OUR OWN LITTLE HAPPY CAMP
In the interest of Mary’s privacy, I cropped
her address off this picture, but the real evite included it.
As Mary had volunteered to throw the party at
her beautiful and spacious home, I took charge of designing and sending out the
evites. Together with Tracy, Cathy Nealon, and Mary, we put together a list of
over 60 people that we wanted to invite. I was delighted by how much contact
info I was able to gather from these ladies as well as a couple of other
people. I gathered the information and sent out the evites in early August. I
knew I would have to be on top of reminders, but we wanted to give everyone
time to plan. The RSVPs started coming back quickly and everyone was excited
about seeing each other.
There were people who never responded, and I
don’t know if we had the right contact info for them, there were people who
couldn’t make it due to previous engagements, and there were a few who said
they were coming and didn’t make it, but we ended up with a great group of
about 40 people.
October
1, 2023
As the day of the party arrived, I tried on 4 or 5 outfits and had Vladi take pictures of me so that I could see which outfit photographed best. I knew there were going to be many pictures taken! For some reason, standing in front of a mirror (even a full length one) doesn’t have the same effect as having a photo. I made my choice and got ready.
Vladi thought he was going to get out of going with me but I made it clear that all the girls were bringing their husbands and no way was I going without him. He was just going to have to miss watching his soccer matches that day!
Tracy’s party was SO much fun. It was so good to see so many of the people that I used to work with. I had not seen many of them in the seven years since I’ve been retired.Mary and I were both excited to greet our guests and show them through to the beautiful backyard. Here we are with Tracy (Bower) Whitaker and Mary’s sister Nancy Davenport.
I wanted to get a lot of pictures of this event, so I put Vladi on photo detail and as I saw a couple of other people taking pictures, I asked if we could all share whatever we got. I was very happy with the many pictures taken, but it was only after I picked out the best ones to use for this blog that I realized that I didn’t have any pictures of Tracy with her wonderful husband John. And I didn’t get any pictures of me with Vladi! Oh, well! That was an egregious oversight. Please forgive me.
I
gave our woman of honor, Tracy C. (the legend), a big hug when she arrived.
She looked so cute with her curls coming back in.
Here is Stacy McNamara and Lisa White, who arrived
together. I would say that neither one of them has changed at all since I last
saw them. They both looked great.
Across the room from them was the gift and cake table
This was me greeting Carly and Chris Martinez as they
arrived. I had promised we would reserve a parking spot for them close to the
house. Carly did great being able to walk in on her own with the help of her
cane. She was very happy to be able to come to the party and everyone was
excited to see her and give her some love, as she has been battling cancer for
a long time.
We
couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. The temperature was perfect and
look at that sky!
Next
are pictures of various groups talking and enjoying the atmosphere:
Here are Dan Dempsey and Jon Thorpe deep in conversation.
This is Abel, of Guiterrez Catering, who did a fantastic job with the food. He was also great at taking group pictures for us. Very nice guy!
And his food was a big hit.
Here are Mary and Dan Sheridan, my wonderful co-hosts. It was a real pleasure to put this party together with Mary.
Next,
I have a selection of pictures of some of the other great married couples who
joined us:
The newlyweds Tracy & Robb Whitaker.
Dan and Beth Dempsey looking marvelous.
Mark & Matty Sackenreuter with their beautiful smiles.
Monica
& Adam Deutscher in fine style
And Eric & Stephanie Mendel looking great!
This is Debbie and Doug Valentine. Tracy asked us to
invite a couple of her lifelong friends that didn’t work at the store. Debbie
is one of those friends.
And the other was this beautiful lady, Cathy Berning. She was the first person to RSVP and enthusiastically offered her help all along the way. She was very appreciative of our efforts to celebrate her best friend.
Here are Vladi Zaretsky and John Cross. Two great
husbands that weren’t photographed with their busy wives.
I’m not sure how I achieved the effect eliminating the
background in this picture, but I like how it turned out. Mary, Joseph Mahetsky
and I were standing in her kitchen.
Now for an explanation of the group pictures.
I wanted to make sure we got pictures of everyone who came to the party. I hope that in one way or another, everyone that was there is represented. When
I was pretty sure that everyone who was going to come was there, I gathered
everyone into the spot I thought best for the group picture.
Our chef, Abel, was ready and willing to take the shot. I am going to show two different shots we settled on because when I checked the first one we did, I realized that some of the people in the back were in the shadow of the umbrella. Also, there is at least one person that came after we took the first shot, who appears in the second one. I will do my best to explain who is who. Photo # 1 (see enlargements underneath)
Here
is an enlargement of the left half of the first picture. The front
three people from the left are Dan Sheridan, Chris Martinez, and Cathy
Berning.
The
three behind them are Beth Dempsey, Stephanie Mendel, and Ryan Nealon.
The
four behind them are Dan Dempsey, Monica Deutscher, Stacy Macnamara, and
Lisa White.
And
the back row is Jon Thorpe, Mark Sackenreuter, Eric Mendel (half his
face), Adam Deutscher, Joseph Mahetsky, and Mary Sheridan.
And here is an enlargement of the right half of the first picture.
The
six in the front row from the left are: Carly Martinez, Tracy (the
Legend) Cross, me (Rita Zaretsky), Matty Sackenreuter, Vladi Zaretsky and John
Cross (behind the palm frond.)
The
six behind them are Cathy Nealon, Kim Yeomans, Nancy Davenport, Steve
Davenport, Doug and Debbie Valentine.
The six in the back row are Bill and Sue Holifield, (and in the shadow of the umbrella) Grant Fortnoy, Christina Fortnoy, Tracy and Robb Whitaker.
After some reconfiguration, we got this second shot.
Here is an enlargement of the left
half of the second shot.
The front two people are Chris Martinez and Cathy
Berning.
The five behind them are Yolanda Rodriguez (just
arrived), Dan and Beth Dempsey, Stephanie Mendel, and Ryan Nealon.
In the back are Mark Sackenreuter, Jon
Thorpe (behind Dan), Eric Mendel (whole face), Monica and Adam Deutscher, Stacy
Macnamara, Lisa White (in the hat), and Sue and Bill Holifield
Behind Lisa’s hat are Joseph Mahetsky and
Mary Sheridan.
And this is an enlargement of the right half of
the second shot.
The front three people are Carly Martinez, Tracy Cross, and
me (Rita Zaretsky)
The five in the next row are Cathy Nealon, Kim Yeomans, Matty
Sackenreuter, Vladi Zaretsky and John Cross (still behind the palm frond)
In the upper left corner are Christina and Grant Fortnoy and
Tracy and Robb Whitaker
Behind Matty is Steve Davenport’s back and Nancy Davenport
facing the camera. Doug and Debbie Valentine are behind Vladi and John.
I
think the only person who came but did not make it into the group photos was
Tracy’s daughter, Tammy. She came when
she got off work and Tracy was really happy she made it.
We took a few final pictures as the party was wrapping up
that I wanted to include because I thought they came out really well.
This
one of Tracy and Jon Thorpe is precious. And I have to give Jon credit for the title. He was the one who said "It was like our own little happy camp! Love the thought.
Cathy N., me, Tracy and Mary
Jon,
me, Cathy B. and Tracy
In conclusion, I hope I've given you a sense of how much fun we had and how much love and laughter we shared. The party was a blast and I hope that we have something to celebrate in the near future that will bring us all together again, and so that the people who couldn’t make it to this, will get to join us next time!
Congratulations to our beautiful, wonderful friend, Tracy Cross. Enjoy every minute of your retirement!
The End