Dear Colleagues of the ICA.; O:E EI, etc. Many thanks to all of you for greetings received and treasured!! This has been quite a year - and more. Some "important" doctor" a couple of years ago, decided he could return my eye sight to its pristine state. For two years I suffered his shots in the retina with all their accompaying "joys" of being unable to read. This year I said "That's enough!" My eyes are worse than they have ever been. And now, five months later, I am able to read a little without the lines converging, etc. Hallelujah! Then in July Bill went in for a difficult but no too unusual operation: the removal of agrowth that had woven itself into a corner of his colon. Four hours later, the doctor announces it was successful and he could go home. But when he tried to get out of bed he couldn't move his left leg. He spent six weeks in hospital with attempts to "fix" it. He is much better now but still not able to walk without a"walker" (Old term for it!) The weather has been severe on all the kids, but all are OK at the moment. SOOO I am rejoicing in the memories many of you have sent of some other rather dire days we knew on the West Side of Chicago and a few other places we spread to since 1966. And tho' there have been many things for us, for our kids and the Order that I wish had not happened; I give thanks for the global outlook and concern that have resulted. The seeds sewn continue to sprout in unexpected but eye-opening ways here and around the world.(They make you smile, don't they, the growing adea that education should be for life in the future buillding on learnings from the past; that all nations and all religions have a base of goodness much needed in the world. I am reminded of many things, but will share just one. When I was assigned to Korea as a missiionary in 1953. I had been teaching a SS class in the Church of All Nations in Toronto. My students were from many nations:Africe, S America, China, Japan, Native Canadians, Europeans. When they heard I was assigned to go to Korea, they wanted to give me a gift. One girl said, "She'd better take a gun; Let's get her a gun!" But a child who knew what missionaries are about said, " Missionaries don't carry guns!! They take Bibles!" They got me one and tho' it is pretty tattered, I read it every day. No, that's not true: I read "The Message" every day. Thank you all for birthday greetings and memories. They are a treasure indeed! Grace and peace still abound, Nan/Nancy Grow