Ohio Uberstines with
much to celebrate 

The deck shows off her green thumb. "It's a minimal plot," said Lois, who loves flowers and is thankful it provides "a pitcher of fresh flowers all summer long."  The photo, taken by her nephew Sanford's artist wife, Kathy, was "snapped to commemorate our 55th anniversary." 

If you were born in 1926 and married twenty years later, there was much to celebrate in 2001.  And if your husband was born in 1921, that just adds one more special event to celebrate. 

Lots of parties  "We had lots of parties for my 75th birthday and our anniversary," said Lois in a note with the photo above and another, from their second honeymoon in Williamsburg, Virginia, where they had gone the first time, 55 years earlier.
 

There was a catered dinner for 16 at the home of Lois's twin sister, Marilyn Sless Kaplan.  For Phillip's 80th birthday, there was an early autumn brunch for 46 at a country inn, "on a sunny fall day when the trees were in color."  The event was made even more special by the presence of "girls I went to kindergarten with," said Lois.  "There was such love in the room." 

Another great blessing was to come just two months later.

Lois, long acknowledged the unofficial historian of the Ohio Uberstines, has always been a superb pipeline for the history of her branch, and in July, had alerted CousinPlus that husband

"Phil is sending me to London from September 11th to 25th to visit my Scottish family [the Sless side].  It's his birthday present, and  Marilyn is going with me.  We can work on our Sless family tree and her Kaplan [Glasgow] family tree.  Am looking forward to it." 

Stranded on the runway
Nobody could have foreseen to what our nation would awaken on the morning of September 11, 2001.

"Thank God there were no direct flights," Lois said in phone  interview later. "We were all ready to go, sitting there on the runway, strapped into our seats." 

Lois and Marilyn returned home safely.  The adventure in Scotland had become their happy misadventure of 911.