#now when i graduated i was at home because of the panny | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lovelytsunoda · 5 months

Text

take my breath away // tom 'iceman' kazansky

a traffic jam on the interstate and a diamond ring in a glovebox compartment

temporarily stationed in nevada, tom and heather decide to take a weekend in las vegas to see their favourite new wave band. all the while, all tom can think about when to ask heather to be his wife.

part of the heather and tommy universe started in 'tell me something girl'

pairing: tom kazansky x female oc (named heather)

warnings: fluff overload, marriage proposals, traffic jams.

author's note: guys i know that 'kick' didn't come out until 1987, but bear with me on this one, i was trying to make all of the dates work without the wedding feeling rushed (you'll know what i mean if you check the date headings on 'tell me something girl')

October 25th, 1986. Just outside Las Vegas, Nevada.

the weak air conditioning system in her boyfriend's hummer did nothing to block out the nevada heat as they sat idle, listening to the sounds of engines humming and horns honking. heather schneider held a small camcorder in her hands, the viewfinder trained on her boyfriend's face as he raked his hands through is hair, aviator glasses hiding his eyes. duran duran played on the radio, a tree shaped air freshener dangling in front of the windshield.

"babe, i’m so sorry. i had no idea traffic would be this bad." tom sighed, pushing up his glasses so he could run his hands over his face.

the move to nevada had been sudden. back home in virginia after graduating top gun, tom wasn't expecting to get marching orders so fast after coming back from a mission. the two harrowing weeks in the ocean after the academy had rattled him a little, and he was looking forward to finally spending time with heather again. now, he was scared about what nevada would to do his relationship with heather, until heather dropped a bombshell of her own.

she was quitting her job.

working in a law firm that did work closely with the us military did things to a person. and one day, heather just snapped. she came home in tears and told him that she couldn't do it any more.

and then she quit.

and now she was in nevada with no idea what she was going to do with her life. tom was stationed at the nellis air force base, which was very near to the las vegas motor speedway, a place they spent many a weekend watching stock car racing. tom was easing into his role at nellis quickly, seamlessly and with his trusty backseater ron kerner at his side.

heather was still lost. deployment was only for five months, part of a training program for a plane that most people in the military weren't even aware of yet. and after that five months? would they go back to virginia? stay in nevada? where would she work?

"kaz, stop worrying. the concert isn't until tomorrow night anyways." she soothed, running her thumb over his knuckles. the hummer eased forward, but traffic was still at a crawl.

"nellis is eight fucking miles outside of vegas, why can't we get into the city on a friday?"

"because everybody else is also trying to get into the city on a friday."

in the three months they had already lived in nevada, despite only living eight miles outside sin city, heather had still never been to vegas. never walked down the strip, never seen a show.

until tom surprised her with tickets to watch australian new wave band INXS play at ceasers palace. the band meant so much to heather, and she had been waiting for this weekend for the last six weeks.

tom, on the other hand, knowing the significance of the weekend had something bigger planned. the ring was burning a hole in his glove box, right next to his service weapon.

all that time away had taught him one big thing: he wanted heather in his life, by his side, for the rest of his life.

"hey, heath, do you remember that blue bungalow in miramar? the one that was on the water, with the backyard that walked out onto that small square of beach?"

"yeah, why?" heather hummed, panning the camera over at the traffic in front of her. the pair never went anywhere without their cameras, digital or video. there were envelopes full of negatives in their apartment, shoeboxes bursting at the seams with pictures they'd taken since they started dating in the spring of 1985.

tom tapped his slender fingers against the steering wheel, easing the hummer forward another few feet as traffic picked up, and then promptly slowed. he moved to roll down a window due to the heat, but then reversed his decision after smelling the latent gasoline exhaust in the air and hearing the noise of the jam.

"it's for sale. has been for a while, miramar isn't a hot area for us young people." he stopped to take a breath, looking over at heather. her eyes sparkled as she turned to look at him, popping a small pretzel into her mouth. her large, round prescription sunglasses made her look like an owl.

he adored every part of her.

