Murdock Muse
Jan-Feb 2005, Part 2


R.I.P. Lenore Christel (Murdock) Schlicke
Bob Murdock

On December 8, 2004 we got a phone call from my niece Teddie Doane, who has been keeping us up to date about family happenings in Massachusetts. She said she had received word from Don Schlicke that his mother (Lennie, my sister) had passed away. Bob Schlicke, her devoted husband, was at her side at the hospital when she died.

Lennie had been in the Alzheimer's wing of the Quabbin Valley Health Care for almost three years, and Nancy and I had the privilege of visiting with her each time we went up to New England. In July 2004 she seemed pleased to see us, even though she didn’t recognize us. We thought she looked better than she had a year earlier. But on December 8 her heart gave out - 13 days before her 74th birthday.

My sister was born on December 21, 1930, in Gardner, MA. She married Bob Schlicke in June 1950 and they purchased a small farm in Phillipston, MA. They enjoyed that home so well that they never moved. They raised five children along the way, three boys and two girls. Bob did some farming and worked for many years at Agway, and Lennie became the town clerk in Phillipston.

Click here to see Lennie’s Muse Memorial web site. Included are some pictorial pages, the eulogy by Nancy (which is also on this page of the Muse) and a page of remembrances collected by brother Gene for her 69th birthday.

We will be pleased to add more photos, tributes and remembrances, large or small. Contact us at murmuse@erols.com .

MOM'S PASSING
Don Schlicke

Thank you for sending the e-mail about my mother's passing to the family. This will mean a lot to my Dad and siblings.

My immediate family is holding up well, especially Dad. Our sadness of Mom's passing is tempered by the thoughts of a possible alternative situation - which may have been my mother's continued decline for two, five or even ten more years, while her physical body clung to life. To me, that would have been harder to bear for everyone - particularly my parents.

We say our good-byes this Saturday, but will spend the rest of our days celebrating her life and all that she gave to us.

My sister Sue is able to scan photos and e-mail them on request. Some of the family may appreciate this.
[For Sue's e-mail address, please contact the Muse at murmuse@erols.com .]

I called Ruth Wells in Florida to let her know of Mom's passing before my Dad even got home from the hospital. As you know well, they were very close when they were younger and have kept in touch over the years. I'm afraid she seemed to take the news poorly. But Mom almost considered her a family member, and I thought she should be told without delay.

Many thanks for your concern.

LENORE CHRISTEL MURDOCK SCHLICKE
Nancy A. Murdock

The Murdock family moved to town when I was nine years old and in fourth grade. At noon recess, the two girls, Lenore and Dorothy, stood together against the fence, talking and sharing some snacks. They were dressed in one-piece beige plaid snowsuits, which no one in town wore after they were old enough to go to school. I was really excited to see them. A year or two before, I had seen two similar girls when I visited my cousin Jane Houston in Watertown. They had black, straight hair and brown eyes and a somewhat yellow complexion, and they wore odd clothes. Aunt Ethel told me they were Chinese and I shouldn’t stare at them. Wow! Now we had a Chinese family in Hubbardston!!

I told my mother this big news when I got home. From “A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson, I knew China was a long way from Hubbardston. My Grandpa Mawhinnie had some Chinese coins with holes in the center, from his years of working on a merchant ship. He had also told me the coins came from far away. Now I was getting a chance to see someone from that mysterious place.

“How do you know they’re Chinese?” my mother asked. When I explained, she asked, “What is their last name?” “Murdock,” I said. My mother hadn’t had such a good laugh in days! My Aunt Mildred had previously been married to a Murdock.

Lennie became one of my best friends. She was a really nice girl and extremely popular. Everyone wanted her to be their friend. She was a good student and knew things that she had learned by living in the city of Gardner. Like several of the women and girls in her family, she was musically talented and had a very good alto voice. For several years we sang near each other in the choir for the Christmas presentation at school. This was in the days when a school could do the Christmas pageant, complete with a manger scene and St. Luke’s wonderful description of the event.

