It’s only a matter of time,

they said. And even though I never thought the virus would get to Waltonwood with all the strict rules we have here, it happened. We first heard about it when we got a phone call on Thursday morning from our physician, who said she was not coming for her three-monthly checkup, but could we set up a conference? Sure, I said. Well, I had participated in two Zoom conference meetings, but I had never set one up. Doctor would call back in ten minutes. I don’t know how, but I got it done: I set up a Google Meet program on the Mac, and we had a very pleasant meeting. All was well with our blood!

In the course of this week we have received several updates from Management about the current situation. Two Associates in Memory Care went home with symptoms and one person in Independent Living tested positive and will be in isolation in her apartment for 14 days. Of course they did not tell us who was sick, but in a place like this things do leak out. There are two people who always know everything. Thus we heard (in Hawai’i we say through the coconut drum) that one of the Associates is now in the hospital – poor person! – and the person in Independent Living is a single woman on the fourth floor, whom I have never even met because she must have been fairly new and hardly ever came out of her door. Thus the rules have become stricter: visitations, sitting outside with friends or family, are no longer allowed. That’s good, because on my daily dog walks I noticed visitors sitting outside with residents frequently. With masks, but yet… Visits with people in Assisted Living are still allowed, by reservation, talking through the closed window in the small meeting room next to the Assisted Living front door. So they can see each other and talk on the phone. We are even more careful now, and I will not go into the Club anymore, not even to say hello to Lani’s favorite person at the front desk.

A mouse in the house

It happened early on during our stay here, and now it happened again: I found droppings in the pantry, a roll of candy that we don’t like was open, a little container of peanut butter had dropped to the floor and was partially chewed open, and the bag of dog treats was nibbled on; thank goodness not opened. I showed it to the maintenance man on Friday and he came to the door early on Monday morning to put two sticky mouse traps in the pantry; then sealed the bottom crack of the door again with the tape that I had put on it. We shall see what happens. As of today, the pantry door is still sealed.

The 75th Anniversary of VJ-Day

This is a very special year, at least for me. VJ-Day came just in time for the three of us in Camp Halmahera. Because of VJ-Day, we got a second chance on life. And here I am, alive and well, the last of our little family, to tell the story of the three years of captivity so painstakingly written down by Mamma in her secret journal. In exchange for an honest Review on Amazon (so more people can hear the story), I am giving away free copies of my Audiobook  Rising from the Shadow of the Sun, A Story of Love, Survival and Joy.    https://youtu.be/jO4jcZ1dh3M

Even if you have read the book, the Audiobook gives you the sounds and atmosphere of those camp experiences and the joy of living again after the war. For your free copy, contact me at ronnyhermandejong@gmail.com

Off-campus vacations

Well, since summers are for taking vacations, and since Covid-19 has totally ruined our family reunion plans, which we would have been right in the middle of now, I feel shortchanged. I am envious of other people who left campus to go on vacations to the beach of a week or longer, then came back for a three-day isolation. I am finally getting restless, after almost four months. Why can’t we go somewhere? We can’t even get together with our son and his  family. But then I said to myself, now, be reasonable, Ronny, you do not want to get sick. You are planning to live to be at least a hundred in good health, like Mamma. So do not take risks! Yes, but I will be careful! You can’t be careful enough with other people around. Pout. Snivel. Sigh.

Then I thought of something. I had a plan! And the future did not look so bleak anymore. We are allowed to leave campus as long as we stay in our car. We are surrounded by lovely, treed areas with small lakes, and all I have done for three years is drive roads and freeways to see doctors, take the dog to training and run errands. So I decided to plan mini-vacations for myself in the weeks to come, to explore neighboring areas, to take pictures to show to  Mike. Because Mike is totally not interested. He is happy to be at home, even if I am not there, and he is happy for me if I can enjoy nature on my mini vacations in the neighborhood.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Negative never sounded so good

You guessed it: we tested negative for Covid-19 and so did all Residents as well as Associates working on Campus. North Carolina is still in Stage Two, and we still have no more freedoms as of this Monday, but they are working on a plan for us to dine in the dining room again. Also, the hair stylist will return next Monday. With only two patrons in the salon at the same time, and only three days a week, there will be a long wait list! I had just changed hairdressers before the lockdown; the new one is close by, but I will wait another few weeks before going back for a cut. Last Monday we both went off campus to the Ophthalmologist for our annual checkup. Mike got his new glasses and I took advantage of being off campus by going to the post office and to Trader Joe’s before the appointment. And so we had to be in isolation for three days, which was easy.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day was fantastic. I had bought flowers and coffee ice cream at Trader Joes, and one of the children had already sent a gift. Then, the family came to drop off some surprises, and, at our urgent request, all came in, at distances, to open gifts, talk a while, and connect Mike’s new iPad to our WiFi. Yes! one of the kids thought Dad should have his own iPad! When he opened the gift he looked like I would have looked if I was presented with the fresh heart of a Marlin that they just caught. (When we had our all-family reunion on Oahu, the kids and grandkids went deep-sea fishing, caught a Marlin and were told by the captain, who cut the fish open, they had to eat a piece of the heart) We shall wait and see if he gets to like the iPad and work with it. An initial FaceTime was fun, as were vacation pictures. Time will tell. I remember when WE got our first iPad, on an all-family reunion for our 45th wedding anniversary at Lake Tahoe. I did not know how jubilant I could be, expressing my total joy and surprise with this wonderful gift. Meant for both of us, I’m afraid I took total possession of it in no time at all.