"i want to put a deposit down. with your permission, of course. i know your life is in virginia, and we can go back if that's what you want. but i see a life for us in that house. kids, a dog. at some point, i want to teach at top gun. that's where maverick is, where slider is going to go. but none of that means anything if you aren't with me, heath."

heather closed the camcorder, dropping it into her lap as she reached for tom's hand, clasping it between both of hers. "tom, i'd love to. let's do it. let's move to california."

tom's heart swelled with love as he brought heather's knuckles up to give her a gentle kiss. everything was finally coming together. they were ready to start their life together.

and he knew he needed to ask. he had planned to wait until they were in the city, planned to get down on one knee underneath the false eiffel tower and present heather with his grandmother's ring.

but, as impulsive as it may be, he knew he needed to ask her. in the middle of stalled traffic on a nevada freeway. his hair had grown out since he'd come home from top gun, bangs curling into his eyes and sticking up in all ways after he pushes his glasses up.

"babe, pass me the camcorder and take a look in the glove box." tom said, putting the hummer in park. he would have turned the engine off to save gas, but who knew if traffic would pick up again and he'd have to drive off the freeway?

after heather passed him the small metal camera, he popped it open, discreetly recording as she opened the glove box. her sunglasses held her long, brunette hair back like a headband as she rooted around the compartment.

"behind the service weapon, sweetheart. it's a small pink box."

"found it." she hummed, her manicured fingers clutching the small cardboard box. (tom had been insistent that she go get her nails done with slider's girlfriend maria before they left nellis, but she had no idea why).

she pulled the lid off the box, a gasp getting caught in her throat when she saw the stunning sterling silver ring, and the large blue stone in the middle, framed by diamonds.

"this is your grandmother's ring."

tom's parents were polish immigrants. when his parents left poland with nothing, they brought his father's mother with them (his mother's parents would follow later). angela kazanzky was classically trained ballerina with the warsaw ballet corps, but had left poland with almost nothing after her husband was killed. all she brought with her was a suitcase of clothes, and that sapphire engagement ring.

"heather, the time i spent at top gun taught me a lot of things. how to be a better man, a better soldier and a better pilot. but it also taught me that i hate being away from you. i hate waking up at the crack of dawn and you aren't there next to me." tom began, reaching for heather's hand. she turned to look at him, eyes wide and hands shaky as the gravity what this was set in. "i hate coming home at the end of the day to an empty dorm without you there. yeah, i love the guys, and i love this job. but none of that holds a candle to the way that i love you, heather anne schneider. i was going to wait until we actually got to vegas to do this, but now's as good a time as any."

he smiled nervously, a shock of giddy, pure love shooting through her veins when she looked at him, an equally wide smile breaking out across her face.

"heather, will you marry me?"

"yes! yes, tom, of course i'm gonna marry you. is this what that house talk was all about? yes, of course i'll do it!"

"thank you." tom exhaled, speaking so softly that she almost didn't hear it. he extended his open palm, waiting for her to press the ring into his palm. she was a giggling mess, trying to hold her hand steady while tom slid the cold metal band onto her ring finger. "i'm so in love with you, and i hope we stay this happy forever."

god, she loved that man.

"i love you more, lieutenant."

stretching as far as her seatbelt would allow, heather leaned over the hummer's center console, kissing her fiancé with an intensity that was out of place on the freeway. she couldn't stop staring at the rock on her finger, and thinking about the promise that it represented.

they were forehead to forehead, full of giddy smiles, the camcorder resting on tom's lap still recording as the pickup truck behind them began to honk.

traffic was flowing normally, and they hadn't even noticed.

they broke apart, laughing as they stowed away the camcorder and the now-empty ring box. tom put the car in drive, throwing his middle finger up at the driver behind them.

they were both still smiling, daydreaming about what their new life together would bring them. heather reached for the radio, turning up the volume as they began to play INXS' 'never tear us apart'.

tom smiled fondly, looking over at her as she began to sing.

