Happy Happy Happy Birthday, July 28, 2018

What greater thing is there for human souls
than to feel that they are joined for life -
to be with each other
in silent unspeakable memories.
~George Eliot

Greetings to all of you from very warm and sunny San Diego! As July draws to a close it is a happy time for several members of our larger family who are celebrating a birth and some birthdays.

Birthday Buddies Barbara and William

Happy Birthday Barbara and William! Today is the birthday of my sister Barbara Shepard of Anacortes, Washington, and the birthday of my Grandson William Quincy Shepard of San Diego. Barbara was born in San Diego "back in the day," and is the youngest daughter of our parents Eugene and Maida Shepard. William was born in San Francisco 6 years ago today, the youngest child of our son Nathan and Chenda Sou Shepard.

Since both of them share the same day of the year as their birthdays I put together a collection of images of both of them. Select this link to view the music video. The songs on the video are from the soundtrack of the recent motion picture "Coco." The video contains scenes primarily from the last year. Some are pictures of each of them individually and some are pictures of both of them together, along with other family and friends. A number of the pictures were taken just two weeks ago when Barbara was in San Diego with her friend Ashley from Washington. They spent a week with us and celebrated Barb and Will's birthday a few days early. 

Jeff and Kim Clark (on the right) with family

Happy Birthday Jeff! Today is also the birthday of Jeff Clark, the husband of my cousin Kim Boyd Clark. The two of them are vagabonds traveling around the county in their RV with Kim's octogenarian mother, my aunt Thelma Shepard Boyd. Some of their time is spent here in Southern California visiting children and Grandchildren. That is when I caught up with them earlier this summer. Since then they have been back to their old haunts in Missouri. The latest news I have received is that Thelma has developed some health issues and will be having some surgery in Missouri in a few weeks. Our best birthday wishes go out to Jeff, and prayers for good health for Thelma!

This second picture was posted on Facebook and was taken Thursday when Jeff and Kim stopped and visited family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while on their way back to California.

Welcome to Alden Nathaniel Gower! Speaking of July births... Congratulations to my cousin Sean Gower and his wife Tracy to whom a baby boy was born last weekend on Saturday night, July 21. Sean told me in a text that "Tracy is doing well along with Alden Nathaniel Gower. This was quite a feat at my age of 50 and my wife Tracy's age of 46 to have a child. We are so happy and overjoyed that he is so healthy. We beat all the odds. Love to everybody."

Alden Nathaniel Gower

Our best wishes go out to Sean and Tracy Gower on the birth of Alden. This is the first birth we have had in our larger family in a couple of years, and the first Gower birth we have had in quite a few years. And what a special birth it is! 

My Gower Grandparents, Leroy Gower (1899-1974) and Nola Shannon Gower (1903-2004), had only one male child, Hendrix Gower (1921-2004). Hendrix and his wife Starlene had two sons, Hershell and Jimmie, but their grandchildren, until now, have only included one male child, Dane Gower, the grandson of Jimmie and his wife Cheryl. All of which means that until this month, among our Gower family members there has been just one male descendant capable of passing on the Gower family name. Alden Gower now becomes one more.

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Steve Shepard