The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman

A new Facebook friend in Bali recommended this exciting, informative and very interesting book. And indeed, it was! The true story takes the reader into the deep jungles of Borneo in the sixties, seventies and eighties, in the footsteps of two men, one of whom disappeared eventually, one who now lives in Bali. It’s about the age-old tribal treasures of the Penans, Dayaks and other indigenous tribes they started collecting and selling to famous Art Museums in the world. And it’s about the disappearing of the jungles to bulldozers and chain saws. It’s about adventures in the jungles of an island I always wanted to visit but never had the chance to. And now, after reading this book, I have virtual images of places and rivers, the way they traveled on riverboats, amidst crowds of people carrying all their goods: cooking pots and galvanized roofing, cackling chickens in a bamboo cage and fifty-kilo bags of rice. That conquered images of a very similar boat trip we took in Java, from Tjilatjap (from where my Dad departed in the dead of night to escape the Japanese) to meet up with our driver further up the coast. Those memories are priceless. I could fill a whole book with them.

The 75th Anniversary of VJ-Day

This is the year. August 14, the day, V-J Day. 75 years ago, in August 1945, my mother, my little sister and I, incarcerated in a Japanese concentration camp on the Island of Java, were close to death I write on my Website’s Welcome Page. Many people don’t realize the importance of this year, the date. It all happened so long ago, and they have other problems on their minds. Like the Covid-19 virus. For me, I already mentioned it before, it is Déjà vu, I’ve been there before. And so I sent out a tweet recently:

L’histoire se répète. The War against COVID-19 is like the War in the Pacific. Today’s enemy a deadly Virus, claiming thousands of lives, the Japanese Army claiming millions. Now in Lockdown, then in a Japanese Camp. We survived in 1945, we will survive again!

And so, it’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Off Campus!

With the rising temperatures it is time to change our winter comforter for the summer one. Because we had used our beautiful floral Hawaiian comforter for so many years already, I looked online to see if I could find a replacement. After two hours I ordered one from Amazon and it came two days later. However, on our bed it looked quite different than in the pictures, and it was wrinkled. It was no-iron, so I would need a steamer, and I don’t have a steamer. We did not like it. So the next morning I packed it all up and sent a message to Amazon. They are so fantastic with returns. All I had to do was drop it off at a UPS store and take a picture of the return code with my cell phone to have scanned at the store.

Ah! Our house rules had just been changed to allow us off campus as long as we would stay in the car. So I had an idea. I called UPS and asked if someone would come out to the car to pick up my comforter for return to Amazon. The man said he would need to take my cell phone into the store to scan the return code; but I did not want him to handle my cell phone! So I printed the return code on a sheet of paper, put the box on the back seat, drove to the store, less than two miles away, and called from the curb. A well dressed, masked gentleman appeared with a dolly. With my mask on my face, I handed him the copy of the return code through the passenger side window, he opened the back door and took out the box, then asked me to wait for my receipt. I came home twenty minutes after I had left (everything is so close by here!) with the wonderful feeling to have been back into the real world, to have talked to a real person, and to have accomplished my goal. The only thing I had to do was sanitize the rear door handle. The same evening Amazon deposited the refund into my account. And I decided that there is no more beautiful comforter in the world than the summer comforter we have, so we will get it out of its storage and will hopefully be able to use it for many more years.

The Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) Study

In 1993, when we were living on the Big Island of Hawai’i, the University of Hawai’i’s Cancer Center, in conjunction with the Keck School of Medicine at USC in Los Angeles, started a study that was designed to provide prospective data on cancer and other chronic diseases. Stratified analyses were conducted by racial/ethnic groups and moving status (40% of participants moved = changed physical residence) during follow- up. Me included: we moved to Arizona and after that to North Carolina. The MEC Study has brought more than $150 million in federal research funding to the University of Hawaiʻi. It has been funded since 1993 by the National Cancer Institute. It sounded so fascinating that I was immediately interested. My little sister died of metastatic breast cancer and did not reveal that she was ill until ten days before she died, all alone in a hospital room in a town in the Netherlands. Her son was on a business trip and his wife did not want me to come. “What would be the good of that?” she said. Those are words that I shall never forget. I had bought a plane ticket the minute I heard Paula was in a hospital; I wanted to be with her. With my 6 years of patient-care hospice experience I was sure I could give her some relief, some mental support. I could hold her hand. We had been through so much as little girls in the Japanese camps – I felt close to her still, even though she lived in the Netherlands and I in Arizona.

The Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) is a prospective cohort study. To maximize the diversity of exposures the MEC targeted a range of ethnic groups spanning all socioeconomic levels. The MEC includes 215,251 men and women aged 45-75 at recruitment (I was 55 at that time), primarily from five different racial-ethnic groups (African Americans, Japanese Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians and Whites in Hawaii and California). The cohort was assembled in 1993-1996 by mailing a self-administered, 26-page questionnaire to persons identified primarily through the driver’s license files for the state of Hawaii and the county of Los Angeles in California, supplemented with other sources. I remember clearly, even so many years later, filling out this questionnaire, hoping to qualify for the study. The cohort encompasses a broad spectrum of persons from each of the ethnic groups sampled. The distributions of the cohort across educational levels and marital status are fairly similar to census data, suggesting that findings should be broadly generalizable to these populations. The baseline questionnaire obtained extensive information on demographics, medical and reproductive histories, medication use (including hormonal replacement therapy), family history of various cancers, physical activity and an extensive quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ).

In Year 5 of the follow-up, they sent a short questionnaire that updated information on medical conditions, family history of cancer and other diseases, screening tests for cancer and use of HRT and vitamin supplements. They are currently completing the updating of the dietary and other exposure data by re-administration of the full baseline questionnaire with funding by the parent MEC grant (CA 54281, Kolonel, PI). Receipt of a completed questionnaire was evidence of a desire to participate in the study and was taken as a formal indication of consent; the study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Hawaii and University of Southern California. I have received their annual newsletter and brief follow-ups since 1993. Come to think, those participants who were in their late sixties and seventies at the time will no longer be alive.

 Covid-19

And now, during the pandemic of Covid-19, since they have such a broad research base already, they have asked currently participating volunteers to join a study of Covid-19 cases along the same lines. Of course I agreed and signed up. It was too cumbersome to take their Covid App, but they have another way to participate. (They probably considered that all those people in their fifties were now 27 years older and not used to complicated Apps). I am receiving, every Thursday morning, an email inviting me to complete a short survey to update my information about any symptoms that I may experience whether I have Covid-19 or not. “Because you are part of the MEC, you have already provided a considerable amount of health information on past mailed questionnaires. We plan to combine new and past information, to better understand the course of COVID-19, and who gets sick and who does not. What we learn will be invaluable and could help our health care system to better manage this and future epidemics.” It is an ongoing commitment, but for a worthy cause.

We have been tested!

Last Friday, all residents of this retirement community, Independents, those in Assisted Living and in Memory Care, were officially tested. We had an appointed time, but they were running ahead of schedule, so we went when we were ready. The downstairs theatre was an ideal setup: in one door, out the other after testing. It was well organized. One by one, we sat down in a chair, and a trained volunteer in protective garb, with gloves and a mask inserted a long-stemmed cotton swab into our right nostril – deep, but not painful. That was it! We will hear the results next week. I am positive that we will test negative!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Frustrations

Monday and Tuesday were frustrating days. Somebody had gotten into my Facebook Page and translated everything into a foreign script that looked like Hebrew, which I could not read, and when I wrote something I typed from right to left: the margins were also on the right. If you need them, nobody is available for help on FB – I could not even find a telephone number! I spent the whole day without getting anywhere. My son could not help, but on Thursday, one of the grandsons offered to get into my Page and he guided me through a few simple steps: change your password – refresh the page, and everything fell into place again. Wah! Why did I not think of him sooner?

On Tuesday, I needed to print a return label for my daughter, and the printer did not work. I spent half a day watching how-to videos and more until I finally found a telephone number and a very patient, very helpful technician at HP who guided me through – again – a few simple steps that fixed the problem. I have learned more about my printer; and I saw that there are many more things it can do than copy and print, basics I have been using it for. Hallelujah! I could sleep again.

Covid Progress

We received a notice that we can now leave campus if necessary with only three days of isolation afterwards. We can also take our car off campus and go for a ride without the three days self  isolation as long as we don’t get out of the car. Plans are in the works for use of the dining room again in very small groups. And on the calendar it says that every resident will be tested on Friday, June 12.

Dining in

On  Saturday nights we get the menu for the coming week delivered to our door with individual sheets to be filled out with our daily menu choice. After filling out the sheets we put them back in the envelope and hang it on the front door, from where it will be picked up by the night shift. There are plenty of choices. Most of the time, the breakfast items are delivered according to our choice although sometimes there is only one orange juice, or two sausages while we scratched those out in favor of bacon. But that is no problem, things like that can happen in the kitchen; someone wanted to do us a favor and gave us bacon plus two sausages, we think. Twice. Until we made it very clear: no sausages.

