A CLASSMATE'S LOVED ONE LOST

As you know, NANCY THOMPSON BAKER'S husband Jake passed away last week. I spoke with NANCY today, and she is holding up fairly well. I sent all of your prayers and good wishes to her to read and share with her family. Please continue to think of them as they grieve the passing of this important man in their lives. 

JERRY ARTHUR  "JAKE" BAKER

Jerry (Jake) Baker, of Ballinger Texas, passed away Friday, July 17th, 2020 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Jake was born to Johnnie Harry and Ivah Bernice Smith on December 21, 1935, in Winters Texas.

Jake attended Ballinger high school in Ballinger, Texas, where he played football. Jake was a wide receiver and in 1953, one year before he graduated, he was a state championship finalist for catching the only touchdown pass for Ballinger High. On August 31, 1957, Jake married the love of his life, Nancy Thompson Baker in Waco, Texas. Jake went on to become a salesman for M&M Packing Co. for 28 years. After that, he worked as the food service supervisor at the Runnels County Jail for 14 years. Jake also served The Volunteer Fire Department for 38 years. He was once elected “Fireman of the Year”! He retired in 2013. Jake loved his dogs “Brandy" and “Bozo” and his cat “Sneaky Pete”.

He is preceded in death by his parents, and 2 siblings: sister, Fadine Williams, and brother, Danny Baker.

Jake will be remembered by his wife, Nancy Thompson Baker, his sons: Russ Baker of San Angelo, Texas and Rodger Baker of Stafford, Virginia. His daughters: Lynn De La Cruz of Winters, Texas and Melissa Jones of Ballinger, Texas, his 9 grandchildren, his 9 great-grandchildren, and his sister, Norma McFarland of Saginaw, Texas, and brother, Randall Baker of Harlingen, Texas.

The family would like to say a special thank you to the home health nurses who took such great care of Jake during his time of need. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Saint Jude Children’s Hospital or your local ASPCA.

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A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am, Wednesday, July 22, 2020, at Lange Funeral Home in Ballinger. Please contact them for information regarding the COVID-19 requirements.

CLASSMATES IN NEED OF PRAYERS

Jake and Nancy - Aug. 8, 2020 - 60th Anniversary

By now, most of you know about NANCY THOMPSON BAKER'S husband Jake (BHS '54). This past Monday he fell off a ladder at their home in Ballinger. The hospital in Ballinger was unable to care for him as he broke seven (7) ribs and two (2) vertebrae in his fall. He was taken to Abilene where, due to COVID-19, there were no ICU beds available. The same was true for the San Angelo hospitals. The weather was extremely cloudy that night, preventing them from airlifting him by Careflight, so he was taken by plane to John Peter Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth. NANCY and their son Russ followed and are staying in a local motel. The ICU unit Jake is in does not allow visitors. That is for the best considering all of the coronavirus cases. However, that makes it very hard on the family. They depend on updates from the nurses and doctors.

Thursday Russ sent me the following that I forwarded to the class: "(Jake) has a chest tube to drain internal bleeding and is currently on a ventilator. He's resting comfortably and responding to nurses' voices." Last night: "Jake still critical but stable, resting comfortably, only had one dose of pain meds. Not on continuous drip anymore. Giving him mild sedative to control anxiety and keep him calm. Getting high doses of meds to keep his blood pressure up. He is still responding to nurses voices by squeezing their hands etc. He is still on ventilator. May need surgery to 'plate' the ribs where they are broken."

Friday morning  Russ sent the following: "This morning Jake is stable. They are doing a CT scan on chest and abdomen to check for problems. Went down a bit on blood pressure meds. He has a chronic abdominal aneurysm that is being treated with meds. Still on ventilator. Nurse said he will be in hospital at least another week."

NANCY and Russ will remain in Ft. Worth for now.

ROSALYN URBANTKE HOELSCHER sent the following:

"I don’t know what’s going on in this crazy world but the virus has now hit our family. My 17-year-old granddaughter has the virus right now. She is not in the hospital and not really, really sick. Yeah, she’s running a fever and doesn’t feel good but she could breathe. I was with her on July 4 and definitely was very close to her and now I know I am fully exposed. At my age that’s going to be very, very hard if I get it. Our son was over there too, but he was not real close to Annalise. Please pray for our family."

I have received many prayers and well wishes from the class, which I've forwarded to NANCY. If you wish to send your thoughts and prayers as well, please send them to me. I will be sure to let their family know. Personally, I have seen what some would call "miracles" as a result of prayer. I believe "good thoughts" contain as much energy as prayers. So whatever your belief, think loving, healing thoughts for all of us. If you wish to send a message to NANCY, please send them to me. I will forward them to her. And of course, if anyone else needs prayers, please let me know.

May we all remain in good health during this trying time.

Love and Peace,
Marilyn 

For greater assistance: 
The Silent Unity prayer vigil, which has been ongoing since the early 1900s, continues to be staffed 24/7. Team members are holding vigil in their homes.  (Before COVID-19, prayer requests were prayed over in the Chapel at Unity Village for 30 days.)

Prayer line in U.S. 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. (CT), 3 a.m. to 11 p.m. (PT)
1-816-969-2000

Online prayer request form can be found at https://www.unity.org/prayer

GOOD STUFF (and Not So Good Stuff)

"The eighth-century Chinese Zen master P'an-shan had his first satori (enlightenment-glimpse) while walking through a marketplace. He overheard a customer tell the butcher, 'Cut me some of the good stuff'; the butcher replied, 'Hey, take a look -- nothing but good stuff!' This was just the catalyst P'an-shan needed. He took a look, perhaps, at the ground, the sky, the people in their bustle of buying and selling . . . and everywhere he saw nothing but good stuff."— Dean Sluyter in Why the Chicken Crossed the Road and Other Hidden Enlightenment Teachings from the Buddha to Bebop to Mother Goose 

Unfortunately, we all know that someone walking through a Chinese marketplace last December or January probably saw and picked up the coronavirus from one of the vendors. That was the beginning of the terrible spread of what is now known as COVID-19. That certainly was not "good stuff"! 