"this is going to be our wedding song." she smiled to herself.

the following year, they would get married in monterrey, and they would have their first dance to that same song, heather in a simple white dress, and tom in his navy dress whites. and two years after that, they would welcome their first of three children.

and when mitchell kazansky got married? he used that same sapphire ring to propose to his now-wife amelia.

TAGS:

@magnummagnussen @libraryofloveletters @sidcrosbyspuck @diorleclerc @lorarri @cartierre @userlando @thatsdemko

#tom kazansky x reader #top gun imagine #top gun 1986 #top gun x reader #tom kazansky #iceman x reader #tom iceman kazansky x reader #top gun fanfic #Spotify #fools in love! event

56 notes · View notes

pandoraxharlow · 11 months

Text

A New Beginning // self para

Pandora decided...she was making true to her promise. Building a new foundation, reinventing the personality once branded on her skin like a deep scar until it tore the woman’s insides to shreds. The biker chick, the tagalong, the delinquent chasing every bad boy after another. Jason being one of many of an extensive list, but none held a candle to his manipulation and charm. A tumultuous relationship, toxic, any love he displayed marked by the rising of his hand and a false sense of dependency. Never in a million years did Pan believe she would do what she did to him by cutting the life he took for granted short with two shots. No knights in shining armor were coming to save her, so...she set herself free.

In all liberation Pandora experienced, there was only a final piece chaining her to the prison of her old life and that had been Jason’s leather jacket. Admittedly, she’d grown fond of the clothing over the years, feeling protection whenever she wrapped it around her shoulders like a security blanket. No one understood that better than Enzo. He became the introduction to the biker lifestyle despite them meeting through Jason’s connections, developing a push-and-pull relationship that always ended in Enzo cleaning her messes because that is just who he was as a person. She attended his wedding, he went to her high school graduation considering he’s the only reason she graduated in the first place, and she was at his family’s funeral. Consistently, the two bounced into each other’s lives since as long as she could remember. Annoying as it was from Pandora’s perspective, she might’ve long been dead if he wasn’t there looking out for her when no one else stepped up during those adolescent years.

Pandora heard the fence gate creak open as she stood on the outskirts of a blazing firepit with a black leather jacket draped over her arm, not bothering to glance in Enzo’s direction as he quietly joined the blonde at her side. One text and he came running, always, no shocker there. Plus, word traveled he faced banishment from Newford and now called Greenpoint home. The contemplative silence rose through the air and settled between them for a few moments before Panny shattered it, “You’re probably wondering why you’re here.”

Enzo grunted an agreement to the statement, turning to glance at the house and returning his eyes on the young woman before allowing them to scan the bruises around Pan’s throat. The sight nearly dropped his stomach. “Heard you were staying with the cop. I wouldn’t completely put it past him if he came out here right now and tased my ass to the ground on sight. We...didn’t start on the right foot.” Understatement. As usual, he came off too strong and it rubbed Derek the wrong way. Differing views on knowing what was best and Enzo’s loss of control very much contributed to that argument.

“You make it a habit of pissing off the wrong people, don’t you? One of two reasons why you’re here.” Pandora dryly commented, further explaining as the calm rage plastered along her features, “I think I need to make something perfectly plain to you before I give the first reason why you were risking a death match with Derek for walking onto his property. Just so we’re both understanding how badly you’ve fucked up.” She turned more toward him, the fire casting a scorching glow along one side of her frame, “I’m not your daughter, Enzo, I’m not your sister. I know it’s so fucking ingrained into you to take care of every single person around you, but I am not your responsibility that you can play knight in shining armor with.”

Enzo should have known where this conversation was heading. His chat with Benji at the station wasn’t his finest moment and he almost considered apologizing to the kid then and there, but pride overcame him. He couldn’t initially admit he was wrong. “I know I crossed a line with Evans, but you can’t fault me for thinking he was like every single asshole I’ve ever seen you shack up with, Pan. You had a type. I never liked Jason to fucking start with, but I wasn’t about to sit here and stop you from dating who you wanted.” He breathed a deep sigh, “Benji’s been in the Ainsworth’s back pocket. I had every right to assume he was like that piece of shit.”