Dinners get delivered to our door in biodegradable boxes stacked in plastic bags, usually in two plastic bags, knotted together. Often, I find surprises and can’t help laughing when I see what’s in the boxes. I open the bags right away and first take a look at the boxes with the dessert, because on the menu that is listed as Dessert of the day, and you never know what you’ll get, only that it always has mounds of whipping cream with it; that’s with it, because very often it is not on it anymore. I laugh out loud when I open the boxes and see a piece of yellow cake with a turret of whipping cream on top on its side or upside down because the box did not fit in the bag right side up. So the whipping cream is everywhere in the box except on the cake. Or it is a very small piece of chocolate cake in one box and a large one in the other. Or I find two huge pieces of Red Velvet Cake, with whipping cream of course. I know Red Velvet Cake is a favorite of many Americans, but we think it is tasteless, so why consume all the calories? Yesterday, someone had not closed one cup with soup properly, so when I opened the bag the soup was everywhere in the bag, and the bag was leaking onto the counter! It was a soupy mess.

But hey, it is no mean feat to cater to a large community of residents and do everything right. After three months they now have the  administration and execution down pretty well. On top of that, the ladies who are “Activity Managers” come up with balcony singalongs, puzzle sheets and more, and they come around with a “mimosa cart”, “happy hour wine”, “mobile ice cream social”. “milk and cookies” and “Starbucks coffee: one day only!” So we are thankful and do not complain. Yesterday was one of the few days we had signed up for lunch because it was a Waldorf salad and we were looking forward to some greens which are non existent in our daily menu. The first time it was on the menu it was full of lovely greens and bib lettuce. This time, when I picked up our lunches, Sonya next to me opened her box and said with disgust: this is no Waldorf salad! I looked in our boxes, and sure enough, it looked like potato salad with lots of mayonnaise. After dropping off a card on the fourth floor, I went back to the dining room and returned our boxes: compliments to the chef, we would like more greens in our Waldorf Salad; please delete the charges.

Deaths

When I dropped off our recyclables on Saturday in the Activity Room I heard that two other friends had passed away in the main building last week. One’s widow was very weak and depressed; and another’s wife was depressed as well. And when I walked into the library on my way out I was shocked at the sight of three out of the five people I saw sitting there. A man in a shabby t-shirt and shorts, two women with long, uncombed hair, one with exorbitantly long outgrown acrylic fingernails and no makeup. Apparently after three months of this mostly solitary life some people don’t care about their looks anymore. I had no idea that was happening in the main building, where they can still meet some friends in the common areas –  at a distance, if they want to get out of their apartment. I can now understand the mental illness problems that can happen on the larger scale in the whole country. What a sad result of this horrible Covid-19. I read that North Carolina this past week has had increased hospital cases, so that is not a good sign for our expedited freedom.

Walks with Fitbit

The best time to walk is between 6:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and many days I can accomplish that if it does not rain. Then around 8:00 p.m. is a good time as well, with the sun gone and sometimes a breeze. I can’t wait until we have permission again to get off the property and into Wimbledon. Lani and I will explore the Divide again and walk on to the trail. I have a Fitbit to track my steps. This is my third – I lost a  previous one and gave one away when I could not sync it with my computer anymore. The goal is 10,000 steps per day, which is about four miles, but I frequently get five and sometimes even six miles in a day. Then, yesterday, Fitbit sent me a message:

Staggering! You’ve earned the Africa Badge! It’s a jungle out there,but that’s not stopping you—because at 5,000 lifetime miles, you’ve walked the entire length of Africa! If tat’s not a reason to go bananas, we don’t know what is!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Teleconferences

Every Monday afternoon since the beginning of May the Executive Director holds a teleconference for half an hour. People here and their families on the outside can tune in, ask questions and hear the latest information. North Carolina is now in Phase Two of “opening up”. It does not mean anything for us at this time other than that we are a little closer to the end of Phase Three. This Monday we heard serious complaints from children of people in Assisted Living. Most of their parents are handicapped, staying in their room day in, day out, because there are no group activities and there is not enough staff to tend to individual entertainment and stimulation. Both Independent Living and Assisted Living have a courtyard with a gazebo, but there is not enough space in the shade to go outside for those who can. The ED promised to purchase some umbrellas to create more shade in the courtyards. And so it goes, and we realize daily how very special and safe we are here, while the death toll in the United States tops 105,000.

Rain

They announced several rain storms: we had one week of them and are expecting the effects of Hurricane Bertha, now a tropical depression that hit the coast of South Carolina. It will bring a lot of  rain to us as well. But you know, Cary seems to be in a safe place in the North Carolina landscape. Hurricanes, thunderstorms, heavy rains pass us by without much damage. Last week, in preparation for the storms, a man in a yellow jacket walked down to our little pond in the back, inspecting the storm drains. The water level of the pond was lowered over a foot, and that proved good, since it rose again with the rains. On my evening walk with Lani I saw between the potted plants at our front door a tiny frog, the size of my thumb nail. I suppressed the urge to squat down and pick it up to take it to the grass. It was so small I was afraid I would crush it and thought it would be able to find his way home again on his own.

