Shepard Family Update, March 21, 2008

Dear Family members and friends,

Hello from San Diego on this "Good" Friday, a day of a full moon, and ironically (or not) the first day of spring! Happy birthday this coming Easter Sunday to Gary Shepard! Bit of Trivia: this is the only time in his entire life that Gary's birthday will fall on Easter Sunday. (Look it up. The last time was 1913 -- Gary is not THAT old! -- and the next time will be 2160.)



Fascinating Family Fact: Did you know? One branch of our family has not been heard from for several years. The whereabouts of Rex Russell and Eric Russell, son and grandson of Pauline (Shepard) Russell, are unknown. Last I heard they were living in the Reno, Nevada area. Would anyone be willing to try and locate them? It would be great to be back in touch with them and invite them to the family reunion. Kim (Boyd) Clark told me that she visited Rex a few years ago, but has since lost touch with him.



Family Faces. I am including two family pictures. The first one was taken at the wedding of Rex and Margie Russell in the San Diego area March 3, 1975. Also in the picture are me and Cindy. The back of the picture says that it was taken near Lake Jennings in Lakeside. As I recall the wedding was at the Mobile Home Park where Rex and Margie lived, and was a very special event attended by quite a few family members.

The other is a picture of Gary and Cindy Shepard, taken a few weeks ago at an early celebration of Gary's Birthday. On the birthday cake you can also see candles in honor of other birthdays in February and March: Gary's wife Cindy, Darrell, Russ and Steven Paul. The picture was taken at Maida's house in Anacortes.

Gary and his wife Cindy live in Oak Harbor, Washington, a short drive from Anacortes. Five years ago when Gary retired from work with the County of San Diego, they moved from Ramona to Washington State to join the rest of the clan there. Gary enjoys the retired life in the Northwest, including walks with his dog-buddy Dexter, regular visits with Mom in Anacortes, church life in Oak Harbor, and helping Cindy get up and off to work each morning (!).

Gary, Cindy and Dexter all three will be at the Shepard family reunion this summer, July 19, in Anacortes, Washington. We hope YOU will be there too!

Note about email addresses: You may have noticed that when I send out these messages by email, the only address you actually see is mine, even though the email goes out to about 25 family members and friends. In these days of so much junk mail, the fewer places our addresses are seen the better. If you would like to have the email addresses of the others on the list, just write me and let me know. Or if you would rather NOT have your email address available to others, please let me know that as well.

Steve