No,” She snapped, “You decided that instead of making a slice of effort in getting to know someone who will always be more than the self-serving bastards they surround themselves with, you would rather pass judgement on one of the kindest and generous people I’ve ever known. No, you’d prefer playing gatekeeper against a guy who this city has taken and taken from him until he had nothing left to give.” Benji was everything. Her family, her savior, something she never deserved to have. “He lost everything, his whole family, his home, his identity, and tossed to the curb like he was worthless. Does that sound like someone else you know, huh? Everything he felt, every ounce of hope he couldn’t spare to find, I saw that each moment I looked in the mirror and I saw it every day I spent time with him. So, here’s what’s going to happen,” Pan took a small step closer, “You’re going to apologize to him, Enzo. He isn’t Jason.”

“I know.” Enzo ground out, rubbing his hands over his face before pushing them through his cropped hair in agitating exhaustion. “Watching how you were around him, Panny, I wasn’t dumb. No matter how you tried covering up or pretending like shit was solid, I could see the marks and I couldn’t-” He shook his head slowly and glanced down, “I just thought that if I didn’t protect you back then, I could’ve protected you from making the same mistake with Benji even if I didn’t really know him. Shit, I know that isn’t an excuse, but it felt like I was preventing history repeat itself.”

Pandora pressed her lips tightly together and swallowed down the biting words she originally orchestrated to chew the man out with only for the statements to disappear from the girl’s tongue. Suddenly, the anger vanished. Now all she felt was exhausted. Tired by the pretenses, the hard shell mask, the heart of stone exterior she fronted for public consumption. “Reason number two why you’re here with me instead of anyone else from Newford,” Pan held up the leather jacket in her hands, “Despite what you lead yourself to believe, you did protect me. I was lost, starving for attention, wrapped up in a guy who shoved me into this world of his I knew held its dangers. I fell in deep, partying until the fucking cows came home, and I thought that’s all gangs were. That pretty girls like me were just...playthings.”

“Then you come along and turn that shit on its head.” Pan continued. “You took me home when I drunk myself to oblivion, you gave me a couch to crash on, you put up with my bullshit no matter what I threw at you. You know better than anyone I’m too prideful asking for help, but you gave yours anyway with the intuition I needed it so fucking desperately when it seemed like nobody gave a shit.” She gripped the material, worn from use and frayed along the sleeves, “This jacket became everything I wanted to be when I had no idea who I was. It’s Newford, it’s Jason, it’s the perfect allegory why I finally found my resilience. You see,” A sad smile slowly lifted upon Pandora’s lips, “You don’t have to hold my hand anymore, Enzo. I’m still standing because of you.”

Sid would have been surprised, truly, how Enzo managed to remain silent through Pandora’s heartfelt spiel without offering his piece in the matter. Even if the desire to interject occurred, he would not have known what he planned on saying when her words left him speechless. This was her reassurance he did something right, a gratitude Enzo wanted to tell her that she didn’t feel the necessity to grant when no thank you is what he sought. His gaze appraised Pandora as if he were really seeing her for the first time and it’s in the moment he realized how much she grew in not only age, but as a person. Her blonde locks were shorter, chopped to the shoulders in a look that suited the young woman tremendously, and it was the strength of how she now carried herself. No...she wasn’t the same girl. “You’re still standing because of you, honey. There isn’t a single person who’s got more perseverance in just their little finger than you.” He mirrored her smile, the happiness and melancholy mixing into one at the pit of his stomach, “I’m proud of you, Pandora.”