In seventh or eighth grade, I got some eruptions on my face, which my mother diagnosed as hives. She had called the doctor for a similar problem Andy had a month or so before, and it was hives. Friday, during rehearsal, Lennie insisted it looked to her like chicken pox on my eyebrow. She said she remembered it from when she and others had chicken pox in Gardner. She even showed me the scar on her eyebrow. I tried to keep my hands off the spot, but it really itched. She said it sure looked like chicken pox, but I was adamant. During the weekend, it became glowingly apparent that Lennie was correct. I missed the pageant and Christmas at Grandma Howlett’s, and I developed a strong appreciation for Lennie’s knowledge, after secretly coming very close to blaming her for my misery.

We were in 4-H together for many years. We made clothing in the colder months and canned vegetables and fruits in the summertime. Then in high school we had a 4-H Dramatic Club in Hubbardston, which we both enjoyed. After playing together at recess for many years in grammar school, we had separate classes in high school. The school bus rides kept us in touch to some extent, but we were having different sets of classmates and a different set of experiences.

And then we got married a few months apart, and whether we were near each other or not, we were having similar experiences. She was my sister-in-law, so we saw each other when Bob and I were living or visiting anywhere near her and her Bob. Our first children (my Valerie and her Don) were close in age. One year we both canned unripe pears. There were three pear trees on their land, and she made good use of the pears before the worms got to them. She canned hers in pieces, raw. The man next door to us in Medford MA gave me some from his tree and taught me to peel them whole and cook them until they were a little pink before canning.

For many years we were busy raising families of five children, each with three boys and two girls. She and her family stayed on the farm in Phillipston, and Bob and I moved around a lot, following in the tradition set by Bob's and Lennie's Charlton grandparents. It was always a sort of homecoming to see the Schlickes when our paths crossed.

In 1985 the Schlickes hosted a major event in our life, the Murdock Reunion, with its theme of “Come Alive in '85." Bob, our daughter Meredith, and I flew from CA for that event, our first trip East in 12 years. The Schlickes cut the hay in a large field, and we all had plenty of space for our activities. I went into the house with Lennie at one point, and we had a little chance to talk. She told me she had to be careful of what she ate, because she had diabetes. That seemed really strange, because she always cooked lots of fresh, nutritious vegetables in the summer when we visited. Since she seemed as healthy as ever, I concluded that she was keeping her diabetes well under control.

After we moved back East in 1987, we often drove up to visit our families in New England. We began to notice that Lennie sometimes didn’t come to family gatherings, which we didn’t understand. Looking back later, we realized that Bob brought her only to places where he thought she could handle the excitement of being around so many people, and apparently she had some good days and some where she was more nervous. She could still come up with a humorous comment from time to time, but she didn’t really enter into the conversation a lot, and she didn’t recall some of the things I hoped she would. The two of them tended to be the last to arrive and first to leave.

In 1999 we had the 50th anniversary of our graduation from Gardner High School. I wanted to be sure Lennie would be attending, so I called Bob. He said vaguely that he would have to see how things went. Whereas we made sure not to miss out on anything, they came to only one event, the dinner party on the second night. We had a Hubbardston table, with Lennie and Bob, Selma and Rudy Mangs, Ruth Wells, and Bob and I. It was really good to see them all and to recall our old memories. Of course, for us it was the grammar school memories that we held most dear as a group. We even sang the song Lennie and Ruth had made up about being 49ers when we all rode the bus out of town to high school.

Lennie retired from being Town Clerk while I was still going strong at the Social Security Administration headquarters. There was talk in the family that her children were becoming concerned about her memory failures. Eventually it was clear that she had Alzheimer’s Disease. Bob kept her at home as long as he could, and then she went into an excellent regional facility in Athol. At first we heard that she was crying a lot. We visited her there a few months later, on one of our trips north. She was in a really good mood, with sparkling eyes, and we went home feeling much better about her situation.