The Virus

It only takes time, they say. Last Friday we received a letter from the Executive Director that one of the long-time caregivers in our Memory Care had a temperature on Wednesday and proved positive for Covid-19. She is in isolation and will not return to work until her physician tells her she is better. That is scary. Because she could have been contagious two weeks before it was discovered. On Monday, during the teleconference with the Executive Director there was no news yet about the tests that had been done on other caregivers and residents. So we will wait and hope for the best. We were informed that Legacy, the Physical Therapy Group with offices downstairs on the first floor, has postponed all their PT treatments for this week. That is not so good for all the people who depend on daily PT treatments. On Tuesday we received a notice that all tests of staff and residents in Assisted Living and Memory Care have come back negative. Great to know.

We will be tested

The next step is the testing of all the residents in the whole facility, including Independents, on June 12. They will come by the apartments and cottages on that day and we will be tested. A new experience!

We walk around the campus daily but don’t enter the main building if we don’t have a reason to. So it is that one of our cottage neighbors told us that one of our friends had died. We have not seen anybody for almost three months now so we didn’t know that Harry was very ill. When I went over to take a condolence card to June I found her outside the main entrance on one of the benches and we chatted for a while. She told me that Harry had been in so much pain for so long that his passing was a blessing. They had said goodbye when EMS took him to the hospital. Oh, what a sad, heart wrenching goodbye that must have been for them. We will miss his wide smile and our lively conversations when the dining room opens up again; the predictions are that will be by the end of August. Maybe.

The Death of George Floyd

An unimaginable heinous crime and devastating aftermath. I have never seen so much hatred and destruction in my life. It is something I watched part of, then walked away from. I hope peace will be restored soon and I wish people would be more kind towards one another. Covid-19 is causing enough deaths and mourning already. We shouldn’t make it worse. Easier said than done.

The Launch of Dragon and the Rendezvous with the International Space Center

Something I did watch in full, well, almost, was the flight of the Dragon to the International Space Station. What a sight! What an enormous accompishment. What a fabulous almost to-the-minute docking at the ISC after a 19 hour flight through space. And what a miracle that we could see it all from our living room, including the rendezvous and the astronauts entering the ISC after they had completed the first part of their mission. It was jubilantly mind boggling!

It’s a Wonderful Life. But sadly, not for everybody.

Until next time,

Ronny

Memorial Day

We hung out our flag again this year: With the black ribbon until noon and without it for the rest of the day. It was a special feeling to honor not only the veterans who had died but also the first responders who gave their lives and the people who died from the virus. The flag at Waltonwood has been on half mast for ten weeks now, for all the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, two of them close friends.

On Sunday before Memorial Day we planned to get together with friends from the cottage four doors down in the gazebo next to the pond. We did it a few weeks ago and it was frightfully cold, but we had a good time. Sunday morning was sunny and warm but close to three o’ clock it started raining and we heard thunder. So instead, we got together at our friends’ house, keeping distance and bringing our own glasses and wine. We had a wonderful time. After all, God created us to be communal beings. To live in isolation, whether outwardly or inwardly, can lead to despair. I’m thinking of the single men and women in their apartments in the main building: isolation has taken ten weeks now, and the end is not in sight. We hope to be”free” again at the end of the third phase in North Carolina, when everything is safe. Sigh.

I want you to know that I am spacing the pictures to the format of every post as it appears on my Mac computer. If you look at it on your tablet or phone, they may look out of place.

Lockdown dreadlocks gone: A totally different dog!

A friend came to pick up Lani last week and took her to the groomer’s – the first time in four months. She had developed dreadlocks I could not get out. So she needed a total shave. That must have been a harrowing experience for her, because it took two days before she was her old self again. And at night I gave her a blankie in her basket because she was shivering. We can’t wait until some of her hair has grown back and she will look like a doodle again.

Love’s Labour’s Won

was the 1599  sequel to the play Love’s Labour’s Lost, both written by William Shakespeare. It was performed only once, while an Alien invasion began and was quickly ended by Shakespeare himself….Nonetheless, Shakespeare seemed to have rewritten the play at some point.

I saw the analogy between Shakespeare’s play and my movie, hence the above title. The movie played for 10 days in LA to qualify for academy awards – It became a finalist in the live shorts category but I don’t know that for certain. It played around the country causing disruptions wherever it played. At the time of the San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre in 1984 it was pulled. There were some copyright issues with the sound track of Casablanca which were never resolved… as I understand it. In the 90s – this I do know to be true – HBO was interested in it for awhile but then nothing happened – possibly due to the the copyright issues. It has appeared and disappeared from youtube for this reason. We were living in Hawai’i at the time and the movie was the farthest thing from my mind.

A few weeks ago I thought, Oh, let me try one more time and look if my movie has reappeared. After a while I found the information about the movie. After a second try I connected with the actor who had played the lead. No additional news from him. But then, I found it on YouTube!  It was released again five years ago, without sound! It’s not a movie I would recommend to anyone, but the most important thing is that I played a role in it and that I now have two actual screen shots! I am holding the baby in the first one, am talking to him in the second, all the time watching the movie Casablanca. Oh, how fun to actually see myself at that age! I reached my goal and that’s enough about myself.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Early morning

The silliest thing I ever did in the semi darkness of the early morning last week was to put concealer on my lips, thinking it was lipstick. When I switched on the light I actually started laughing. What a ghastly sight that was! I love to get up early in the morning, before sunrise. When I look out through the windows of our living room at dawn, what I see is an opaque green screen for several moments. Then, slowly, different shades and shapes are becoming visible and I see the wall of trees and bushes across the lawn reaching all the way up to the sky. A little patch of sky is visible and while I wait everything changes to brightness in the light of the rising sun many miles away. Then it’s time for morning exercises, coffee and a walk with Lani, one and a half mile, three times around the campus. That’s the perfect start of a new day.

