Sunday Sept. 13, 2009 Romance, WV

From Romance, WV. Today was the last event of my fiftieth high school class reunion. This was memorial service for deceased members of the class of ’59. The memorial was held at the University of Charleston, Morris Harvey College when I lived here, across the river from the state capitol building. A beautiful day and beautiful view across the river at the gleaming gold dome of the capitol building. The ceremony was a touching memorial to the 90 members of our class that we know to have passed on to their rewards. The 90 names were read, one name was read and we were informed she was still alive. Her name was removed from the list. Between the deceased and the 105 that responded to the questionnaires there are 265 members of our class unaccounted for.
The memorial was followed by brunch, more mingling and final farewells. It will be five years before we have another reunion. Some of us will be back for the annual ‘50’s picnic which includes all of the graduates from Charleston High School during the 50’s.
Most of the rest of the day was spent visiting. We drove to Poca, WV and visited cousins I had never met. Having fully recovered from brunch we had supper at the Cracker Barrel. Gerri had stayed at the campground so I brought her a meal back.
One other member of the class, Fred Dudding, had arrived in a motorhome and was staying at the convention center where most of the activities were held. He had spoken to several others, besides me, that have coaches. We are going to try tohave a mini rally next time at Rippling Waters.