The Toledo Blade ran this nice article about my Grandmother on Friday, June 10, 2005. This was in addition to her obituary. I’ve copied the article in its entirety since newspaper articles have tendency to disappear from the web.

AUDREY WHITMORE, 1914-2005
Ticket taker a legend at Stranahan Theater
Audrey Whitmore, 90, head ticket taker at the Stranahan Theater, where she’d worked for more than three decades, died Monday in Medical University of Ohio Medical Center.
She was trimming rose bushes two weeks ago when she fell and broke a hip. She developed an infection while in the hospital.
Mrs. Whitmore had taken tickets for countless graduations, lectures, concerts, and stage shows.
While in the hospital, “She just fretted that she was not going to be there for all the graduations,” daughter Denise Shumway said.
Mrs. Whitmore was a legend at the Stranahan, and not just for her longevity.
“People [told] me how she remembered their names and details about them,” her daughter said.
Liz Sudheimer, marketing director for the Stranahan Theater and Great Hall at the Masonic Complex, said: “She was kind of like everybody’s mom.”
About two months ago, Mrs. Whitmore said to Ms. Sudheimer, “Come to my car. I have something for you.”
The head ticket taker had a box filled with programs from nearly every show that had been at the Stranahan.
“We did not have an archive. Now we have one,” Ms. Sudheimer said.
Mrs. Whitmore’s affiliation began when her daughter Denise was in the Masonic group, the Rainbow for Girls. Ushering at the theater was the group’s money-making project, and Mrs. Whitmore volunteered to be an adult supervisor. When the theater converted to a volunteer workforce, she knew the job and was asked to stay.
The job later became a paying position and she was promoted to head ticket taker.
Mrs. Whitmore was a 1932 graduate of Libbey High School. She did not work outside the home as her children were growing up.
“She was a homemaker. She put her family first,” her daughter said. “She was a very giving person. From a biblical standpoint, she just had a gift of giving. There was no fanfare. She just took care of what she saw needed to be done. I feel I have a very special heritage, my sister and I both do, and we have passed that on.”
Mrs. Whitmore was a longtime member of the Ohio State University Home Extension Club.
She was especially proud that the glass decorating business begun by her husband, George, and taken over by their late son, Jack, remained in the family.
She and her husband, George were married for 33 years until his death in 1966.
She attended Holland Free Methodist Church.
Surviving are her daughters, Beverly Schaefer and Denise Shumway; sister, Doris Shepler; 10 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-granddaughter.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today in the Walter Funeral Home.
The family suggests tributes to Family Outreach Ministries in care of Westgate Chapel or a charity of the donor’s choice.

