I 'met' Gwen through Find-A-Grave and it's such an odd sensation to be writing my final goodbye to her for that very same website. It's 2 months today, sweet Gwen and you have been thought of so often and by so many since you got your 'angel wings'.
Unfortunately Gwen was a victim of Lyme disease, which went undiagnosed and, needless to say, untreated for perhaps 9 - 10 years. Progressively the Lyme disease created and caused multiple issues during that time span. It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you about my vibrant, courageous, beautiful and talented cousin....
Gwen's grandfather, Aleksander Szymon Mlynarski was a brother to my great-grandfather Jozef Edward Mlynarski, making the relationship between Gwen and me that of 2nd Cousin~1X Removed. Gwen is the youngest daughter of Stephen Francis Mlynarski and Rita E. Peplow and had 3 brothers and 2 sisters.
Gwen was born and lived in the Northwest side of Chicago for fourteen years and then lived 6 years in the suburbs of Chicago. The family had a summer home in Delavan, Wisconsin and as of today it's still in the family. She left Chicago and moved to Dallas in 1987.
It was in Dallas where she met Mark Upton, her husband. He had resided there long before Gwen moved there. Wedding bells rang for Mark and Gwen in Jamaica on May 19, 1990. They remained in Dallas for ten years and moved to Colorado. In Colorado they built their 'bungalow' (It was there that I first was able to finally meet Gwen: October 2012). Gwen created her own pottery, with her own kilns and workshops and maintained her pottery website for eleven years.
By 2000 Gwen had started genealogy, often volunteering at her local family history center. Her vast photographic collection of old family photos needed to be 'seen'! In 2010 I discovered a memorial she created [for my great-grandfather] and couldn't 'scroll down' fast enough to make contact with her! Her first 'message' to me was through Find-A-Grave on 6 Feb 2010 and in her very next e-mail to me, 7 Feb 2010, she's offering documents and scans for her grandfather Alex and his brother, Jakub. The following week Gwen sent many items to me and during the years she and I personally swapped our old family photos. One very SPECIAL document she shared with me was the baptism certificate for Alex; it named his (and Jozef's and Jakub's) father and mother! Gwen wrote she was glad that we connected because "it forces me to get my ducks in a row and finish what I have for Mlynarski's."
Believe it or not, by August of 2010 with our two-heads-being-better-than-one we DID FIND our family in Poland!! We were elated! In September of 2012 I personally made it to Poland and met the descendants of my great-grandfather's youngest brother. Gwen and I worked so long and so hard to find this family and it broke my heart that Gwen had been ill for more than a decade and she never got to Osweicim, Poland. So, I brought Osweicim to her! My first visit there I was shown a 110+ year-old walnut tree planted on the ancestral homestead property. I literally brought home branches from that tree and used them to create 'family tree' {get it?} place mats. When I went again to Osweicim, Poland in June 2015 I brought more of Osweicim home to Gwen. This time I scooped a handful of dirt from around that very aged walnut tree....once again I took Poland to Gwen in the United States.
September of 2013 brought an immense natural disaster to the area of Colorado where Gwen lived. You might remember it on the national news...the flooding and landslides near and around the Lyons/Boulder/Longmont area. By the middle of that month she and Mark, along with their 20 year old very geriatric sweet kitty Chloe, were required to evacuate. There were no roads so they were lifted out by helicopter!! From there they re-located to a hotel in Denver. They found out their house was fine; it was basically a matter of no roads on which to get to and from their house. They were fortunate enough to borrow a friend's RV and temporarily they stayed at the campgrounds at the fairgrounds. A short time later the town of Estes Park was open again for business but it would still be perhaps until the middle of December before roads could be up to snuff. Mark and Gwen returned to their 'bungalow' forty-two days after the raining and flooding began.