We visited her twice more, each summer when we went to the Howlett Reunion in New Hampshire. On our second visit she had become very quiet. Her Bob came while we were there, as he did every day, and she perked up. She recognized him but not, of course, us. This last summer, July 2004, we saw her for the last time, although we had no idea we would not be driving over to see her again. She was in a common room with others, watching TV, and we managed to get her to allow us to move her to a seat against the other wall, where we could talk with her.

We kept telling her this was her big brother Bob. Bob sat with his arm around her and recalled some quick stories from their childhood. A man came in and started picking out hymn tunes with one hand, and Lennie was interested and began to hum. I told her we used to sing in the choir together and she had a very nice voice. She looked very focused on what we were saying, but it wasn’t clear how much she understood. I kept telling her she was a good singer, and she seemed quite pleased.

We left feeling good about her in that setting and planned to see her again the next time we went up to New England. But on December 8, 2004, we got the call that she had died of a heart attack. I said it was a blessing. Her son Don echoed my thoughts in saying that she was spared perhaps several years of a body that took a long time to finish dying.

We will miss her, but we will remember her as neat and clean, healthy looking, and contented, singing sweetly to the old hymn tunes. Goodbye, Lennie. I will always be glad that you, one of my best childhood friends, became my sister-in-law.

ICY FALLS
Darrel Murdock

Dec. 5: We went to one of our favorite State Parks yesterday, Minneopa with the two falls, to see what we could see. We ended up with nice weather, icy falls still kicking hard. Then we went to two new State Parks, Flandrau and Sakata, each with a good sized river, one partially frozen and one like October.

Click here for a picture in the Jan-Feb 05 Gallery.

FIRST NIGHT
Pauline Soberg

Dec. 31: Well, I hope you had a great Christmas and wish you a very happy new year. We are watching the early "First Night" celebration in Boston on the common. I don't think we'll make it to midnight to watch Times Square. We just finished eating Chinese food for our New Years Eve celebration. Boy what a difference from the earlier days of my life! I just talked to Kevin and they will be going to the in-laws for steaks on the grill and a couple hands of poker or a game of pool.

OUR ROMANTIC HOLIDAY
Nancy A. Murdock

For days, Bob added to his plans for a romantic New Years Eve. He finally announced we would have a romantic dinner, a sensuous game of Scrabble, and a bath and shower. Then we would make full use of the chocolate body frosting he had given me a year ago.

We discussed how to prepare for the final frosting on the cake, so to speak, while not generating too much laundry. Bob kept this part flexible until the actual event.

On the 31st we were very lazy. We ate breakfast late in the morning, which set the tone for the day. In mid-afternoon, I took a nap, having stayed up late quilting the night before. I also worked on two quilt gifts, which I would be delivering on Saturday. For "dinner" we ate some leftovers, so unmemorable that we can't even remember which ones. (There were several possibilities, as I had been home for two days and had managed to cook every so often, when the fancy took me.) We decided to limit the fun to a game of Scrabble, and I think we even got out the box, but it didn't get used. I was working on the Muse and the quilts until after midnight, for which we had no intention of being awake. So we laughed and said "Happy New Year."

Saturday I went to a "hen party" with some Sew & Tell friends and others. It was a really nice one, with LOTS of delicious homemade food (including deviled eggs donated by Bob), laughter, and happiness, with a little of the Rose Parade on the side. We left at 1:30, and I brought back the two already presented quilt gifts to finish.

We were in a good mood, with no set tasks to contend with, especially since we had finally struggled the luggage from our trip to Williamsburg into the closet that morning, and cleared the guest room of extraneous packages that had to packed around the luggage. (There's nothing quite like a successful job to put us in a good mood. Too bad it doesn't happen more often!)

Okay, we had leftover Chinese stir-fry (a joint cooking experience from Thursday) for dinner, with ice cream to finish it off. Since we hadn't made a new meal, we had time for a game, but Bob said we should pick a short one, Racko, instead of Scrabble. Then he spent some time shaving and showering, and I had a relaxing bath.

