Newspaper article: Last week of January at New Iberia

LAST WEEK OF JANUARY AT NEW IBERIA, LA

We had not spoken personally with brother Jake since we learned he was in hospital in Brandon for pain control, and then had been placed in palliative care in Assiniboine Hospital. We had only gotten phone reports from Rita that he was stabilized, then he had some more problems, then he was stabilized again. Accordingly, when a voice message showed on our Magic Jack telephone on the computer on Tuesday, January 25th, from their home phone number, we immediately assumed the worst.

Upon returning the call, surprisingly, John was able to speak with Jake, who was home from hospital for the day. It was such a shock and pleasure to carry on a converation with him sounding as strong and positive as ever, with no hint of illness or pain. John immediately made the decision that we were going to take a week off, and leave at the end of the week to go back to Brandon and visit with him while the visiting was good. They were both delighted!

The work week consisted of finishing up soffit and fascia at Rosella's house. We also painted the back porch floor. Hilda, one of our ladies who does not come to the job site due to allergies, does sewing in her R, and she made Rosella the most beautiful handbag. Presenting it to her gave Hilda the opportunity to see what we had been doing there for the past month. Rosella was delighted with the handbag, as it was in her favorite color, red.

Agnes and I had been addressed Rosella as "Miss Rosella", believing this was a term of endearment and respect in the south. One day, Rosella said, "Oh, please don't do that! It makes me feel so old". After that, we simply called her "Rosella" and she was happy. So much for our trying to be "Southern"...

We usually do a home dedication when a job is completed, but in this instance, Southern Mutual Help Association who provided the material was not anxious to do a home dedication until later on. It is questionable if any of us will even be here when the home dedication is actually done, so we were glad to have had our own little "presentation", such as it was, while we were all still here.

The men started on renovations to Gwen's home when they were done in Rosella's in Jeanerette. Gwen's home is in New Iberia so we will no longer have to drive the 20 miles to work every day.

When we left for Brandon on Friday morning, two new couples came in. Bernie and Agnes postponed their trip to Florida so they could stay and work the extra week that we would be gone. We were able to close up our RV and just drive away, to return to work on Monday, February 7th.