‘Tis the season for celebration in my life.
This past week I observed the 57th anniversary of the starting day of my first job in journalism on April 24. It was the first day of a 50-year profession with that newspaper.
That was five days ago, and now in a week, May 6, I will celebrate my birthday with two of my siblings, Ron Moody and Bev Brumbaugh, while another sibling, Brenda Norton, will be observing her wedding anniversary.
Yes, May 6 has usually been a big day in our lives.
I won’t throw out the years these events occurred, but I am sharing this once again because our father, Lee Jr. Moody, always wanted to know if I was going to write about this in my column every time this day came around. I always obliged.
He is no longer with us, but I will gladly do that once again in his memory and Mom’s as well since she also played a major role in this. Dad was proud of that fact, but it was actually Mom’s Labor Day for us first three siblings, so I must mention her as well.
Dad passed away on July 20, 2016, and Mom (Beatrice Riffell Moody), on Sept. 25, 2019.
Even though it’s been told numerous times in print, a lot of people say they didn’t know this about us.
I am thinking someone told me we were mentioned in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”, if I heard that right. I really never looked it up, but I read in Grit Magazine, which was popular at one time, that the odds of having that many children on the same day a year apart was three million to one (if I remember that correctly as well). In that particular article, the children were born on May 3. And I thought ‘how coincidental’!
I really don’t celebrate my career anniversary but when I saw the date on the calendar, it rang a bell. It doesn’t seem that long.
Since my column is scheduled for today and not next Monday, I opted to focus on two of these happenings in my life today.
It was six years ago that I penned a column about the subject of our three birthdays and it went something like this:
“May 6 is a big day in the lives of our family. Bea (Riffell) Moody and the late Lee Jr. Moody became parents of four children. Three of us — Ron, Bev (now Brumbaugh) and I — were all born on that day many moons ago a year apart; with me being the middle child. And, their only other child, Brenda, who had the audacity to be born on Nov. 24 (7 1/2 years later(?) chose to get married on May 6 as well.”
It’s understandable that Dad was proud of this “accomplishment,” because you don’t hear of this oddity very often.
I can’t imagine having three little ones in two years. Mom even said she would have rather had triplets. But, I think it all worked out well.
Like I said before, Dad had his own theory of how that happened by mentioning something about an alarm clock but I won’t divulge that information on here.
May 6 was a “lucky” day for him. He was named foreman at Avco New Idea in Coldwater on May 6 and Dad, who was a horseman, also had a colt born on that same day.
Well, this is this year’s announcement and I must get ready to turn another year older as will my siblings.
So, happy birthday, Ron and Bev, and happy anniversary, Brenda and Dan.
I will always thank Mom and Dad for allowing us to be a part of their family. They were great parents, who were close to celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary when Dad passed two months before that. Mom lived to be 91. Both of them are truly missed.
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Jamie and I extend our condolences to the families and friends of Al Hetrick, Alice Knick, Jerome Hartzell, Jim Saintignon, Helen Jenkinson, Patricia Fitzwater and Jerome Hartzell.
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Please pray for these people: Mike Hopkins, Kim Armold, DeWayne Yohey, Katrina Hoening, Kent Snyder, (Cousin) Carol Byrd, Don Dietrich, Kinley Bernard, Kathy Burke, Gladys Neff, Kara Didier, Dave and Ginny Reese (of Hopewell, Pa.), Carl Francis, Craig “Cheese” Thompson, Katie West, Bridget Brown, Don DeBord, Otis Stewart, Chris Clark, Kyle Kaiser, Tina Ruble Ullery, Cindy Lovejoy, Janet Kammer, Slug Midlam, Bob Peters, Phyllis Brumbaugh, Sonny Custer, Judy Collins, Linda Gasper, Carol Hemmerich, Stephanie Klingshirn, Brenda Schlechty, Betty Burnfield, Dan Lockhart, Roberta Hall, Pam Norman-Penticuff, Kelly Kelch, Mike Mayse, Larry Linder, Steve Waymire, Jamie Knick, Nikole Baldridge, Chester Bryant, Lester Beisner, Delores Beisner, Kermit Foureman, Chuck “C.W.” Cruze, Mark Lovejoy.
Also, Judy York, Donald Booker, Dennis Leeper, Connie Stachler, Randy Heck, Ronnie Norton, Jeremy “Jerm” Burke, Gary Eichler, David Pretzman, Clinton Randall, Ralph Byrd, Doug Winger, Sonja and Dan Coppess, Bruce Kaiser, Amanda Mote, Paul Gigandet, Doug Whittington, Tracy Pratt, John Rimmer, Joan Keen, Larry P. Fitzwater, Jim Thomas, Neal Gray, Judie Hathaway, Randy Garrison, Kathy Gragorace, Becky Everhart, Donna Bixler, Cathy Melling, Scott Clark, and all others who are suffering from other life-altering illnesses.
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Happy birthday to:
May 2 to Ruth Peters, Shawn McGuire, Linda Smith, Carol Weaver and Cody Spencer.
May 3 to Carole Schafer, Larry Duncan and Karen Waymire Link.
May 4 to Ashley Moody Gilpin, Shelly Haber, Krista Waymire and Carleen Beisner.
May 5 to Cindy Warner Pike, Kelly Moody, Anita Best, Herb Nieport, Tammy Moody Deitering, Tom Beane, Pat Williams, Jeff Slyder, Ron Bailey and Carolyn Clack Ganger.
May 6 to Dennis Parsons, Margaret Muhlenkamp, Robin Doyle Spencer, Boo Herron, Sherry Heck Klingshirn, Leah Hiestand, Phillip Rismiller, Marie Rhoades Carity, Gary McCans, Kristy Louk, Sharre Grubbs and my siblings, Ron Moody and Bev Brumbaugh and myself.
May 7 to Cameron Thwaits, Debbie Grillot, Holly Best and John Strosnider.
May 8 to Eli Hathwaway, Macy Kress, Hayley Maher, Tammy Cline, Billie Hale Platfoot and Betty Gaerke.
Happy anniversary to: Roger and Lesley Fourman on May 2; Dan and Brenda (Moody) Norton and Rick and Mary Elliott, all on May 6; and Jo and Chuck Langenkamp on May 8.
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Think about it: “To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent — that is to triumph over old age.” — Thomas Bailey Aldrich