Without saying anything, Bob was secretly making preparations. He put together a "preparation kit," which consisted of a flannel sheet with a regular sheet on top of it, and two damp washcloths. Then he lured me into the bedroom and opened the chocolate body frosting. Wow! Another great plan coming true, and only one day late!

When the two of us artists were done painting and removing the frosting, we were a very happy pair with strange light brown marks on certain places, such as the inner elbow, the nose, and the side of the neck (only on him, although he tried to get me to let him daub it on mine, the neck of the woman with the most ticklish neck in the world). It was my most memorable New Years Day ever!

POST-BIRTHDAY GREETINGS
Jerod Davidson

Dec. 8: I received a card and gift yesterday, so my birthday seems like it's never ending! I'm still here working at 3 locations (San Jose, Campbell, and Gilroy, which is about 30 min. south of San Jose) I have an assistant being hired in the next few weeks here. I have been the only IT tech for about a year and a half now, supporting about 195 computers.

Good move, getting the high speed Comcast (I've had that for a couple years now and love it). I have had much better websurfing experience with Comcast than a few other providers I tried. The speed of cable vs. DSL is about 1 and a 1/2 times faster. Oh and we are standardized on Dell so that was another very good choice. (They are by far the easiest system to maintain and work on).

I remember that day at Camden Yards (don't recall who they played, maybe the Mariners) and remember being just blown away by how close and awesome all the sight lines were and wishing the Giants could have something similar. Well after almost losing our team to Tampa we kept them and built a beautiful stadium by the bay (I'm averaging about 20+ games a year now). Oh and the parking is ten times better and the weather is blocked by the stadium most of the time! :)

When we went to the Rose Bowl, Touchdown Tommy was playing for Stanford then as was my personal favorite at the time, Glyn Milburn. (Neither ended up doing a whole lot in the NFL.) I remember giving Ian a hard time during that whole game for rooting for UCLA.

Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you what you thought of the Giants picking up Armando Benitez. I know he was a little raw while he was with the O's, but I hope he can pitch as well for the Giants as he did for the Marlins last year.

I now have a couple friends that are hooked on the who's who books as well, if they are curious about someone they'll call and ask how good I think a player is and then have me look in the book at the players' stats. Thanks!

PUMPKIN PIE
Natalie Christina Murdock

Nov 26: Hi, guys. How is everything over there? Getting any snow? It has been really frosty over here - every morning I have to drive Tim to school and every morning there is a thicker layer of frost on my windshield. Anywho, speaking of my car, I heard you talked to Mer about it. I know there is no way she could relay how much I really love that car. I need to take some pictures and send them to you guys.

I am restoring the car to look vintage, but it's got a little modern touch to it as well, it's coming along real great. I get lots of compliments on it and I will be taking it the big Pomona vintage car show in January, or after I get it painted real black (right now it is primered). The only thing is that I don't have my headlights hooked up, because I haven't found any money to do it - It's like 50 bucks but I always forget when payday comes...needless to say, I dont drive at night.

Nov. 27: For Thanksgiving we had a nice guest, other than the usual pleasant Meredith. Christie came up from San Diego and was able to visit for a few hours. We ate at around 5 - and it was so scrumptious! Of course, because my Dad made it, everything was just right.

As for the Pumpkin pies, Meredith brought a pumpkin custard pie and a pecan pie. Oh my gosh, the pumpkin custard was to die for...I didn't eat the pecan. I am pumpkin pie'd out! I just joined the gym last week, so I am going to be working out triple time! I am glad you guys had a good time - any plans to come to CALI??

MORE FO'THE MUSERS
Nicholaus "Rickey" Murdock

Well I am hoping that Grandpa's surgery goes well...Daniel just had a tonsillectomy and tubes put in his ears. ( He is ok though.) And I am going in on the 23rd of Nov. Dad just had surgery on his back And my Mom had Lasic eye surgery to correct her vision...Are we getting in surgery season or what?