I have not heard from many of you since I emailed and requested news a few days ago. I am hoping none of you who didn't respond has any health issues. If this is not true, I hope someone will let me know so we can pray for you. I believe that most of you remain in your homes as I do, and if you have to venture out that you observe social distancing and are wearing masks. At our ages, we must take extra care.

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I can always count on JAMES HAYS to keep me informed (with a little bit of humor). It's nice to know he is still in good health since he has to deal with COVID-19 cases in the county. He sent this:

  "I have been earning the beer money that the county pays me for being County Health Authority. I was feeling guilty for signing my name every two weeks. We have had 87 cases of COVID-19 in Brown County so far and 11 deaths. Currently we have 22 active cases, the rest 'graduated' one way or the other. You can't cure stupidity, but you can't quarantine it very well either. We are seeing younger people with it now because we can't afford our precious allocation of tests on contacts who are non-symptomatic.

  "I have been told that the homecoming game will be September 11th. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I hope we can get together for the all-school reunion. I am trying to be optimistic about it. Let me hear from you.

  "News:  Jerri (Piel) Steel has about recovered from a broken hip and is driving now, doing well.  Her husband died a few years back, but she has a strong family who took good care of her."

TRUMAN CONNER has been playing golf - which is one of the safest places one can be outdoors today - a couple of times a week as well as swimming at his club. They have separate lanes to swim in and a private locker room and shower. That was a few days ago before the newest restrictions have been issued from Governor Abbott. He has been doing shopping for groceries and such and sent me this photo awhile back. Love the Hawaiian shirt!

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I debated on whether or not to include the following "little" story on myself. Although it might have been a "not so good stuff" at first, it has a happy ending. This happened on Friday, June 12th. Some of you have already read this when I shared it via email. A concentrator is equipment that runs on electricity to deliver oxygen via tubing I can run throughout my house. When going out, I have  small oxygen tanks I keep to use as needed. 

Concentrator

"As I've been having more difficulty breathing lately I have been using my oxygen concentrator daily. Around 2 or 2:30, I was sitting in the living room eating leftover fried chicken son Craig brought the night before when the power again went off (it had gone off at 7:30 am, but came back on immediately). This time it didn't come back on. I immediately thought I had no phone service (it's an internet phone) and started to get a little panicky. I remembered my 'Obama cell phone', but first had to get into my closet files to find an electric bill with the 'outage' number on it. I started getting a little more panicky, as my tanks of oxygen were in the other room, and I wasn't sure if the one hooked up had very much oxygen left. And my little phone showed the battery was getting low!

"I found the number and called. It took awhile for me to give all the information the young man needed and I was getting breathless (stress makes it worse). He couldn't see a problem for our area and asked me if I had anyone I could have come help me for now. I told him I had a son nearby. He told me to get on my backup oxygen and call my son to come check the breakers (I didn't tell him I could do that, as I was anxious to get on oxygen). He told me again to get on my backup and call my son right away, and he would have the electric company come out. He was running a check on my meter, too, to see if that was the problem.

"I went to the bedroom and was picking up that d*** heavy tank and trying to get it turned on, looking for Matt's number on the little cell phone.. by now I was really breathless. I think I might have even laid the phone down while putting on my other cannula, hooking up to blessed oxygen.. Matt said 'call 911' and I told him no, it was the electricity and I had talked to them and they were on

their way. What I wanted to convey was I wanted him to come over and hook up the largest oxygen tank for me in case the power was off very long. I guess I didn't get that across. Because, as you all know, in a very few minutes my house looked like this (at right):

"Apparently, son Matthew called 911. These guys were absolutely amazing. So professional, kind, and friendly. They did a thorough job of checking me out, running tests, and staying there for quite a long time. Neighbors came and offered help. Judy told us the whole area was blacked out and the electric company was working on a transformer that went out.  The EMTs asked all the right questions, kept me on a monitor the whole time they were here (even took my temp), and they wore their face masks. I apologized to them and said I did not want to go to the hospital. (They laughed.) What sweethearts! As soon as I'm able I'm going to bake them some chocolate chip cookies so Matt can take to them. Matthew deserves some, too, as I could not have managed any of the afternoon without his help. 

"My wonderful new neighbor, Erick and his wife offered to help. He just happened to have a generator. He and Matthew ran a cord over to my concentrator! I would now have plenty of oxygen until the electricity came back on, which it soon did. Now the EMTs could leave and get in their van with blessed a/c!"

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Not So Good Stuff (prayers and condolences needed):

Hi Marilyn ~ I don’t have pictures but here's an update on my family- My youngest daughter lives in Austin and she tested positive for virus ~ she is at home getting better ~ prayers for complete healing please ~ Thank you. Have a blessed day . JERRI PIEL STEEL

JUNE HASH CURRY had a sad occurrence in one of her granddaughters' family. The seven (7) year-old-son of granddaughter Danielle was visiting another grandmother when he fell ill and suddenly passed away. This was a very traumatic event for the family. JUNE's son Scott took her to the funeral in Missouri... a very painful trip for JUNE both physically and emotionally. She is concerned about Danielle and requests prayers for her as she grieves for her young son. Please send your prayers for JUNE as well. Our condolences to all.

I hope to hear from more of you soon. I try really hard not to "worry".... "What you hold in your thoughts you create in your world!".. but in times like these it is more difficult to think positive.

Peace, Love, and good health,
Marilyn