In 2015 blips will now start to appear on the radar of Gwen's life. In March they're planning to move, as he is changing jobs. They make a move to Walnut Creek, California where they spent a very, very short time. The house had issues which were not conducive to Gwen's health forcing them to once again re-locate, this time temporarily to a small apartment until they can find a nice house. Sadly Gwen tells me that her health isn't great; she's now got cancer. Good news however is that in October they bought a new house!! But more bad news! By May 2016 Gwen is still undergoing, chemo therapy and by July the antibiotics were appearing ineffective on her late-stage Lyme disease. Every available option was looked into and many tried: homeopathy, colonics, neuro-emotional therapy, acupuncture and even lymph massages. May of 2017 she tells me she's always weak and has still thirteen radiation treatments, and adds, however, that her cancer serum number is good.
And in July 2017, a very large and unwelcome blip on the radar of Gwen's life: "I kept putting off this dreaded task [meaning to tell me] but here it is. My cancer came back. I'm in chemo again. My blood serum level shot up in June/July's testing." Some of Gwen's cancer was gone from the breast, but had moved to part of a lung, her right scapula and the 'gutter' in her pelvic area. She also told me she had tumor/s in/on her brain, on which they used a 'gamma-knife' in order to remove some of the mass. She had been in incredible pain, unable to get good sleep, and was taking prescribed meds in order to sleep through her nights.
Gwen absolutely adored Mark, her family, all her cats, Chris Isaak, and genealogy. She was avidly passionate about photography & pictures, pandas and pottery. She guided me through many websites, instructed me in so many areas of photography, helped immensely in the genealogy department and was a loving, informative, considerate, educated, and giving person. She took in every Chris Isaak concert she could drag Mark to; even went to a concert once and had been the recipient of "meet and greet" the celebrity....AND she also got an autographed guitar and her photograph taken with him!
Gwen once wrote me "I've always had a cat in my life." From strays to adoption 'shelter' cats, and adding once that their cat Reuben "changed our life." Reuben always went with them on vacations in their RV. In November 2012 she told me that their precious Reuben died. After they brought him home from the vet they laid him to rest on the hill next to their other cat, Ernie. Gwen described Reuben as "the happiest cat I've ever known". Since I had met them, she thanked me too, for loving Reuben. Chloe eventually went to the RainbowBridge and they ultimately found their little orange+white girl kitty, Poppy, who is undoubtedly missing her Gwen..... as we all are!
During our eight year relationship you can definitely say that the two of us got every dollars-worth of our internet bills, not to mention our long, [VERY} long phone conversations! And for the record, we "nailed it!" in the matter of our Polish/Austrian relatives!
I spoke to Gwen for the last time on January 31, 2018 and want to tell you how brave this vibrant young lady was through all of this! "I'm doing okay, praying a lot, talking to God, realizing that we all go at sometime or another. I follow Christ and know that Heaven is better than here, and I'll see all my kin again." She specifically said to me, "I'll see you again..." which of course, made teardrops stream from both of us.
It's 2 months today, dear Gwen, and you have been thought of so often since you got your 'angel wings'!
"I'll See You Again"
"TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND IS NOT TO DIE"
Unfortunately Gwen was a victim of Lyme disease, which went undiagnosed and, needless to say, untreated for perhaps 9 - 10 years. Progressively the Lyme disease created and caused multiple issues during that time span. It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you about my vibrant, courageous, beautiful and talented cousin....
Gwen's grandfather, Aleksander Szymon Mlynarski was a brother to my great-grandfather Jozef Edward Mlynarski, making the relationship between Gwen and me that of 2nd Cousin~1X Removed. Gwen is the youngest daughter of Stephen Francis Mlynarski and Rita E. Peplow and had 3 brothers and 2 sisters.
Gwen was born and lived in the Northwest side of Chicago for fourteen years and then lived 6 years in the suburbs of Chicago. The family had a summer home in Delavan, Wisconsin and as of today it's still in the family. She left Chicago and moved to Dallas in 1987.