Pan’s eyes immediately shot to the jacket still resting in her hands. She denied herself the crying moment at least not in front of the man when the two were both somewhat uncomfortable by visible emotions. Maybe that is no longer her story, who she needed to be, not when she’s already come this far. “I might not know the real reason you were thrown out of Newford, Enz, but I do know our faction doesn’t define us. That’s what this jacket was, reminding me I belonged to someone else. It’s time to come to grips I’m no longer the same Pandora and you aren’t the same Enzo either. And we can’t do that if we’re holding onto broken memories.” Pandora stepped closer to the stones encircling the pit, slightly holding out the object in her hands closer to the fire, “So, if you’re ready to see what freedom really means like I am, it’s ours.”

Enzo understood what she meant. Destroy the metaphorical link connecting them both to Newford, to the gang, to the monsters plaguing their nightmares, all for setting themselves unbound by expectations. For him, it was erasing the pain of Amelia’s passing and the loss on his unborn child, losing his place at Drake’s side, and the blood soaking his hands from a job he never sought after. It was clear Pandora needed to perform this act as a rite of passage and she was inviting him on embarking the same journey side-by-side. She didn’t want to travel it alone and if it’s his company Pan required in that moment, he could never deny her wishes.

Pandora watched him nod his head as the final confirmation before she released her last grip on the jacket, the clothing poetically falling in a crumbled heap on top of the stacked logs. The fire sent tiny sparks flying, spreading along the surface of the jacket and slowly engulfing the entire piece from what appeared to be the collar all the way to the bottom. Real leather only charred, surprisingly resistant to heat, but faux leather would set ablaze almost instantly. How ironic was it, she thought, that Jason’s jacket had been as synthetic as he was? That everything he said he felt for her, what she experienced, was a lie. Still, the damage was already done. Nothing would remain of the jacket, only stripes of material holding no meaning for her she can now erase from the past. The flames hungrily engulfed the last fragment of Jason nobody will miss again. Good.

Pan reached over and took Enzo’s hand in hers, feeling a sense of resolution as the man gave it a small gentle squeeze. They were two Vincents breaking the mold, bearing witness to a new beginning. A fresh start. Something deemed once impossible, now achieved by storm and strife. As their eyes rested upon this raging pyre billowing smoke towards the heavens, Enzo chose to voice a final thought that came to him since Jason’s demise, “Hey, Panny,” He whispered, “No matter what happened...I don’t blame you.” You did what you had to do. She had to know that’s what he meant.

The statement and its veiled intention nearly caught Pandora off-guard, but not by surprise. Only the mind of a man who took lives for a living would understand the truth behind the lie she and Derek were conveying. She knew Enzo planned on keeping her secret safe, choosing a code of silence despite no verification to the whole story. That’s what families did for each other, after all. No words left Pandora’s mouth, but her hand offered another firm squeeze that spoke volumes.

Two promises were fulfilled. One of freedom and the other of unswerving loyalty.

#self para: a new beginning #ft. enzo huxley

2 notes · View notes

journeydb · 2 years

Text

August 31 (continued) Newport Vermont

We found the apartment building on Main Street that looked like the one where our Dad grew up and where we visited our Nana Johnson until she was in her eighties, when she couldn’t climb the stairs to the third floor apartment any more. It had been recently remodeled so we couldn’t tell for sure if it was the same building but we all agreed that it was in the place we remembered and looked very much like the older building where we had spent so many hours playing canasta on the porch, which Nana called “the veranda”.

Our parents lived across the street from each other and met while our father was mowing our mother’s lawn. Mom and her two sisters, Betty and Ann, lived with their grandmother, who everyone called Gaga, and their mother after she left their abusive, alcoholic father behind in New Jersey. Nana married Newport’s mayor, Winston Prouty, when our mother was about nine years old. and became Frances Prouty. Gaga moved into a house behind them and they took over the bigger house. At lease that’s the story we remember. We weren’t sure which of the houses across from Nana Johnson’s apartment building was theirs, because there were three which kind of fit our description.

We seemed to remember that Gaga moved to a little “cottage”, like the one in the photo, above, behind Nana Prouty and our Uncle Win’s house after they were married. The white house, below had this little house in the alley behind it, so that is probably the house where Nana and Uncle Win lived with the three sisters until they were married or went off to college and until Winston was elected as the junior senator from Vermont to the U.S. Congress and he and Nana moved to Washington, D.C.

