Most of Life Is Who You Live It With, February 27, 2012

Most of life is who you live it with.

~Robert and Barbara Mesle

Hello Family and Friends,

My Cousin Jimmie. Best wishes to my cousin Jimmie Gower and his wife Cheryl Hazard Gower of Ft. Mohave, Arizona who celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary this past Tuesday on Feb 21. Click here for a picture of them celebrating their anniversary last year.

Cheryl has had some health concerns in the last few months as a result of a growth her doctor discovered last October. Cheryl: "Thank you for your good wishes. For our 43rd anniversary, Jim went golfing for the first time in a couple years and found out that he isn't as limber as he once was. I have to stay home because I'm undergoing precautionary chemotherapy. I don't know what I'd do without my wonderful husband, who has been a saint thru all the aches and nausea. I've lost all my hair, and at the moment look like an owlet that's just getting it's first downy fluff. A real looker!!"

Jim is the second grandchild of Leroy and Nola Shannon Gower and the younger brother of Hershell Gower whose birthday was remembered in my last post. After that post I heard from my aunt Thelma Shepard Boyd (on the other side of the family). She wrote that, with a smile, she remembered babysitting Hershell and Jimmie when they were little. (I will leave it to you to figure out how long ago that was!)

My Other Brother Darrell. Happy Birthday today to my younger brother Darrell Shepard. Darrell and his wife Mary Medina Shepard live in Kirkland, Washington near their kids Christopher, Rachel and Patrick. The excitement in their family these days in the upcoming wedding of their son Patrick and his fiance Nicole Haw. The whole family is traveling to Cancun, Mexico next month for a "destination wedding" to celebrate!

The first picture is an oldie taken in San Diego about 1960 and shows my brother Darrell on the right with me on the left. The second picture was taken last month and shows Darrell on the left with their older son Christopher.

Darrell: We are all doing fine for the most part. January and February in Seattle always wear me down -- the absence of sunlight. It actually creates a type of stress in my body and mind. Like a knot in my stomach. For that reason I for one am looking forward to Mexico -- sunshine, blue skies and warm weather. It can't come soon enough.

The performing business is moving right along. Every gig goes well. I just need more of them. Like any new business it takes time to get the word out. It has been an amazing experience playing songs from the "Great American Songbook" for "The Greatest Generation." At every show, when they hear these songs from the 40's they are transported to another time and place. And it brings them such joy -- a testimony to the power of music. So it really strikes me how music holds the key to our past, to memories that have long been dormant in our minds.

After every show I hear comments like, "Those songs brought back such memories..." and they proceed to tell me their stories of where they were when that particular song was popular. And every story is interesting. Stories they haven't thought of in years. Decades! Yes, I believe music is powerful magic.
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Steve