This past weekend was a busy and challenging one. My grandmother (Mom’s Mom) of 90 years old passed away last Monday and we headed to Toledo on Thursday afternoon. Times like this offer up an overwhelming range of emotions as you relive the joys and memories of the relationship and grieve at their passing.
Even though Grandma was 90, her death was quite unexpected. As I wrote a little about her in our Christmas trip recap back in January, grandma was healthy, active and independent. She kept her own home, still drove and still worked as the head ticket taker at the theater where the symphony played and the Broadway shows came. She last worked on May 19th. The following week she went on an outing with the OSU Home Extension Club. On May 27th, she fell while gardening in her back yard while gardening, breaking her hip. The initial prognosis was good, her heart and bones were quite strong, but a week after the fall, she developed an infection. She returned on June 5th to the hospital from the nursing home where she had been getting therapy, and she passed away early Monday morning. The infection had spread rapidly and Grandma had just simply grown weary of fighting through the pain.
Grandma’s life was characterized by self sacrifice. She was always working at helping someone. She made countless meals for my family and took care of us numerous times when Mom and Dad went out or away. She was ever present at family gatherings, usually at the sink doing dishes or tending to food on the stove. When Grandma came over, she usually brought something. It might be a plant from her yard to take home and put in ours. Frequently it was some sort of baked goods. These would arrive in a recycled plastic snap close container that originally contained day old bagels, glazed donuts or something, and carried in a used grocery bag. Grandma didn’t throw anything away, it always had another use in it, so those plastic bagel boxes got used as cookie transports.
Grandma also seemed (wrongly) convinced that she was rather insignificant in anyone’s life, unnoticed and rather unimportant. She asked some time before her death that the viewing hours for her passing be kept to only 30 minutes. We think that she figured any longer and the lack of people would be embarrassing. There were 7 hours of time and the string of people only let up slightly around dinner. In all, well over 200 people (closer to 300, I think) came to pay their respects to a woman who had quietly impacted so many. If only she had understood.
What surprised even the family was the amazing response from her coworkers at the Stranahan Theater. Over 30 of them came by and told stories of how she had impacted them personally. Some wept as if they had lost a member of their own family. She had stood at that center door, taking tickets, for some 35 years – since the theater opened in 1969. One by one they told of how she had welcomed them, advised them and loved them. We knew that Grandma was appreciated more than she knew there, but even we had no idea the impact she had made. We received a letter from the theater that they would be dedicating a seat in the theater to her with a plaque detailing her years of service. It only seemed right for her name to be permanently affixed to the theater she loved so much.
Saturday was spent going through some of Grandma’s things at her house, cleaning up and making plans for distributing and disposing of her belongings. We laughed at the things she saved and remembered the woman she was. We marveled at some of the items we found. Her dresser was made sometime in the mid 1800’s, we think by a family member. It’s a remarkable piece of furniture in remarkable condition. We found numerous family pictures, including a scrapbook album made by my Great Grandmother (we think) for her brother in 1905. My wife and sister, both avid scrap bookers, marveled at that find. Early pictures of my wife and I reminded me that we are no longer young and of how much hair I’ve lost. Of course, she manages to look better as she ages while I just look, well, older.
The weekend ended on a bittersweet note as we had a surprise party for my Aunt and Uncle’s 25th wedding anniversary. Grandma was my Aunt’s Mom, so while the celebration was good, it was also sad knowing that Grandma had missed it. Their kids had planned the event, digging out my Aunt’s wedding dress she had crocheted herself and the white three piece suit my uncle had worn. They re-created their wedding cake and topped it with the same cake topper found at Grandma’s house just the day before (With 25 year old frosting flowers still on it! We washed it good first.) No recollection of their wedding would be complete without tales of the tornado that went through the area during the ceremony (the organist, with her weather radio, was yelling in a whisper “get down!” and diving under the organ.) We also laughed at their High School pictures and pictures of their early years. What hippies!
Four and a half days packed with emotion, but in all a good weekend. A celebration of a life of giving and two lives still tied together after 25 years.

Headed to visit family in Missouri. Don’t expect any posts until I return late Tuesday, but I might get online while I’m away.
Meanwhile, visit one of the blogs linked at left. I understand that JohnE has a good post on revelation (haven’t read it yet myself.) Also, Kristen seems to be coming around a bit on the EC. 🙂 If that stuff’s too heavy for you, go visit the Thinklings and read the comments on watches and toothpaste squeezing (there’s plenty of deeper stuff there too, but those are the two funniest posts and comments threads I’ve read in a while.)
See ya later.

Emily, my middle daughter, broke her arm over the weekend. She was sitting up on top of our about 4 foot fence talking to a neighbor friend and decided to jump off. Unfortunately, her shoes were wedged between the fence boards, so while most of her body leapt off the fence, her feet stayed put and she went down hands first, fracturing her right arm at the elbow.
That makes three broken bones for my tomboy of nearly 8 years. She broke her collar bone when she was about 3 (at the doctor’s office, of all places) and this same arm (in the same place) on the playground last summer. She’s got everyone in the family (combined!) beat in that regard. I’m the only other one to have broken anything, the outside bone in my left palm in a bike accident after college.
She gets her cast tomorrow. She’s pretty self conscious about it and frustrated that she’ll have to learn to write with her left hand.

Maria and the girls just left for the whole day for a school Mom and daughter makeover day. They’l be gone for over 6 hours and the only thing on my honeydo list is the dishes.
This doesn’t happen often.