The high school was right next door and Mom used to remark about how she was often late to school, even though she lived next door, so we may have found our ancestral home! The high school ceased being a high school long ago but it still serves as an educational institution. It is now a Christian academy.

Dad graduated from Newport High School in 1943 and we believe Mom graduated in 1947. Dad was involved in a few activities, and especially the Thespian Club, because he liked to act. He was a very talented guy and also painted and taught himself to play various musical instruments. The photo above is his graduation picture and those below are from his yearbook.

Dad and Mom at our brother Rod’s wedding to Susan, our nephew Randy’s mother, with our brothers Randy and Marc, and Fran and Kathi, holding her baby, Heather.

Aunt Betty became a nurse and married Uncle Mike, a fire fighter. They had two lovely daughters, Susan and Nancy.

Aunt Betty and Uncle Mike with daughters Susan and Nancy and their children.

Aunt Betty with our older brother, Frank, who was a baby when she was in high school.

We always called Ann, the third sister, Aunt Pannie. Here she is with her husband, Uncle Dick and their youngest daughter, Dianne’s twins, Jackie and Jordyn.

Aunt Pannie hiking at Pierce Pond Camps with her kids and their spouses. Hobie and our niece Courtney are the little kids in the foreground.

The Johnson and Panariello families at Thanksgiving. From left front row: Mom, Aunt Pannie, Uncle Dick’s sister Jo, and his mother, from left back row: Randy, Fran, cousin Jay, Marc, Uncle Dick, cousins Debbie, and Lynn.

This retirement home complex used to be the Prouty Inn, owned by Uncle Win’s family. They were a prominent family in Newport and Winston may have been groomed for public service and a life in politics from a young age. We do know he worked in the Prouty and Miller sawmill across the street from the Inn when he was a young man and he cut his thumb off on a blade, so he did do some physical work in his life.

We drove past the Inn to try to find the house our parents rented when Kathi and I were two and four on this side of town. It was a duplex that we shared with the family of Dad’s best friend, Nip Barnard, who owned Nip’s, a hot dog stand on the east side of town, where Dad worked on the weekend. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings and homes but we couldn’t find that duplex. It was probably demolished sometime in the last 65 years.

We went back downtown and parked so we could walk around and find some landmarks on Main Street which we might remember This building is STILL the library and we remember going in there with Nana Johnson to take out books for her to read to us every week.

So many of the businesses are new but Needleman’s Men’s store was still there after all these years.

THIS was certainly something new and we were very impressed to see it, proving that rural America can be progressive, too. I use as many hemp products as I can find and one of those is the CBD cream which helps with shoulder pain and another is a CBD face cream which helps me sleep.

Somebody with a sense of humor is running this business. We liked the laid-back energy which seemed to permeate this town and I could almost see myself living here.

It was hot and we decided to cool down with ice cream and sorbet at Tim and Doug’s. We sat at a picnic table and relaxed for a while until too many hornets tried to eat from our cones and made it uncomfortable to stay.

The next stop would be the cemetery to pay our respects to departed family members.

Near our Johnson family plot we found this gravestone from the Civil War. It seemed ironic that the person who was buried there had our last name and his first name was Fran’s married name.

We had no trouble finding the Prouty family plot. It was good to see that someone had it cleaned since the last time we were here nine years ago when we brought our brother, Randy’s ashes here to be buried in our family plot.

We noticed that the gravestones on only ONE side of the Prouty family plot had been recently cleaned.

The gravestones the side where Uncle Win and Nana Prouty were buried hadn’t been cleaned in ages and we could barely read their names.

This was Nana’s grave and the photo of Uncle Win’s is below.

We were shocked that someone in the Prouty family had paid to clean only one side of the family’s stones and left the other side in such terrible condition. I told Kathi and Fran that I would find out who did it and also we could ask the cousins if they would help us pay to have at least our grandmother and grandfather’s gravestones cleaned.