It was in Dallas where she met Mark Upton, her husband. He had resided there long before Gwen moved there. Wedding bells rang for Mark and Gwen in Jamaica on May 19, 1990. They remained in Dallas for ten years and moved to Colorado. In Colorado they built their 'bungalow' (It was there that I first was able to finally meet Gwen: October 2012). Gwen created her own pottery, with her own kilns and workshops and maintained her pottery website for eleven years.
By 2000 Gwen had started genealogy, often volunteering at her local family history center. Her vast photographic collection of old family photos needed to be 'seen'! In 2010 I discovered a memorial she created [for my great-grandfather] and couldn't 'scroll down' fast enough to make contact with her! Her first 'message' to me was through Find-A-Grave on 6 Feb 2010 and in her very next e-mail to me, 7 Feb 2010, she's offering documents and scans for her grandfather Alex and his brother, Jakub. The following week Gwen sent many items to me and during the years she and I personally swapped our old family photos. One very SPECIAL document she shared with me was the baptism certificate for Alex; it named his (and Jozef's and Jakub's) father and mother! Gwen wrote she was glad that we connected because "it forces me to get my ducks in a row and finish what I have for Mlynarski's."
Believe it or not, by August of 2010 with our two-heads-being-better-than-one we DID FIND our family in Poland!! We were elated! In September of 2012 I personally made it to Poland and met the descendants of my great-grandfather's youngest brother. Gwen and I worked so long and so hard to find this family and it broke my heart that Gwen had been ill for more than a decade and she never got to Osweicim, Poland. So, I brought Osweicim to her! My first visit there I was shown a 110+ year-old walnut tree planted on the ancestral homestead property. I literally brought home branches from that tree and used them to create 'family tree' {get it?} place mats. When I went again to Osweicim, Poland in June 2015 I brought more of Osweicim home to Gwen. This time I scooped a handful of dirt from around that very aged walnut tree....once again I took Poland to Gwen in the United States.
September of 2013 brought an immense natural disaster to the area of Colorado where Gwen lived. You might remember it on the national news...the flooding and landslides near and around the Lyons/Boulder/Longmont area. By the middle of that month she and Mark, along with their 20 year old very geriatric sweet kitty Chloe, were required to evacuate. There were no roads so they were lifted out by helicopter!! From there they re-located to a hotel in Denver. They found out their house was fine; it was basically a matter of no roads on which to get to and from their house. They were fortunate enough to borrow a friend's RV and temporarily they stayed at the campgrounds at the fairgrounds. A short time later the town of Estes Park was open again for business but it would still be perhaps until the middle of December before roads could be up to snuff. Mark and Gwen returned to their 'bungalow' forty-two days after the raining and flooding began.
In 2015 blips will now start to appear on the radar of Gwen's life. In March they're planning to move, as he is changing jobs. They make a move to Walnut Creek, California where they spent a very, very short time. The house had issues which were not conducive to Gwen's health forcing them to once again re-locate, this time temporarily to a small apartment until they can find a nice house. Sadly Gwen tells me that her health isn't great; she's now got cancer. Good news however is that in October they bought a new house!! But more bad news! By May 2016 Gwen is still undergoing, chemo therapy and by July the antibiotics were appearing ineffective on her late-stage Lyme disease. Every available option was looked into and many tried: homeopathy, colonics, neuro-emotional therapy, acupuncture and even lymph massages. May of 2017 she tells me she's always weak and has still thirteen radiation treatments, and adds, however, that her cancer serum number is good.
And in July 2017, a very large and unwelcome blip on the radar of Gwen's life: "I kept putting off this dreaded task [meaning to tell me] but here it is. My cancer came back. I'm in chemo again. My blood serum level shot up in June/July's testing." Some of Gwen's cancer was gone from the breast, but had moved to part of a lung, her right scapula and the 'gutter' in her pelvic area. She also told me she had tumor/s in/on her brain, on which they used a 'gamma-knife' in order to remove some of the mass. She had been in incredible pain, unable to get good sleep, and was taking prescribed meds in order to sleep through her nights.