The Flying For The Flag Bandit Flight Team

For the past two weeks, all over North Carolina as part of the National Hospital Week, the Bandit Flight Team, a group of six planes, has been doing flyovers dedicated to frontline workers working so hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. The planes had smoke on at the hospital locations. It was a beautiful sight from where I sat, in the middle of the street (read cul-de-sac), at a safe distance from three neighbors sitting in front of their garages. Down the street we could see more neighbors, sitting in chairs by the side of the road or hanging over the railing around the pond.

Gardening in my front patio  

Every summer I create a little garden in our front porch. Sometimes I’ll have a Hibiscus, a gift for Mother’s Day, this year it is a Dipladenia with a mass of pink flowers. To my delight I was able to pull last year’s Gardenia through the winter, and thanks to frequent fertilizing with coffee grinds every branch now has a large flower bud. In a week or so they will all open and it will be a delight to sit amidst the fragrance and dream of Hawai’i. Five months ago, I bought a small piece of ginger root to show to the people at our dinner table what ginger looks like (sort of a show-and-tell). Afterwards it landed in the odds-and-ends bowl on the kitchen counter, where I found it again two weeks ago, all shriveled up. But… I saw a little spot of green on one of the knobs: there was life in this little root! It deserved a second chance. So I planted it in a small flower pot and watched daily as a little green shoot shot up from the soil: first a stalk, then a small leaf… Yesterday I transferred it into larger pot, an I can actually see the difference each day. Then there is the Easter Lily, now flowerless, waiting to pull back into its bulbs and come to life again next spring. And last but not least, I rescued a volunteer that had been growing in the pot with the Gardenia. It is some sort of pine tree, or hopes to become one with time and a lot of TLC.  The garden hose is “on”, connected to the spigot on the side of the house. Because with this many plants in a hot summer as it will likely become I can’t very well do them all justice with the little watering can I have in my kitchen. Voilà my garden-in-a-nutshell.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Mother’s Day 2020

We will not easily forget it: Mother’s Day at a distance. Our family came over, all five of them, and rang the bell after they had put their gifts at the front door. Then they stepped back and stood at the fence, waving and wishing me a happy mother’s day. We talked for a while, noticed that two of the boys had had a haircut – their mom does an excellent job on all of them – and that our son in the eight weeks that we had not seen him had grown a beard and a mustache, the way almost all young men decorate their faces these days, lockdown or not. After a short time they left to visit our daughter-in-law’s parents in Assisted Living. They can’t go in, but by appointment her parents came to the little meeting room and could see their kids and grandkids on the outside through the glass and talk to them on their cell phones. Phone calls from our daughters brightened the rest of our day, but virtual hugs are for the birds!

I found my Killer!

Oh, I have not been looking for him at all in many years, but I just finished a mystery novel a friend gave me about a mother whose son got kidnapped, and that started me thinking about the time that I played the role of a young mother who got killed. Here is the story:

I found Rex Steven Sikes, the killer. He is still alive and about ten years younger than I. He is a Producer, Director and SAG/AFTRA actor with an impressive list of movies he played in, the movies he produced, his website, his address, phone number and email address, everything! That was very exciting to read! I emailed him and asked if he had any information on the movie we were in together. That was two days ago (That I wrote him, not when we were in the movie together, which was 42 years ago) I don’t expect an answer soon, because he has to do some research himself too, I figure, but I do expect an answer. After all, I could boast that I am a retired SAG/AFTRA Actress, Writer and Public Speaker. That should create some interest.

If it does not, well, whatever happens, I now have proof that I was not only a Stage and Commercial Actress, but a Movie Actress as well! I once heard that if you don’t toot your own horn, who will? So I just did. Wonderful memories!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

Killers Matinee (1978)

Full Cast & Crew

See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro

Directed by

William Warner

Writing Credits (in alphabetical order)

William Warner

…

(written by)

Cast (in credits order)

	Rex Steven Sikes	…	Killer
	Carolyn DeMirjian	…	Fat Woman
	John Bazzell	…	Film Student
	Brahm Coombs	…	FIlm Student
	Ronny de Jong	…	Young Mother
	Allan Hollis	…	Snapping Black
	Aaron Koslow	…	Drunk
	Heidi Franke
	Gene Poe
	Marilyn Simon	…	Wife
	Monika Skerbellis	…	Teenager
	Cheryl Scott
	Alston Ahern	…	Teenager
	Jack Wittenberg	…	Fat Man
	Karl J. Niemiec	…	(as Karl Niemiec)
	Doug Maida	…	Bert
	Baby Callahan	…	Self
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
	Heidi Frnakel	…	Sinus Womon

