Laura

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troutbend
Name:
Laura
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Estes Park, CO
Birthday:
08/01
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Married
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Hotel - Hospitality

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This Oughta Be Good

Life & Events > The Riddler
 

The Riddler

I have a relative in an assisted living facility in California. I think she is my second cousin and there might be a 'removed' in there somewhere. Our common relative was a Major in the Civil War on the Union side who we know fought at Shiloh and later with others of the Fenian Brotherhood who in the interest of Irish Independence, decided to invade Canada as a base of operations against Britain.

The failure of that operation to achieve its goal resulted in him moving his family from upstate New York to Utah. He had two sons, one was my great grandfather Heffernan who had a trading post on the Ute reservation in southern Colorado/Utah. Joanne's grandfather (she is of my mother's generation) brought up his family in Arizona, and was in 'investments' of some sort which seems to have provided a lot of money for Joanne to finish her days in the expensive assisted living facility.

Joanne and I got together several years ago when she called Information in the Denver area looking for people with my mother's maiden name. She talked to one of my cousins and he referred her to me. Eventually I went to Los Angeles to meet her and I don't know if there was any family resemblance. She has muscular dystrophy and never married. She and her mother worked in a hospital laundry their entire careers.

We talk two or three times a year - on our birthdays and Christmas and I send her holiday cards including for St. Patrick's Day.

Joanne called me yesterday and said she thought she'd had a slight stroke and her speech is slurred. I thought she sounded better than I'd ever heard her, and told her so; if she did have a stroke, it affected her speech for the better.

Anyhow, she decided to read some riddles to me and see if I could guess them. There must have been 10 or so, and I hate riddles because I never get them, but she kept at it. I finally did get one right:

What is yours that other people use more than you do?

One I didn't get:

What has holes on the top, bottom, and sides and yet holds water?

I will be calling Joanne on August 26 for her birthday. Thank goodness it is the same day as our wedding anniversary so I am not so likely to forget it; I am not a very good rememberer of birthdays. She will be 75, so I might try to track down a special card. She has two sisters who visit her often and always make a fuss over her, sometimes I suspect it is because they want to make sure she leaves them the money she got from their grandfather.

posted on Aug 3, 2008 2:25 PM ()

Comments:

I knew both...name and sponge. Now I think I know why somebody came up the idea of putting both of those together...get a sponge and give it a name, and what do you get? Sponge Bob! (You can't have a naked sponge once HE has a name, it's for children's programming, you know, so you HAVE TO put pants on him...thus, Sponge Bob SquarePants!) Did I get that right?
comment by donnamarie on Sept 1, 2008 4:45 PM ()
Don't like riddles because I never get them either!
comment by dragonflyby on Aug 5, 2008 9:02 PM ()
I can't do riddles. I over think them and it doesn't work.
comment by shesaidwhat on Aug 5, 2008 4:38 PM ()
I assume that you've developed a detailed family tree with all the relatives in it that you know of... how far back have you gotten?
comment by looserobes on Aug 5, 2008 3:17 PM ()
I don't do well with riddles and don't mind. I just move on.
Crosswords that rely on riddles do annoy me though. I have written
several pithy letters to the New York Times on this. They
ignore me.
comment by tealstar on Aug 5, 2008 10:20 AM ()
I always feel inferior when trying to answer riddles. Then I just kick my own butt for not knowing the answer. BUT!! I knew the first one!
comment by mzscarlett on Aug 4, 2008 7:13 PM ()
Meranda must have it right.
comment by elderjane on Aug 4, 2008 3:18 PM ()
Ok...Here's one...What can you put up a chimney down and down a chimney down but you can't put up a chimney up or down a chimney up?

CLUE: Gene Kelly was holding one when he sang "Singing in the Rain"
comment by merchandiser50 on Aug 4, 2008 8:42 AM ()
The first one is your name? The second one is a sponge....
comment by meranda on Aug 4, 2008 6:45 AM ()
I find it fascinating that you can trace your roots back so far! and what are the answers to the riddles, I am terrible at them!
comment by elkhound on Aug 3, 2008 2:54 PM ()

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