Gwen absolutely adored Mark, her family, all her cats, Chris Isaak, and genealogy. She was avidly passionate about photography & pictures, pandas and pottery. She guided me through many websites, instructed me in so many areas of photography, helped immensely in the genealogy department and was a loving, informative, considerate, educated, and giving person. She took in every Chris Isaak concert she could drag Mark to; even went to a concert once and had been the recipient of "meet and greet" the celebrity....AND she also got an autographed guitar and her photograph taken with him!
Gwen once wrote me "I've always had a cat in my life." From strays to adoption 'shelter' cats, and adding once that their cat Reuben "changed our life." Reuben always went with them on vacations in their RV. In November 2012 she told me that their precious Reuben died. After they brought him home from the vet they laid him to rest on the hill next to their other cat, Ernie. Gwen described Reuben as "the happiest cat I've ever known". Since I had met them, she thanked me too, for loving Reuben. Chloe eventually went to the RainbowBridge and they ultimately found their little orange+white girl kitty, Poppy, who is undoubtedly missing her Gwen..... as we all are!
During our eight year relationship you can definitely say that the two of us got every dollars-worth of our internet bills, not to mention our long, [VERY} long phone conversations! And for the record, we "nailed it!" in the matter of our Polish/Austrian relatives!
I spoke to Gwen for the last time on January 31, 2018 and want to tell you how brave this vibrant young lady was through all of this! "I'm doing okay, praying a lot, talking to God, realizing that we all go at sometime or another. I follow Christ and know that Heaven is better than here, and I'll see all my kin again." She specifically said to me, "I'll see you again..." which of course, made teardrops stream from both of us.
It's 2 months today, dear Gwen, and you have been thought of so often since you got your 'angel wings'!
"I'll See You Again"
"TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND IS NOT TO DIE"
I 'met' Gwen through Find-A-Grave and it's such an odd sensation to be writing my final goodbye to her for that very same website. It's 2 months today, sweet Gwen and you have been thought of so often and by so many since you got your 'angel wings'.
Unfortunately Gwen was a victim of Lyme disease, which went undiagnosed and, needless to say, untreated for perhaps 9 - 10 years. Progressively the Lyme disease created and caused multiple issues during that time span. It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you about my vibrant, courageous, beautiful and talented cousin....
Gwen's grandfather, Aleksander Szymon Mlynarski was a brother to my great-grandfather Jozef Edward Mlynarski, making the relationship between Gwen and me that of 2nd Cousin~1X Removed. Gwen is the youngest daughter of Stephen Francis Mlynarski and Rita E. Peplow and had 3 brothers and 2 sisters.
Gwen was born and lived in the Northwest side of Chicago for fourteen years and then lived 6 years in the suburbs of Chicago. The family had a summer home in Delavan, Wisconsin and as of today it's still in the family. She left Chicago and moved to Dallas in 1987.
It was in Dallas where she met Mark Upton, her husband. He had resided there long before Gwen moved there. Wedding bells rang for Mark and Gwen in Jamaica on May 19, 1990. They remained in Dallas for ten years and moved to Colorado. In Colorado they built their 'bungalow' (It was there that I first was able to finally meet Gwen: October 2012). Gwen created her own pottery, with her own kilns and workshops and maintained her pottery website for eleven years.
By 2000 Gwen had started genealogy, often volunteering at her local family history center. Her vast photographic collection of old family photos needed to be 'seen'! In 2010 I discovered a memorial she created [for my great-grandfather] and couldn't 'scroll down' fast enough to make contact with her! Her first 'message' to me was through Find-A-Grave on 6 Feb 2010 and in her very next e-mail to me, 7 Feb 2010, she's offering documents and scans for her grandfather Alex and his brother, Jakub. The following week Gwen sent many items to me and during the years she and I personally swapped our old family photos. One very SPECIAL document she shared with me was the baptism certificate for Alex; it named his (and Jozef's and Jakub's) father and mother! Gwen wrote she was glad that we connected because "it forces me to get my ducks in a row and finish what I have for Mlynarski's."