Produced by

William Warner

…

producer

Cinematography by

William Warner

Film Editing by

William Warner

Makeup Department

Kathy Agron

…

makeup artist

Special Effects by

John Frazier

…

special effects

Camera and Electrical Department

John Detroia	…	still photographer
Don Giroux	…	key grip
Jean-Paul Ouellette	…	lighting technician
Bruce M. Pasternack	…	assistant camera

Script and Continuity Department

Paulette Pasternack

…

script supervisor (as Paulette Frye)

Shock, Sobs and a Super Switch

Every other year we organize an all-family reunion, originally celebrating our wedding anniversary, starting at our 45th. Right now there are the two de Jong families on the East Coast, and the two families on the West Coast. We found different places, all on a lake or the ocean, and the house we needed grew from 11 to 15 people. We started at Lake Almanor, then Lake Tahoe, Lake of the Pines, we flew as far as the North shore of Oahu, and drove to Duck on the Outerbanks in North Carolina. It was a time of fun and activities for all, a time for us to get to know the grandchildren and a time for the grandchildren to get to know each other and their grandparents, aunties and uncle.

This year, always the first ten days in July because of school and work restrictions, we had rented a beautiful house on the beach on the Island of Caicos. What an adventure that would be! We had never even heard of Caicos. One of our grandsons, the one who wants to be a pilot and fly as far as he can whenever he can found our 2020 destination. For over a year, everything we did was with a focus on Caicos. Snorkels for Christmas, calendars for crossing out the days, planning beach outfits, swim suits (do we still fit the old ones?) and more, and of course watching the VRBO video over and over.

Until Covid-19 arrived. A good thing it came to us in March, for we would be out of lockdown by the end of June for sure, or so we thought. But it got worse, much worse. Two of the four families kept their hope up: By June we will surely be able to go. Two families gave up all hope. And then disaster struck and destroyed all our hopes and plans: the airlines cancelled our flights.

Although it was disappointing for everyone, I felt it was the worst for me. My dream of interacting with all the grandchildren together, swimming and snorkeling in a warm ocean and sitting in the shade of a palm tree on a white sand beach was shattered. I cried. Oh, not in front of everybody, but silently in the bedroom with Lani in my arms. It was such a beautiful dream, and now the decision had been made. Not by us, that was sort of comforting. One of my daughters had told me a month ago: Mam, you have a pipe dream. I had never heard of a pipe dream, have you? I googled it. No, I don’t have pipe dreams, only dreams that I can make come true, like I have done with so many throughout my life. But anyway, the decision had been made for us and it did not cause bad feelings between the families. After all, I thought, we only lost a vacation. How disastrous it would be if we lost a loved one, like so many people have. How selfish I am to cry over a lost vacation! Shame on me.

But then, unbeknownst to us, the children went to work. One was on the phone with the airlines for almost an hour and accomplished getting a full refund from the airline instead of a credit. One was on the phone with the Caicos homeowner for an hour and accomplished that we could get the same ten days in his house in 2021, almost to the day. Then both siblings went on the phone together to convince the third one (who does not like long-range planning) that this was absolutely the right thing to do, even if it was over a year away. And then they came to us and told us the good news: we only had to wait another year for our dreams to come true. And then I cried again. Because it was wonderful to look forward to our Caicos vacation again, but a lot can happen in a year, especially at our age and with this virus lurking everywhere. On the other hand, I reasoned with myself, it will be a great occasion to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. And that’s what got me smiling again. We are going to make it. On we go! Mamma would say.

Friends in faraway places

My dear friend Anna in California, who created all of my beautiful skirts, sent me a surprise: two masks, both reversible, in various designs. I gave one to Mike and kept the other one to alternate with the one my friend in Arizona sent me. The most beautiful creations are jumping up everywhere, even some with Mexican embroidery. Well, if this situation is going to last much longer, we need a collection of masks! I still have my sewing machine, so if I wanted to I could make a few myself. I just don’t have the time! I am happy with the masks I got and will wear them when needed.

Amazon Fresh

Amazon has been my favorite place to shop. I ordered a lot of things with them in the past. Last year my daughter-in-law made me aware of Amazon Prime, where, for a small monthly fee I can shop with free shipping and short delivery times. That was wonderful, because I can now order things at the drop of a hat, whenever I need them. And just last week I discovered Amazon Fresh. The groceries I ordered varied from Swiss cheese, wine, my favorite Killer Bread and crackers to delicious blueberries and avocados. I did not need it yet, but fresh ground beef and yogurt are also available. I could choose the day and time for delivery. What a discovery! And then my daughter-in-law told me about instacart.com. Well, that made my shopping life complete. Because with Instacart I can shop at the markets of my choice, including Costco. And Costco carries one of the staples of our family, which I have not been able to get anywhere else: Dutch Gouda Cheese. So now we are totally independent and will be able to survive the lockdown for as long as it will last.

