Christmas wishes

Since you’re receiving this email, you are on our regular mailing list and there is no need to update you on our adventures on Corregidor. However, we will give a quick recap for those of you with short memories and for those who have more recently begun getting our emails.

Steve retired from the State of Michigan’s computer department and Marcia retired from her job as a physical therapist assistant on October 3. Having sold almost everything we owned at an auction on the previous Saturday, we spent the next week making final preparations to retire to the Philippines. On our way to our son’s house on the 10th, we were involved in a could-have-been-fatal car crash, with the car being totaled, but all involved walking away unscathed. Guardian Angels were very busy on that road.

On the 12th we departed from Detroit and arrived late the next day in Manila. We spent the next nine days joining the Philippine Retirement Authority and doing some preliminary shopping and banking. On the 23rd we moved into our newly renovated house on Corregidor, which is run primarily by solar power. Now we spend our time exploring the island, meeting visitors, giving occasional tours, and writing our newsletter, partially in hopes of enticing some of you to visit us here someday.

We feel so at home on the island. There are still many of the workers that we have not gotten to know, or know by face and not name, but they all seem to know us. The wide smiles are sincere. Here we are Sir [SEER] Steve and Ma’am [MOM] Marcia. At parties, at the basketball games, at the televised boxing match, we are given the best seats. We don’t know what we’ve done to deserve such royal treatment.

Ever since Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas,” many people, especially those who live in snow country, like Minnesota where we grew up, and Michigan where we lived the past 27 years, think it can’t feel like Christmas without snow. Since more than half the world’s population never sees snow, including anyone who never leaves the Philippines, we know differently. Nevertheless, it will not seem quite like Christmas here away from family and friends. We do hear that there is a 100% chance of snow in Minnesota and Michigan this year, with inches if not feet of snow already on the ground. We don’t miss that a bit, by the way, even though we’re sure it is beautiful.

Anyway, we send wishes to you and yours for a most Merry and Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year, from the tropical island paradise of Corregidor, Philippines.