Believe it or not, by August of 2010 with our two-heads-being-better-than-one we DID FIND our family in Poland!! We were elated! In September of 2012 I personally made it to Poland and met the descendants of my great-grandfather's youngest brother. Gwen and I worked so long and so hard to find this family and it broke my heart that Gwen had been ill for more than a decade and she never got to Osweicim, Poland. So, I brought Osweicim to her! My first visit there I was shown a 110+ year-old walnut tree planted on the ancestral homestead property. I literally brought home branches from that tree and used them to create 'family tree' {get it?} place mats. When I went again to Osweicim, Poland in June 2015 I brought more of Osweicim home to Gwen. This time I scooped a handful of dirt from around that very aged walnut tree....once again I took Poland to Gwen in the United States.
September of 2013 brought an immense natural disaster to the area of Colorado where Gwen lived. You might remember it on the national news...the flooding and landslides near and around the Lyons/Boulder/Longmont area. By the middle of that month she and Mark, along with their 20 year old very geriatric sweet kitty Chloe, were required to evacuate. There were no roads so they were lifted out by helicopter!! From there they re-located to a hotel in Denver. They found out their house was fine; it was basically a matter of no roads on which to get to and from their house. They were fortunate enough to borrow a friend's RV and temporarily they stayed at the campgrounds at the fairgrounds. A short time later the town of Estes Park was open again for business but it would still be perhaps until the middle of December before roads could be up to snuff. Mark and Gwen returned to their 'bungalow' forty-two days after the raining and flooding began.
In 2015 blips will now start to appear on the radar of Gwen's life. In March they're planning to move, as he is changing jobs. They make a move to Walnut Creek, California where they spent a very, very short time. The house had issues which were not conducive to Gwen's health forcing them to once again re-locate, this time temporarily to a small apartment until they can find a nice house. Sadly Gwen tells me that her health isn't great; she's now got cancer. Good news however is that in October they bought a new house!! But more bad news! By May 2016 Gwen is still undergoing, chemo therapy and by July the antibiotics were appearing ineffective on her late-stage Lyme disease. Every available option was looked into and many tried: homeopathy, colonics, neuro-emotional therapy, acupuncture and even lymph massages. May of 2017 she tells me she's always weak and has still thirteen radiation treatments, and adds, however, that her cancer serum number is good.
And in July 2017, a very large and unwelcome blip on the radar of Gwen's life: "I kept putting off this dreaded task [meaning to tell me] but here it is. My cancer came back. I'm in chemo again. My blood serum level shot up in June/July's testing." Some of Gwen's cancer was gone from the breast, but had moved to part of a lung, her right scapula and the 'gutter' in her pelvic area. She also told me she had tumor/s in/on her brain, on which they used a 'gamma-knife' in order to remove some of the mass. She had been in incredible pain, unable to get good sleep, and was taking prescribed meds in order to sleep through her nights.
Gwen absolutely adored Mark, her family, all her cats, Chris Isaak, and genealogy. She was avidly passionate about photography & pictures, pandas and pottery. She guided me through many websites, instructed me in so many areas of photography, helped immensely in the genealogy department and was a loving, informative, considerate, educated, and giving person. She took in every Chris Isaak concert she could drag Mark to; even went to a concert once and had been the recipient of "meet and greet" the celebrity....AND she also got an autographed guitar and her photograph taken with him!