Beauty woes 

The long lockdown causes problems for almost all the residents. The hair stylist/nail tech is not allowed to come in to take care of hair and nails, and neither are the residents allowed to leave the property to visit a beauty salon. So hair grows longer and gets grey, artificial nails grow out, nail polish with them, and men get bearded chins – but that is kind of the fashion nowadays. I count myself lucky. I can’t cut my own hair, but since hair grows 1/2″ per month (that is 6″ per year) I will be able to wear a pony tail again like I did in Hawai’i if the lockdown lasts long enough 🙂 We lived on the Big Island for twelve years. The first year we went back to California a couple of times – Mike for a funeral and I to finalize things I had pending. Both times, my Pasadena hairdresser came to the airport hotel where we stayed to cut my hair. Jay was a very creative stylist, who cut the hair of all the ladies in our family for many years, including my mother’s when she came over from the Netherlands to stay with us. Anyway, I could not find anyone in all of Hilo who could cut my hair the way I was used to. So it grew, and because of the humidity it became wavy, and when it was longer still I wore it in a ponytail. All my hula sisters had long hair, so I fit right in. When we moved to Prescott I had it cut short again to the great disappointment of my Hawaiian friends when they saw the pictures. We’ll see how fast my hair will grow in this lockdown. I have no problem with turning grey, because ever since I was in a hair show in Pasadena in 1976 and got the formula from the stylist I have been coloring it myself. And my nails? Not a problem either. I had my own acrylic nail company when we lived in Pasadena and I still have enough supplies left to keep my nails looking beautiful.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Self-isolation

Our Executive Director is really taking no chances for the virus to attack any of us. Anyone who leaves the campus, no matter if it is for a doctor’s visit, a trip to the grocery store or to go to a relative’s home, has to go into self-isolation in his or her apartment for ten days. People coming in, even after having taken a walk on the premises, all have to go through the front door past the front desk where they have to be checked. But there are loopholes! And there are people who don’t take this seriously!

Several first-floor apartments have an exit door and a patio in the back, through which they can get out without passing the front desk, virtually unseen. They can take their car and leave at any time, or have someone drop off groceries or visit on the patio. Sigh. I wish people would take this more seriously. When I walked around on the first floor inside the Club this morning, because it was raining, I noticed a large sign on one of the apartment doors saying: Isolation! Do Not Enter! But how can you enforce rules on this “open” campus with two unguarded entrances? How can this work if there are people who go to the store early in the morning and then go on to playing bridge at the Club, without wearing masks, “after they have taken a shower”? I guess, in a situation like this, we get to know our neighbors.

It’s a Party!

So when good neighbors seemed hard to find, we made an effort to get closer to a wonderful couple in one of the cottages. They had birthdays two days apart around Easter. Because the weather was really nice, I called and asked if they would like to celebrate both their birthdays with a little party in the gazebo next to the pond. They loved the idea. Sadly, the weather had turned the day of the party. It was windy, overcast and only 53 degrees. But we all donned warm jackets and we went! They brought Chardonnay for Betty and two glasses, plus potato chips and little pink plates. We brought a bottle of Burgundy for the other three of us and two glasses, plus four tea-towels to put on the chair cushions so the pollen would not yellow our pants. With a sponge soaked in diluted Clorox and wipes, all in a ziplock bag, I sanitized everything. Chairs around the table 6′ apart, wine in the glasses, chips on the plates, a few at a time so they would not all blow away….and the party could start! Ben was wearing thick winter gloves, but he could not pick up his wine glass with them. He took one of them off to make a toast, and actually, I noticed that he did not put it back on because he liked the wine and I poured him another glass soon thereafter. We partied for an hour, until it was time for our dinners to arrive, and decided we’d do that again when it would get warmer. It was so nice to get to know another couple more in-depth. We hope we will be friends for many years.

One World Together at Home

We watched a great concert on April 19, organized by Lady Gaga to pay tribute to healthcare workers who are on the frontlines battling COVID-19: One World Together at Home. Many celebrities,  Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey and others spoke messages of thanks and many musicians performed wonderful music. Stevie Wonder was one of the stars taking part in the One World concert, as were Celine Dion, Tailor Swift, Andrea Bocelli, The Rolling Stones and others. These incredible moments of unity raised $128 million in commitments, which will go to supporting the World Health’s Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, as well as local organizations globally that are supporting vulnerable communities.  The concert was concluded by Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Lady Gaga, LangLang, and John Legend singing  The Prayer 

Lani

Our little dog, who will be two years old in August, got a new toy last Friday. An orange squeaky toy. I put it in her food bowl. She looked at it, sniffed it, but she did not know what to do with it! When she finally took it out of the bowl and into her mouth and walked around with it for a while, she came to give it to me. I threw it away with a little squeak and she ran after it and picked it up again. For the past week she has been carrying it around, a prized possession, but only once in a while, as if by accident, we heard a little squeak. We showed her how to make it squeak but it has been like teaching a toddler how to use a toy. After a week, she is still delighted with it, but it does not give a beep! It’s just as well with us 🙂

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time.,

Ronny