As we embark into another year, I want to provide not only an update on me and the Brooks family but announce a minor transition as well. A lot has occurred over the past two years since I last posted in what was to become my new Friends of the Brooks Family blog. For one thing, I’ve learned that thinking of this as a blog was probably akin to calling myself a fiddler. In both cases, the activity has to be more regular, approaching a habit to make the claim. My newsletter format was always a very sporadic thing and the blog posting idea has turned out to be no less so. I’m learning more about blogs and blogging as part of my retirement planning, such as the fact that blogs are fairly regular dispatches, following some common theme, written from a particular perspective, and having a consistent ‘voice.’ Seeing as how writing—and painting, and fiddling—are things I’d like to do more than once every two years, I’m setting some ambitious goals for myself. I’ve recently transitioned to writing/posting under a new domain, InspiredbyNatureBrooks.org. My hope is for this to become my post-career literary playground, where I can expound on all sorts of topics related not only to my endeavors and wanderings but also natural and cultural history, sustainability, etc. I will, of course also occasionally report on what the Brooks family is up to. I’ll spare you any political rants, and save those for occasional tongue-in-cheek outbursts on Facebook. My hope is truly to inspire you by writing about the things that inspire me and bring light into my life.
Let me quickly point out that I’ve not retired yet from my long career at Schaumburg Park District’s Spring Valley Nature Center & Heritage Farm. This is planned to occur in three years, when I’ll have reached my 40 year milestone with the Park District. Yes, I realize I’m a dinosaur, working one place for 40 years! I’m truly ready to retire now and have been for the past few years. The disruption of the pandemic and the way it impacted the nature center not only threw me off my game (anyone else?) and made my job more complicated and challenging, but I was also given the opportunity to ‘test drive’ retirement during six weeks of furlough at the start of the lockdowns. While I’m currently committed to rebuilding the staff and programs at Spring Valley, I’m also determined to leave in the fall of 2025. In the meantime, I’ve begun to dream and plan my post-career life with the eagerness of planning a trip. Suffice to say for now that my retirement plans include staying busy with not just personal endeavors and hobbies, but I may also offer my skills and services to conservation organizations on a volunteer basis and/or for hire. Details yet to emerge!
Family Business
With both of the kids now grown and attending college close to home, we find ourselves all living together in our little house as four inter-dependent adults (plus a dog and cat). It makes for interesting dynamics, lots of laughs, and remarkably, only a little tension. This is all certainly helped by the fact that Alma and Will have matured into intelligent, perceptive, kind, funny humans who are mostly nice to have around, AND the fact that they often aren’t around all that much, having busy lives of their own. They are both engaged in what I like to think of as adult finishing school. This includes actual school but also dealing with just enough financial challenge and responsibility, overcoming occasional setbacks, and learning how to navigate relationships. Believe me, they are both way ahead of where I was at their age.
Alma earned her undergrad degree in social work at Aurora University in spring of 2022 and is now enrolled in the Masters in Social Work program at the same school. Her classes take place either online or at Aurora’s Woodstock, IL campus. She is also working an internship now and has so far discovered an interest in working with neuro-divergent children. She will finish her master’s work at the end of this summer and launch herself into a world in need of healing.
Will has been taking classes at Harper Community College and may attend UW-La Crosse in the fall…or, maybe not. He has varied and evolving interests, as is typical for a 20-year-old, but is focused on pursuing a business degree. His strong interest in fitness has led him to work as a personal trainer at a local private fitness center. He is also exploring drawing and music, mostly as hobbies at this point, but he definitely has talent and has impressed this art and music critic thus far.
Donna continues to thrive as a clinical social worker after making her career switch several years ago. She opened her own therapy practice in 2021, and it proved successful almost immediately. She now partners/shares her rented office space with a massage therapist, reiki specialist, and therapeutic yoga specialist. She has brought as much thoughtfulness, creativity and attention to detail in creating a warm and inviting therapy setting for her clients as she used to do in creating her classroom space as a teacher.
Donna has also retired from playing music professionally about three or four times during the past two years, always returning to performing when her phone rings and someone invites her to come play. She now has settled into playing a couple of gigs each month with her new musical partner, Nick, another guitarist/bass player. She recently celebrated her 60th birthday with a musical gathering of family and friends at a local wine bar. This has become a once-a-decade tradition as she has twin sisters who are ten years older than her and celebrate their birthdays around the same time.
Blessed Family Time
As was probably true for many folks since the start of the pandemic, travelling to be with family was often put off for many months, resulting in this being the primary reason to finally hit the road again when conditions improved. While trips with our family unit have proved elusive, as one would expect with grown children, Donna and I have gotten away for several fun trips. This included a gathering with some of my siblings in Bisbee, AZ for Halloween in late 2021. I highly recommend this quaint old mining town tucked into the Mule Mountains not far from the Mexican border. It is both artsy and quirky and a bit rough around the edges – perfect for a quiet, relaxing getaway in the sun.