Gwen once wrote me "I've always had a cat in my life." From strays to adoption 'shelter' cats, and adding once that their cat Reuben "changed our life." Reuben always went with them on vacations in their RV. In November 2012 she told me that their precious Reuben died. After they brought him home from the vet they laid him to rest on the hill next to their other cat, Ernie. Gwen described Reuben as "the happiest cat I've ever known". Since I had met them, she thanked me too, for loving Reuben. Chloe eventually went to the RainbowBridge and they ultimately found their little orange+white girl kitty, Poppy, who is undoubtedly missing her Gwen..... as we all are!
During our eight year relationship you can definitely say that the two of us got every dollars-worth of our internet bills, not to mention our long, [VERY} long phone conversations! And for the record, we "nailed it!" in the matter of our Polish/Austrian relatives!
I spoke to Gwen for the last time on January 31, 2018 and want to tell you how brave this vibrant young lady was through all of this! "I'm doing okay, praying a lot, talking to God, realizing that we all go at sometime or another. I follow Christ and know that Heaven is better than here, and I'll see all my kin again." She specifically said to me, "I'll see you again..." which of course, made teardrops stream from both of us.
It's 2 months today, dear Gwen, and you have been thought of so often since you got your 'angel wings'!
"I'll See You Again"
"TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND IS NOT TO DIE"
Unfortunately Gwen was a victim of Lyme disease, which went undiagnosed and, needless to say, untreated for perhaps 9 - 10 years. Progressively the Lyme disease created and caused multiple issues during that time span. It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you about my vibrant, courageous, beautiful and talented cousin....
Gwen's grandfather, Aleksander Szymon Mlynarski was a brother to my great-grandfather Jozef Edward Mlynarski, making the relationship between Gwen and me that of 2nd Cousin~1X Removed. Gwen is the youngest daughter of Stephen Francis Mlynarski and Rita E. Peplow and had 3 brothers and 2 sisters.
Gwen was born and lived in the Northwest side of Chicago for fourteen years and then lived 6 years in the suburbs of Chicago. The family had a summer home in Delavan, Wisconsin and as of today it's still in the family. She left Chicago and moved to Dallas in 1987.
It was in Dallas where she met Mark Upton, her husband. He had resided there long before Gwen moved there. Wedding bells rang for Mark and Gwen in Jamaica on May 19, 1990. They remained in Dallas for ten years and moved to Colorado. In Colorado they built their 'bungalow' (It was there that I first was able to finally meet Gwen: October 2012). Gwen created her own pottery, with her own kilns and workshops and maintained her pottery website for eleven years.
By 2000 Gwen had started genealogy, often volunteering at her local family history center. Her vast photographic collection of old family photos needed to be 'seen'! In 2010 I discovered a memorial she created [for my great-grandfather] and couldn't 'scroll down' fast enough to make contact with her! Her first 'message' to me was through Find-A-Grave on 6 Feb 2010 and in her very next e-mail to me, 7 Feb 2010, she's offering documents and scans for her grandfather Alex and his brother, Jakub. The following week Gwen sent many items to me and during the years she and I personally swapped our old family photos. One very SPECIAL document she shared with me was the baptism certificate for Alex; it named his (and Jozef's and Jakub's) father and mother! Gwen wrote she was glad that we connected because "it forces me to get my ducks in a row and finish what I have for Mlynarski's."
Believe it or not, by August of 2010 with our two-heads-being-better-than-one we DID FIND our family in Poland!! We were elated! In September of 2012 I personally made it to Poland and met the descendants of my great-grandfather's youngest brother. Gwen and I worked so long and so hard to find this family and it broke my heart that Gwen had been ill for more than a decade and she never got to Osweicim, Poland. So, I brought Osweicim to her! My first visit there I was shown a 110+ year-old walnut tree planted on the ancestral homestead property. I literally brought home branches from that tree and used them to create 'family tree' {get it?} place mats. When I went again to Osweicim, Poland in June 2015 I brought more of Osweicim home to Gwen. This time I scooped a handful of dirt from around that very aged walnut tree....once again I took Poland to Gwen in the United States.
