enter a baby goat in the fair.” Signs of healing from September 11.

Royce was cleaning up leaves and got poison ivy on his face. His patients secretly asked what’s wrong with Dr. Bailey’s face. His staff answered with a straight face, “Leprosy.”

Within two days of Blackee’s death we had another dog picked out from the Humane Society. He’s half Australian Shepard and Great Dane (short haired, gray with black spots). “Roscoe Ross Bailey” has put new life into Clifford. They romp and play and run.

NOVEMBER Royce finally traded in our two BMWs and got a 1995 Dodge Truck. Maybe someday he’ll get a horse trailer. Judy’s 1984 31 8i was the most sentimental to sell. It was still getting 30 miles per gallon but was falling apart. It was nick-named the “Stinky” car, from all the times the girls would fall asleep in their carseats after church and their diapers would overflow.

The girls again entered their gingerbread houses in the Grove Park Inn’s Gingerbread Contest. 266 houses were entered this year. As usual, no ribbons for their efforts.

We had eight baby rabbits, seven black long-haired and one brown. We’re delighted because the mother rabbit had rejected her first two litters.

Royce’s family came out for Thanksgiving and we all had a grand time. Cindee and Neil with Christian from Walla Walla, WA; Hal and Jodi with Parker from Spokane, WA; Papa and Gramee Bailey from Ojai, CA. Rik and Deborah couldn’t come due to Rik’s new teaching job at Southwestern University, Keene, TX. We hosted our 1th annual Thanksgiving Potluck at the Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church. The family helped with the Vegebird. I think we ate every three hours while we were together. We’re typing this in December and we still are not hungry.

DECEMBER We had another baby goat named Betty Merre from Madam Curie (she’s the light brown goat Jillee has a leg over in last year’s Christmas picture). Jillee helped deliver her and Josee did the filming of the birth. We are expecting three more baby goats in the next month. Jillee has announced her desire to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

Josee had to be corrected in school and Judy had to tell her to “look at me,” to make sure she got the point. Royce over heard Josee admonishing Clifford for growling at Roscoe. She said, “Clifford don’t do that, look at me—don’t do that.”

We lost seven chickens to the Bobcat. Life and death on a farm is challenging.

Judy and the girls play for the 1 1th December in a row “Joy In The Morning” at Park Ridge Hospital. It’s the only event Judy will pack up the harp for, at 7 in the morning.

The Jillee has grown three inches this year and Josee two and one-half. Both are in the 6th grade.

Judy while playing at the Biltmore House in her red dress outlined in white feathers, was asked to please help out at a party of little children for Santa had not come. So in-between playing the harp, Judy was playing Mrs. Santa for 35, three-twelve year olds.

Royce’s patient with an accent was asked where he was from? He asserted, “Home.” Another patient had tried some niacin (B3) for her high triglycerides. She said she got so sick from it that she had to get better to die. Mountain phases are most interesting, like the patient when asked how was he doing? “I’m just as happy as if I had good sense.”

Judy’s busy schedule has helped her lose some sleep, so when the girls were chewing their food with their mouths open at the table, Judy said, “Don’t chew with your mouth fall.” Judy will sleep next month.

We wish we could see you all, but we know that soon distance and time will not be an issue. Eternity is forever.