2005 Season's Greetings from the Illinois Dooleys
If you enjoyed listening to the holiday music that used to play when you were reading our letter, click here which should open up your media player in a different window. Switch back to this window to read on while the music continues to play.Dear Friends and Family,
We are late as usual getting a letter in the mail to our family and friends this year. 2005 ended on a sad note, totally disrupting our lives. Anne flew to Maine at Thanksgiving to visit with her parents. While she was there, her father had a mild heart attack, and he opted for bypass surgery. Roy did not recover from complications and passed away late in the evening of December 6. Jeff, Sarah, & Carol drove out to Maine, picking James up at the Coast Guard Academy on the way, making it to Falmouth about midnight on December 9. The memorial service at First Parish Unitarian Church in Portland on the morning of Saturday, December 10 was well attended, with a number of people talking about how Roy touched their lives. Carol & cousin Scotty Ritter lit the Chalice, Sarah played a Bach piano solo, and James read a letter from Roy's brother in the service. (To see the pages on this site dedicated to Roy, go back to the Home page and click on the link for LeRoy B. Wilson) Jeff & Carol started back to Illinois on Sunday, December 11, dropping James back at the CGA on the way. Sarah flew to Colorado to visit a friend on Monday, December 12, and Anne stayed in Falmouth with her mom until Christmas Day. Our best Christmas present this year was when Anne arrived at O'Hare and we were all back together again for a few days until Anne flies/flew back to Maine.
The other major event of the year was Jeff, Anne & Carol visiting James in England (without James), for which there is a separate set of photo galleries (again, go back to the Home page and select the link for England 2005).
Other travel included Anne going to Maine in June. In July, Anne, Sarah & Carol drove to Maine for Sarah to attend a friend's wedding; then Sarah flew home to continue her summer employment. James flew out for a visit with Grampa & Gramma in August, then Anne, James, & Carol drove home. Jeff went to San Diego over spring break to staff at a Sea Cadet Surgical Technician Training.
Jeff continues to work as an Athletic Trainer at Lake Forest High and he continues as Chair of the Illinois Board of Athletic Trainers. His three year tour as Commanding Officer of the Aurora Sea Cadet unit ends in March and he is looking forward to passing the baton. He will probably continue with the program in some capacity but one that does not have nearly the stress as being Commanding Officer.
Carol has continued her interest in drama. Last Spring in Middle School she devoted many hours with her drama club to preparing their production of "Unhappily Ever After", exploring what might have happened to Fairy Tale characters later in their lives. They performed for parents and at 2 grade schools. In high school she is taking drama as one of her classes, is a member of the Thespian Drama Club, and helped with costumes for the school's Fall musical production - Studs Turkle's "Working". She would have liked an on-stage role, but had joined the tennis team before school started then found out there was too much conflict of schedules for her to rehearse for the musical. The transition from middle school to high school was eased for her by the extent she had been at the high school activities during Sarah & James' years. Her first quarter report card was great with an A+, 3 As, and 2 Bs. She also continues active in church programs.
James is in his 2nd year at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. He is doing well academically. Outside of academics his major interest is preparing with fellow teammates for the Sandhurst competition which is held each spring at West Point. Competing teams come from the other U.S. service academies and ROTC programs, England, and Canada. He is also doing drill team and karate, and has a good room mate this year. Last summer he was very pleased with his 10 weeks aboard the CGC Chase, a 378' high endurance cutter out of San Diego. Their assigned duty was drug interdiction off of South and Central America and he got to help off load over $2 million in cocaine from a go-fast that they stopped. While aboard the Chase he crossed the equator, making him an official "Shellback".
Sarah is in her senior year at Knox. By May she will have enough credits to graduate and will have completed her music major, but will return to Knox for the fall term to complete a needed course for her bio chem major. In addition to academics she is enjoying sharing an apartment with a friend and she continues active with the APO service fraternity. For her work study job this year, she has been working in the Athletic Training room. Must be in the genes!
Anne has continued with her school and community projects: PTA, being treasurer for a school district referendum committee (unfortunately the community voted down busing for the students). She still gives tours at the Schingoethe Center for Native American Culture and has been active with a community program on race relations. She also very much enjoys her international network of 2nd-5th cousins as they correspond on family history and connect on their current lives. It was wonderful to meet several of the cousins in England during the England trip.
This catches you up a bit on the Dooley Doings. We are very much enjoying the cards and letters that we are receiving and they are an important part of the Christmas season for us.
We heartily wish you all the very best for 2006.
Note: Just in case you're a packrat like Anne and like to keep a copy of Christmas letters received, click below to download a printable version of the message above. The file is in Adobe PDF format. To view and/or print it, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it, you can download it free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html or by clicking on the first button below.
[ Printable Christmas 2005 Letter ]
Click here to view our 2005 Photo Album