Today was about as perfect as a Saturday can get. A great blend of hard work, family time, fun and good weather.
To start, it was sunny and about 50 degrees. February in Ohio doesn’t often get better than that. We started our day with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Eating out is always fun, but breakfast out is really special.
When we got home, I got started putting together a little wall cabinet Maria bought a couple of months ago for the kid’s bathroom. Who knew that a cabinet that cost, like, $20 could consist of so many pieces. Over 30 I think, plus screws, latches, etc. It was nice to get something done that had been waiting for a while, and before Maria asked me when I was going to get to it. 🙂 It was also an excuse to use my laser level and new Fat Max tape measure I got for Christmas.
After that, I took advantage of the good weather to climb up on the roof and take down the rest of the Christmas lights. I hate climbing on the roof, especially getting close to the edge to do the lights. The sun and warm temps made it a little more bearable.
Since the weather was good and I was on a roll, I went out and picked up a new mailbox to replace our old, rusty, door-less mailbox. I got one of those rotomolded ones from Step2. It was a simple matter of getting out my Ryobi cordless reciprocating saw and cutting the old one off and bolting the new to the remaining 4×4. It took all of a half an hour. Emily (7 1/2) came outside after I had cut the old one off. She said “Daddy, you cut down the mailbox! How’d you do that?” “I used my saw.” “Daddy, you’re awesome.” I love my kids.
After that, we all piled in the van and went to see “Racing Stripes”. A cute movie and the first one we’ve seen in a theater since Nemo. I can remember going to see movies as a family when I was a kid. It was fun, I always got Milk Duds. Those were different days. With no DVD’s, no VCR’s and no cable (at least for us), if it didn’t get seen at the theater, it didn’t get seen. Now we get the DVD at the library and watch it 3 times (plus deleted scenes, bloopers and commentaries) before returning it.
We got home, got the girls showered and grilled steaks for supper.
All in all, I couldn’t ask for more.

In some ways I’ve begun to loathe Sunday mornings. The main reason is that it’s become quite stressful to get the family out the door for church. I’m ashamed to admit (especially considering my position as Deacon of Children’s Ministry at my church) that our Sunday church preparations have become far from Godly. Of course, it’s not just Sunday, it’s just that Sunday is the one day when we all have to get ready and out the door at basically the same time. The stress is concentrated and therefore our shortcomings amplified.
Two things brought me to this realization this morning. The first was hearing my persistent shouting at my girls to get with it and get ready. Get dressed, get your shoes on, go downstairs, get your hair brushed, eat, eat, eat! Something happened this morning that allowed me to sort of stand beside myself and watch and listen. Is this the picture I want in their mind as they remember me years from now? The angry, yelling father? Is this the example that I want to set for them? Look, kids, here’s how you treat the people you love. If they don’t do things right, or how you want, yell at them, berate them until they submit. The thought of it makes me sick. I have been trying, I thought, over the past months to re-focus my energies on teaching them respect rather than just obedience. Isn’t this what God wants of us? I mean if you have the broader idea of respect on straight, obedience will come naturally out of it. Yet there I was, belittling and berating them, no respect in my voice, only frustration and anger. I could see the hurt in their faces, and it hit me like a dagger in the heart.
My wife too, was frustrated with this morning. Her frustration was with their lack of respect for us, as seen in their lack of obedience. It wasn’t just this morning, it’s been an ongoing problem, they just don’t seem to care about what we say. A total lack of respect for authority which will hurt them in other areas of life if not checked. Although my reaction to it was pathetic, she was right. Their utter disregard for our instructions was alarming and discouraging. And then she said something that lit a light bulb in my head. She said, “We are not training them, we are reacting to them.”
I thought about that all day long. She was absolutely right, but I didn’t know what to do with it, and I still don’t. Yet I’m convinced that this is where the solution will be found. As I think about it, I see a basic difference. Training is outward focused, concerned with them, their growth and well being. Reaction it born out of selfishness. They are getting in the way of my plans, inconveniencing me, making me look bad. If I am focused on me, I will react. If I am focused on them, I will train.
Like I said, I don’t know what exactly, practically, to do with this, but the realization alone is a start. Maria and I have committed tonight to pray for wisdom and insight into making this change in our hearts and mindset. We also plan on getting advice from an older couple in the church who, like us, have 3 daughters. Their girls are wonderful grown women, all out of college, which gives me great confidence that they will be able to help us.
Any insight anyone else has would be welcome too.