After all that Uncle Win did for Newport and the state of Vermont it seemed like a travesty that the local and state authorities had allowed this to happen. Uncle Win was a very important person and may have been the most famous person to have come from Newport, so he deserved better treatment posthumously than this. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Uncle Win:

“Winston Lewis Prouty (September 1, 1906 – September 10, 1971) was born in Newport, Vermont, to Willard Robert and Margaret (née Lockhart) Prouty. His family owned Prouty & Miller Lumber Company, a lumber and building material business. His family was also involved in politics; his father and grandfather both served as state legislators.His uncle Charles A. Prouty was a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and another uncle, George H. Prouty served as Governor of Vermont from 1908 to 1910.

Prouty received his early education at public schools in Newport, and attended St. Paul's School in Garden City, New York and Bordentown Military Institute in New Jersey. He then studied engineering at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, from 1925 to 1927. During his college years, he became a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

In 1939, Prouty married Frances Currie Hearle Backus (1907-1960) of Stanstead, Quebec, who was the mother of three daughters from a previous marriage, Currie (Nicki), Elizabeth, and Ann. She died in 1960, and in 1962, Prouty married Jennette Herbert Hall (1913-2002), who had been the chief aide to Congressmen Henry J. Latham of New York and Robert E. Cook of Ohio.

Prouty was a member of the Republican Party. He served as a United States Senator from Vermont from 1959 until his death. He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives, serving Vermont's At-large congressional district, from 1951 to 1959.”

We looked around and found the headstone of our family plot where Mom and Dad’s ashes are buried and the gravestones for Frank, and Laurie. Randy’s was missing! I suggested we contact the people in charge of the cemetery and order a gravestone for Randy and have the other family member’s stones cleaned before we left Newport.

One of the wonderful things Uncle Win did for Newport was to donate the family land where the summer vacation cottages had been to the city to build an RV park, which was named Prouty Beach and Campground. The views of the lake and the other side of the city are spectacular from here.

We parked and walked around the campground, imaging what it was like when many people, including our family members had cottages on this very bluff.

The campground beach is very nice and the water was quite warm.

What a lovely place for people from all over the country and maybe even the world to camp and enjoy the natural splendor of this special place!

Another wonderful thing which I recently found out that Uncle Win was involved in a center to help children and families which was named after him, The Prouty Center for Children and Family Development. This blurb is from their website:

“Since 1969 the Prouty Center has provided leadership through direct services as well as collaborative work with other providers and partners. Named after Senator Winston Prouty of Vermont who co-sponsored the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Assistance Act of 1968, the Center started as First Chance, one of the first programs in the country aimed exclusively for preschool children with special needs.

Incorporated in 1972 as The Winston Prouty Center a number of programs have been developed over the years to support the mission of the Center. Some highlights include: research during the 1970s when Dr. Robert DeVoid, the first executive director, invented and patented a diagnostic test for pre-reading skills; a respite care program in the 1980s for children who were severely handicapped, The Children’s Country Inn; NAEYC accreditation for the Early Learning Center in the 1990s, and state designation as the regional host agency for special education services for birth to age 3.”

Our last stop was at the beautiful Catholic Church with the spire which we could see from Prouty Beach on the other side of town. It was quite impressive.

After resting at the hotel and showering we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner in Derby Line at the Vermont Pizza Company. What a wonderful trip this has been so far! Tomorrow it continues for one more day and then we’ll head back to Maine with more knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our family, as well as the memories of this special gift we gave to one another and ourselves. Being in this relationship with my sisters has been truly one of the most rewarding and pleasant experiences of my life.

0 notes

journeydb · 4 years

Text

August 25 2019 Boulder County

The big day for the Anastasi family has arrived! Sean and Hope’s wedding at YaYa Farms in Longmont was all we hoped it would be for them. We all experienced the beauty of the setting as well as the love that these two young people have for each other as they said their vows. Debbie and Bob seemed so relieved that it all went without a hitch, Nick made a wonderful speech about following in his brother’s footsteps, and Larisa was her usual lovely, gracious self, and it was obvious that she was happy to be getting a sister out of the deal.

