Jeanne Castner Hertig
** My Mom **
On Dec 26, at 99 my Mom will start her 100th year on earth. She is as sharp as a tack and has more brown hair and brain cells than I do. If I inherited my mother’s longevity gene, I might live a few more years. I better take care of my health and plan for a few extra years of service wherever the Lord wants me to serve.
A Year of Progress & Growth
In February and March, I ran my first election for School Board without Bud by my side and decided it will be my last. It was a very successful campaign and all four of the incumbents won so I will serve Lake Villa Elementary Schools and SEDOL for 4 more years. What then? I am moving to Utah. Crazy, but a necessary move so Chomedy and I are closer to Geny. I love Lake Villa and Illinois, but I can’t drive at night, and I am not as strong as I once was when I helped to lift engines out of cars and could beat all of the Lake Villa Intermediate eight-grade boys in arm wrestling.
Sisters
Chomedy and Jetta spent the summer in Provo with Geny. July and August is the time of year when I work on major projects including cleaning Chomedy’s room and reorganizing her space. This year I moved our offices out of our bedrooms into the family room, so at times we share Zoom meetings and Animal Crossings.
Chomedy – the Angel among us
Glen and Sylwia live in France and Poland. Besides swimming, running and biking, Glen is having fun with ChatGPT. Believe it or not he finally figured out he inherited the programming gene which is dominant in both my family and Bud’s. Although Madeline is in Arizona and Brittany is in Idaho, I saw Brittany and Chase twice this year, But I need to visit her in Idaho considering I work for BYU-Idaho and have never been there. With a dog and two cats it is hard to go far from home for any length of time.
Tasha is in Indianapolis still working for Rolls Royce America. Mike retired moved to Missouri then retired again and moved back to Indy to work for the same company. Great move for everyone because they have a wonderful house close to Andy, Jenny, and a growing team of grandchildren. It could not be more perfect.
Matt graduated from Purdue in May with an Aeronautical Engineering degree and is now employed by Boeing and moved to St Louis. Katie is still at home attending the same High School as her brothers and sister. She is amazing at golf and has started her second favorite sport diving and swimming. I wonder if Grandpa Bud is coaching her from heaven.
John and Laural are still in Idaho where Laurel is working on her MBA and John works as an asset manager for Micron. Jack returned from his successful mission in the Atlanta Georgia North Mission and is a freshman at BYU Provo. Max our wresting champ is a HS Senior and already performed his first convert baptism. Laurel has done a great job raising two fantastic boys.
Geny and Matt still work in Provo. Chomedy loves them both and spends the summer with them. Thus, the decision to move to Utah in the area around Provo. Fortunately, I can still continue to be an online instructor for BYU Idaho! I love facilitating my Small Business classes filled with students from around the world.
My back is doing great! I doubt it will ever be perfectly straight, but the pain is not constant and if I keep the stress level down it actually feels better than it did decades ago. I won’t be running any more marathons or climbing mountains, but I walk a couple miles several times a week and can even do it when it is hot, rainy, windy, or cold if it is sunny. But I avoid the days when it is below 32 degrees.
I am committed to serving the children in my sphere of influence. Let your light shine this Christmas season as you serve the people around you, share joy, and follow the example of Jesus Christ.
Joanne Osmond
Joanne Osmond 