Peggy’s email address is: pscraft@ameritech.net
February 2014
Hi Dawn—
I was pleasantly surprised to get your face book request! I apologize for my delay in sending you this email. We have just entertained our very first Illinois visitors since our move to Arizona, and sent them back to the snow & cold on Monday! I’m sure they wish they could still be with us, enjoying our warm & sunny environment! We’ll be having another guest next week for a few days, and then a couple for a week @ the end of this month. It’s beginning to sound like we’re running a B & B, but we love hosting our friends, sharing with them our new home, and maintaining our longtime connections. We exited IL in the nick of time weather-wise, and feel fortunate that we can offer our family & friends a brief respite.
I am thankful every day that we were able to make this move! We needed to remain in IL while my father-in-law was still alive. I had already retired from my career as an OR nurse — hospitals had begun looking @ surgeries as a “business to make money” & since I was then working in an out-patient dept, we were continually pressured to eliminate time spent answering pt questions & making them feel as comfortable as possible during this stressful time, which went against my practice of addressing the needs of my patient!
Since Dad still needed our assistance & companionship, I felt I still wanted to do something, so I began working as a sub nurse in the schools. That eventually led to a full time position in a school about 2 miles from my home. I did that for 5 yrs, until he passed 2 years ago @ the age of 94!
Our daughter relocated to Washington state shortly after, so we began preparing for our move to a warmer climate. We were fortunately able to sell Dad’s home and possessions, came to AZ last January to visit friends who are “snowbirds”, looked @ houses just to see what the market offered, walked into this house in a 55+ community, and knew right away that we had found our new home!! We put in an offer, which included as much of the furnishings as they were willing to include (furniture looked almost brand new). Our offer was accepted, we returned home & came back a month later for the closing. We stayed in AZ about a month, came back to IL to begin the process of selling our furniture, thinning out & packing up our belongings, and getting our home ready to go on the market – all at the same time! Needless to say, last summer was very busy and tiring, but all happened without too many obstacles and we left IL in October with closing on the house scheduled the day before Thanksgiving – most appropriate!
So far we’ve had no regrets. We have friends who live near us whom we met while on our honeymoon (they were transferred here about 10 yrs ago), our snowbird friends from WI who live here from Nov – April, and we’re meeting lots of new friends in our community. I’ve joined the quilting group, and they are a great bunch of women with whom I’ve got lots in common. I seriously doubt we will ever have any regrets! We are going back to IL this summer as we still have a RV on a seasonal site which we will sell, along with our towing vehicle. When we will travel there is still to be determined.
I’m anxious to hear about you and your life, & also about the West Sub reunion. It’s been a long time since the last one, and I hope I’ll be able to go!!!
You look the same too, though your hair is a bit curlier than you used to wear it! Unfortunately, my photo is very misleading since it was my high school grad picture 
! I like to pretend!!!! I’m looking forward to “catching up”.
OXOX……..Peggy