The past 60 years or so.
by Joy Alpers
60 years ago I was a ballroom dancing teacher in a dance studio in Oakland, Calif. While there I met my husband to be. We were married in 1944. Our first daughter was born in 1945.
After the war was over, we moved to Kansas City where my husband. Lowell went to work for TWA as a flight mechanic. Shortly thereafter he became a flight engineer, which meant he was part of the flight crew on scheduled passenger flights.
We were transferred to Washington D.C. where he took flights to Paris, Rome or Cairo. We lost our first baby while stationed there. She had heart problems. We moved to Delaware and there our second daughter was born. A year later we were transferred to Los Angeles where we lived in Redondo Beach. Our third daughter was born in the nearest hospital, which was in Manhattan Beach. My husband was gone at the time so I called a taxi. My mother was living with us at the time. She had had a stroke, so I had a girl living with us to help with my mother. The cab broke down about two blocks from our apartment. This girl grew a bit panicky and called the cab company and said, “Hey, we’re having a baby out here, send a cab that works.”
We kept hoping for an opening in San Francisco, which finally came and we transferred there. We moved to Santa Rosa and finally to a small town west of there called Sebastepol. Our 4th daughter was born there.
Lowell kept looking for a ranch which he finally found several miles north in the small town of Willits. This monstrosity was 1263 acres.
By that time, Lowell was flying overseas flights to Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Bangkok and Bombay. The propeller driven aircraft were so slow each trip lasted about 10 days. He would lay overnight in Hawaii, then in Wake Island, next in Okinawa and the next day on to their destination. During that time, the kids and I took care of the ranch. The oldest 2 learned to milk cows and became excellent horsewomen.
In 1962 we had our 5th and last daughter. She was so much younger than the other children, she never had a sister—she had four mothers.
When I left home at 19 I remember telling my mother that I was not going to marry a darned farmer and raise a batch of kids!
In 1987, Lowell passed away. Shortly after, I put that darned ranch up for sale. As soon as it was sold, I moved to Newport.
In June, 2001 I was watering my flowers and slipped on some leaves and fell about 15 feet down an embankment. I was caught between a heavy fence and the bank. I kept calling for help until two o’clock the next morning when a dog heard me and guided his owners to where I was trapped. They called 911 and there the history gets a bit fuzzy. I awoke in Portland Hospital minus one leg and after 5 surgeries, which made the leg shorter each time.
Lets just say I’m at Stoneybrook and RETIRED.
Since Joy wrote this she suffered a stroke and moved to Bend, Oregon to be near her 3rd daughter, Carol. In 2006 it was discovered that she had cancer and she “moved on.” At both retirement homes in which she lived, Stoneybrook and Bend Villa, she was the inspiration to residents and caregivers alike. It was frequently said that she was named appropriately because no matter what life dealt her she greeted everyone and each day with a smile.