I have been working and Deanna and I have got all of our Christmas shopping done finally. YAY! So that is making us feel good... Got some family photos taken, and also individual ones of each of the kids.

Well things are going well. Tanaya has a birthday coming up and we are looking forward to seeing her at her home in Morhead MN the 10th of Dec. Xacara is getting to be quite the big girl. have seen her recently at my mother's ome.

The boys are enjoying daycare and looking forward to our move yet again... this time to Mpls for a short time until we save enough money to move out of MN again because I really do not like living in this state... Hopefully we can save up quickly with me working the three jobs (2 PT and 1 full time) and Deanna working at the nursing home FT plus overtime hours. Looking forward to Christmas because I am going to have Tanaya, Ciera, Daniel,and Jack-rabbit all together and maybe Xacara over too.... Missing Jason something fierce though....

Well I gotta go....back to work here. >Lots of love from all of us here in MN.

AFTER THANKSGIVING
Mer Murdock

Nov. 30: It is COLD here these days! We had a really warm winter last year, and are making up for it now - LOL. The cats got used to me being home during Thanksgiving mini vacation and now are acting really silly when I get ready to leave work in the morning. They're a couple of clowns - running from room to room, following me - jumping in my lap every time I sit down - and rolling around on the carpet in front of the door when I'm about to walk out. Weirdos!

ARIZONA
Margery Aukstikalnis

Arizona, dear friends and family, is beautiful! We are on a desert/prairie, here at Double Adobe, with a view of mountains in every direction - 360 degrees - on the horizon. The horizon is nearly 180 degrees from any direction to its opposite pole. On our own land in Douglas, because of being nestled right IN the mountains, the view is more like 100 degrees. Less even than at home with all the forest. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular, and the awesome rainbows we have seen are breathtaking.

The temperature during the day is in the mid 60's and the sun shines almost endlessly. BUT... We have had no water the last two mornings because the nighttime temperature dropped to 23 and 21 respectively, and our water supply froze! Shoot, we could have stayed home and had that! In fact, the temperature in Jaffrey was warmer than here both days. They tell us this is unusual, but all we know is that it is COLD.

We love watching the Cardinal; he is quite a show off just outside our window, fanning the red crest on his head to make himself even more beautiful. We have wild pigs and feral dogs, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions, but I haven't seen any of them .... just a few tracks or sounds. We are in a semi-permanent site (S7) which is a supersized lot, surrounded by mesquite bushes and cactus and thousands of birds. (This campground is also a bird sanctuary, a small farm, and a trap-shooting range. ----Quite a combination, but it works.)

The site gives our pets space to explore and satisfy their natural instincts, and provides Jack and me with some privacy from the rest of the campers. We are also allowed to landscape as we wish, erect a shed or clothesline, or add a room. We can have a propane tank and get gas delivered, rather than break down camp to drive the RV to a fill up station. And we can, obviously, have our own phone and even install a washer dryer if we wish. It's an annual rental site, so we can leave things right on the property when we leave to go back to NH or whatever. We are quite comfortable here, within the constraints of camping.

The closest supermarket or department store is 15 - 20 miles, but at 65 MPH, it doesn't take long to get there. Enough for now. I'll try to wait until it gets really cold and snowy in the North before I write again about how beautiful it is here in Sunizona. (There is a town by that name!)

FROM GRENADA
Nancy's Business Contact

Your Christmas sounded wonderful. That's the kind of Christmas I used to have when I stayed with a family while my Mother was abroad. I remember so well the Christmas Eve night when we came home from church at midnight. Those wonderful cold clear starlit nights. I used to live in Essex, England, and that is the countryside, so the smells were there too! Wonderful on a cold night. We used to reach home after midnight, and have hot mince pies and a glass of sherry before going to bed. What wonderful memories. Somehow, Christmas is not the same in the hot climates.

Click here for Part 3 of the January-February Muse.

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