Shari was about as happy as any mother-of-the-bride I’ve ever seen and Hope’s sister Maddie, her maid of honor, was almost as radiant as the bride.

We were so excited to be there with Hobie and Katie and to share this occasion with them, since the Anastasi children have been like siblings to Hobie and he also has known all the cousins all his life, so the family reunion was meaningful for all of us.

Shari has been a single mother for most of her girls’ lives and she has worked hard to bring them up to be the responsible, kind, caring people that they are. I was SO impressed by her closeness with them and look forward to her family and our family becoming close over the years.

The happy couple pulled this off almost completely on their own, with help from Shari and a bit from Debbie and Bob. It’s obvious how committed they are to one another and how much they love and respect each other.

Dianne, Debbie, Jay, Lynn, and Jodie have nearly always been a part of my life. We call them the Panariellos because that’s the family name, even though all the women now have different last married names. Their mother, Ann, was our mother, Nicki’s sister, and they had another sister, Betty, whose children form another arm of our family tree.

Ann (her nickname was Aunt Pannie) married our Uncle Dick when I was just a toddler so I knew them all my life and they were my favorite aunt and uncle. I moved to Colorado in 1977 because they lived here and I visited them with my ex-husband in 1976, the year of the bicentennial and loved it. These are the cousins I used to babysit for when they lived on Beaver Brook Road in Burlington!

Aunt Pannie (Ann) at a family reunion at Harrison’s Pierce Pond Camps when her grandchildren were little.

Aunt Pannie at Larisa’s christening.

Aunt Pannie loved Hobie like one of her grandchildren and she was always kind to him, one of the things I loved best about her.

Aunt Pannie and Uncle Dick with the twins, Jordyn and Jackie.

Uncle Dick with his adult kids. He was a wonderful guy and had a great sense of humor.

Dianne, Debbie’s youngest sister, was there with her twins Jordyn and Jackie and her son, Alex. She lives outside Chicago with Alex, Jordyn lives in Denver, and Jackie lives in Houston with her boyfriend, Dave, who is in medical school there.

Eric, cousin Lynn’s older son, and Tyler, cousin Jay’s older son, have graduated college and are on career paths in the Chicago area, where most of the Panariello cousins live.

Nick graduated from high school this year and has been living and working in Boston all summer in the hospitality industry. He was glad to be back home for a break but he does enjoy living in the city.

Jodie, Larisa, and Dianne enjoying the Colorado sunshine and the fun.

Jay has always like coming back to Colorado and someday I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved here to retire.

Tyler and Travis, Jay’s “boys” are really men now, and handsome ones at that!

Shari and her friends quickly got to know everyone else and joined in the merry-making to celebrate Hope’s BIG DAY.

Lynn with her “boys” Eric and David and Dianne’s kids.

Hope’s side of the family, whom we will probably get to know better in the future, especially if they have kids and we all celebrate their birthdays together.

The wedding party had a good view of all of their guests but WE had the view of the mountains so I wonder if that occurred to them when they made the seating plan.

We have mostly female cousins in our family so cousin John, who is from Uncle Dick’s side of the family, and Jay are a bit outnumbered. They handle it with a great deal of humility and courage because, hey, they’re used to it after all these years! AND they know we love them a lot!

I have never seen these two so happy and I’m sure they’ll be even happier when Hope and Sean move into their own place, because it’s a bit crowded and chaotic in their house right now. Having grown up in big families they really don’t mind so much as long as everyone carries their share of the workload.

The mountain backdrop couldn’t have been more picturesque for marvelous photos of the happy couple and their guests.

The food was delicious and was catered by the restaurant where Shari worked. The cake was also yummy and Hope and Sean were gracious to each other and didn’t try to rub each others’ faces in it while feeding it to each other, as some couples whose weddings I’ve attended have done.

0 notes