Another gathering of Brooks siblings last spring took place in Isla Mujeres, just off the coast of Cancun. Donna, Alma and I traveled there to help nephew Chet and his wife Suz celebrate their 10th anniversary. A trip to Mexico at the end of March to bask in warm ocean breezes was quite welcome; although I can think of lots of places in Mexico I would’ve rather visited. I described Isla in a Facebook post as a “crazy stew of heavily trod tropical beauty, sunbaked squalor, hard-working Mexicans, and too many turistas.” Nonetheless, the blessed family time made it all worthwhile. Donna and I have also made a few forays into Wisconsin’s Driftless area, once to reconnoiter several small communities as possible retirement destinations and twice to attend the Blue Ox Music Festival, an annual roots/bluegrass gathering near Eau Claire, WI.
A fair amount of my personal travels during the past couple of years have been more poignant in nature – to spend time with and help out my mother and sister during their final days. My sister Kathy had been dealing with health issues resulting from a type of blood cancer for the last several years that required frequent doctor visits and transfusions. Having spent years as a nurse working with families facing end-of-life scenarios and even working in a hospice setting for children with terminal diagnoses, she knew exactly what she was dealing with along with the prognosis for any type of recovery. Rather than embark on invasive medical procedures that held at best a slim chance for improvement, and then only after a long recovery, she decided to ‘dance’ with her cancer rather than fight it. Knowing full well that her time was limited, she did what was required to maintain her stamina so that she could spend that time with her two grown children and their growing families. I was visiting her in Minneapolis when she received the call from her doctor that resulted in her entering home hospice care. Not long after, her daughter Molly and her best friend of 40+ years, Jeanne arrived to be with her till the end, which came in early June, 2021 – on the same day my brother Steve passed away, ten years prior. I will forever love, admire and be grateful to Kathy for showing me/us how to face death gracefully and courageously. Our culture is one that seldom talks openly of dying and most of us live in denial of our mortality, i.e., we all know it but don’t like to think about it or talk about it. Kathy not only faced death unflinchingly, but she danced with it. She is a hero to me and now dances on the breeze with the dragonflies.
My mother Mary Lou also passed away recently. She had experienced several health setbacks during the past couple of years that involved surgeries, cancer treatments and eventually moving in with my sister in Tucson. Mo is a nurse practitioner and in addition to serving as my mom’s caretaker and companion, provided much of her daily medical care. She helped to give my mom a quality of life she could not have experienced in an assisted living facility. I flew down to Tucson as often as I could to spend time with my mom and also help Mo out with shopping and meals. This past September, my mom went into hospice care and began to decline more significantly. I was able to get down there in time to be with her during her final days. Although she was sedated and not communicating, she acknowledged my presence when I arrived with a slight smile. I stayed for several days as her body refused to let go. When she finally did pass on the morning of September 27, Mo and I both awoke at the same time and went to check on her. As her faint pulse faded and then stilled, I gave thanks for this strong woman, who raised nine children, and lived 89 years with her share of joys, challenges, heartaches, and physical suffering. I consider it the greatest of honors that I could be there with her, and with my sister, at the end.
I look forward to sharing thoughts, musings and updates with all of you in the months ahead. I can’t promise any sort of regular schedule for this, but I am determined to post more regularly than once every year or two. Now, where is that fiddle?!
Very touching, my love.
Dave, you are our diamond. I love and have missed your coherent ramblings that aren’t ramblings at all but words of humor, insight and wisdom.
Thanks! Love you Mindy!
Nice work Dave. I will look forward to joining you as you document your journey. I’m a big fan of retiring “to” something not “from” something, and it looks like I will have a lot to learn from you. Peace!
Thanks Matt!
Well, I was able to access this today without the glaring red screen that threatened me last night. Wonder what that was all about. Glad I asked you and that I tried again today. Just finished reading this and feel as if I’m standing in the doorway of your office, as I often did, and we were sharing insights, questions, and ravings together. Okay, granted, this isn’t a raving, but you know what I mean. I am so happy for you that you can both plan ahead and look forward to your retirement. You deserve both; the planning and the actual event. May it be so (a paraphrase from rewatching “Star Trek: The Next Generation” a bazillion times). I look forward to many more posts. BTW: The photos are wonderful!
Thanks Mary! There are many days I wish you were still there to darken my office door.
Hey Dave. Very cool venture into the blog scene. That was a nice insight into the family too. Retirement (like beauty) is really in the eye of the beholder. I miss having a community cause to champion, like conservation. But 46 years of working in several capacities of this work has given me a treasure trove of stories and experiences. There’s more music and hopefully a book in there somewhere.
Who knows, Ryan and Natalia lost there amazing, highly paid jobs and may move back to the Midwest for economic reasons. And with one baby and planning another we may follow suit!
Sorry to hear about Ryan and Natalia’s jobs. What a sucky turn for them. Let us know about your plans, when they take shape.