Serve by Design

My wife, Monique is a regular substitute in our local elementary school. After retiring in 2013, having taught for over 22 years, it is not uncommon for her to average teaching in this same building three or four days a week. She loves what she does and is a familiar face to the students in the first through fourth grade classes! The only class she doesn't choose to teach is kindergarten because they are down on the floor much of the day with their activities. Charlie, our enthusiastic kinder, while disappointed, is looking forward to his Mimi teaching him next year just like she has his sister, Chloe and brother, Danny on several occasions! An After-School Grandsons' Hug! As I dropped her off at the front door the other morning, I saw three little girls along with a boy, (probably first or second graders) shouting, "It's Mrs. Keppler!" as they rushed over to give her a group hug! I thought, "Everyone should be so blessed to have this kind of welcoming ...

It has been nearly three months now since my mother's death on July 17, 2018. At birth, she was given the name, Beverly Joan (pronounced Jo Ann) and was born to H. Lloyd and Marguerite Pocock Stanley in Nokomis, Illinois on September 1, 1933. To my knowledge, mom was never called Beverly and she would be known by her middle name, Joan. Naming children is an "imperfect science" and is always done for personal preferences. (I am named after my dad, Joseph, but my parents shortened my middle name to simply Joe). It is still hard for me to write these words about mom's passing, but I know that this is the new normal and reality for my family and me. In these last years, I have been interviewing and recording some of my parents' memories. I'm writing an anecdotal history of our family's business. Joe's Auto Repair opened in December 1961 when I was just a ten-year old boy. It has been fun and now, therapeutic, to write about some of the rich experiences I...