September of 2013 brought an immense natural disaster to the area of Colorado where Gwen lived. You might remember it on the national news...the flooding and landslides near and around the Lyons/Boulder/Longmont area. By the middle of that month she and Mark, along with their 20 year old very geriatric sweet kitty Chloe, were required to evacuate. There were no roads so they were lifted out by helicopter!! From there they re-located to a hotel in Denver. They found out their house was fine; it was basically a matter of no roads on which to get to and from their house. They were fortunate enough to borrow a friend's RV and temporarily they stayed at the campgrounds at the fairgrounds. A short time later the town of Estes Park was open again for business but it would still be perhaps until the middle of December before roads could be up to snuff. Mark and Gwen returned to their 'bungalow' forty-two days after the raining and flooding began.
In 2015 blips will now start to appear on the radar of Gwen's life. In March they're planning to move, as he is changing jobs. They make a move to Walnut Creek, California where they spent a very, very short time. The house had issues which were not conducive to Gwen's health forcing them to once again re-locate, this time temporarily to a small apartment until they can find a nice house. Sadly Gwen tells me that her health isn't great; she's now got cancer. Good news however is that in October they bought a new house!! But more bad news! By May 2016 Gwen is still undergoing, chemo therapy and by July the antibiotics were appearing ineffective on her late-stage Lyme disease. Every available option was looked into and many tried: homeopathy, colonics, neuro-emotional therapy, acupuncture and even lymph massages. May of 2017 she tells me she's always weak and has still thirteen radiation treatments, and adds, however, that her cancer serum number is good.
And in July 2017, a very large and unwelcome blip on the radar of Gwen's life: "I kept putting off this dreaded task [meaning to tell me] but here it is. My cancer came back. I'm in chemo again. My blood serum level shot up in June/July's testing." Some of Gwen's cancer was gone from the breast, but had moved to part of a lung, her right scapula and the 'gutter' in her pelvic area. She also told me she had tumor/s in/on her brain, on which they used a 'gamma-knife' in order to remove some of the mass. She had been in incredible pain, unable to get good sleep, and was taking prescribed meds in order to sleep through her nights.
Gwen absolutely adored Mark, her family, all her cats, Chris Isaak, and genealogy. She was avidly passionate about photography & pictures, pandas and pottery. She guided me through many websites, instructed me in so many areas of photography, helped immensely in the genealogy department and was a loving, informative, considerate, educated, and giving person. She took in every Chris Isaak concert she could drag Mark to; even went to a concert once and had been the recipient of "meet and greet" the celebrity....AND she also got an autographed guitar and her photograph taken with him!
Gwen once wrote me "I've always had a cat in my life." From strays to adoption 'shelter' cats, and adding once that their cat Reuben "changed our life." Reuben always went with them on vacations in their RV. In November 2012 she told me that their precious Reuben died. After they brought him home from the vet they laid him to rest on the hill next to their other cat, Ernie. Gwen described Reuben as "the happiest cat I've ever known". Since I had met them, she thanked me too, for loving Reuben. Chloe eventually went to the RainbowBridge and they ultimately found their little orange+white girl kitty, Poppy, who is undoubtedly missing her Gwen..... as we all are!
During our eight year relationship you can definitely say that the two of us got every dollars-worth of our internet bills, not to mention our long, [VERY} long phone conversations! And for the record, we "nailed it!" in the matter of our Polish/Austrian relatives!
I spoke to Gwen for the last time on January 31, 2018 and want to tell you how brave this vibrant young lady was through all of this! "I'm doing okay, praying a lot, talking to God, realizing that we all go at sometime or another. I follow Christ and know that Heaven is better than here, and I'll see all my kin again." She specifically said to me, "I'll see you again..." which of course, made teardrops stream from both of us.
It's 2 months today, dear Gwen, and you have been thought of so often since you got your 'angel wings'!
"I'll See You Again"
"TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND IS NOT TO DIE"
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