Aunt Margery

Have you ever seen such beauty and grace? This is my Aunt Margery. She was once engaged to a Lord, he broke off the engagement after my mother tried to steal him away from Margery. He would have nothing to do with either one of them. My aunt was heartbroken but was soothed by her father's doctor, who she married a year later.

The Lord married someone else and went to war, where he was killed in action. My aunt lived happily with her doctor, assisting him. They were married 17 years, then death claimed her.

My mother had a very small regret for interfering in her sister's life. My mother was a selfish, lover of herself person till the day she died. Now you know why I don't talk about her much.

But, despite her sister, my aunt had a good life.

Casa Encantada

I would like to introduce Marilee, my father in law, my mother in law and Charles. My hubby was suppose to be in this but all I got was his pants. My camera sucks, I have to guess when I take a picture because you can't see the screen in the sunlight. Who says technology is great, sometimes it sucks,lol.

Anywho, Charles and Marilee run a bed and breakfast in Hotchkiss, Colorado. It's a great place and here is the link to it www.casaencantrada@bb.com

The website tells it all and has great pictures. Charles also takes people flyfishing, click on that link in their website because he goes all over the world and he is great as a guide. He has taken President Jimmy Carter and Joe Cochran to name a few people, flyfishing.

Charles and Marilee are warm wonderful people with great sense of humors. It was the first time I had met them but my husband has known them since he was 11. We had a great time :)

Karen Grammer

At 10:20 a.m. today, a monster stood before a parole board in Limon, Colorado. He's been there for 30 years saying he was sorry and downplayed his role in a Colorado Springs 1975 killing spree that took the life of actor Kelsey Grammer's little sister.

Kelsey Grammer missed his plane for the parole hearing and sent an email to the board, that was read a loud at the hearing, he called him a butcher and that his parole should be denied. The DA (Bob Russel) for the case was present, he called it one of the most vicious crimes he had seen in his 20 years of being a DA. Lou Smit, the retired detective from the case was there also. He told the parole board, "they killed her without mercy as she pleaded for her life". The board will make their decision in a few hours.

This is what this monster and his friend did in 1975, the first victim was a male from a restaurant, they kidnapped him and shot him in the head. The second, a Fort Carson soldier who wanted to buy pot, they stabbed him to death with bayonets.

The third, was Karen, 18 years old. She had moved to Colorado Springs to be close to her boyfriend (her father had been murdered just 5 years before this). She had just gotten off her job at the Red Lobster. The two monsters tried to rob the Red Lobster and botched it, they grabbed Karen in the parking lot. They repeatedly raped her, put a black bag over her face and started stabbing her. All the while she pleaded for her life, till they hit an artery and she died.

There were two more murders that they committed, both of them were friends of theirs. One was over a loaf of bread and the other, a poker game.

These monsters do not deserve to be let out of prison, they do not deserve to live. They have no respect for life and we should have no respect for theirs. There is only one monster up for parole today and he does not deserve to leave prison. We owe it to Karen Grammer and the other victims.

UPDATE: At 3:45 p.m. mountain standard time, the parole board came back with their decision: DENIED PAROLE!
And you can bet if this monster comes up for parole again, Kelsey Grammer, Bob Russel, Lou Smit and the Gazette will be there to remind everyone what this monster did.

I will never see justice for what happened to my father and myself but for one brief moment I can see a glimmer of justice in the lives of others. And it gives me hope, hope that maybe America is not as lost as she seems.

Honoring Life, Celebrating Memories

The title of this post

is from Hutchens
Mortuary in Florissant, Mo

On July 4, 2009 our

family lost Joshua

Koetting
The family will be
honoring his life and

celebrating
his memory this Sat.

Josh was 36 and lost his battle with cancer. The Lance Armstrong Foundation heard of Josh, Lance sent a signed copy of his book. The foundation kept track of his battle, when they found out of his passing, they put a stone with his name on it at the La Tour de France that Lance Armstrong is doing right now, it is past the 16 mile marker. I thought this very touching of the foundation

The picture of the flowers are the flowers we have sent for the funeral, we have also had a tree planted in Josh's memory (for those who are interested in planting a tree for a friend or loved one you can go to www.arborday.org) We have planted trees for the last 12 years for our friends and family. We feel that a part of them is still living and growing in one of our national forests by doing this.

We are unable to attend the funeral because of our work but my in laws are representing us and my husband's family understands. Josh had a great sense of humor, he was an avid boater and sky diver. He was a computer whiz. He was an up beat and postive person up to the very end. We will miss him.

Uncle Boies

My Uncle was the most famous of all the Penrose's. He was a senator, all he really wanted to be was a mayor of his beloved Philadelphia but that was not to be.

In the 1930's a book was written about him, it was a favorite in women's
book clubs because it gave an inside look on Washington. I liked the book, in fact I have a copy of it. Another man wanted to do a book about my Uncle in the 1950's, he was a broadway producer, writer, pretty famous for the time. He came and talked to my father who was excited about the book. But, something happened and the book was never done, in fact I tried to find the guy. The last thing I found was around the late 1950's, someone tried to kill him. I think they succeeded because thats all I could discover. So much for the book.

So, I thought I would share about my Uncle, this is what he did the last year of his life in the senate. That year was 1921:
April - He wanted equality for blacks. he said that they should be equal to whites in hotels, cafes, restaurants, educational institutions and amusements. They fought him hard on this one.

June - He had gotten Mr Mellon in as head of Treasury and he was doing a bang up job, nineteen countries owed us money and Mr. Mellon had worked out a plan for them to pay it back.

My Uncle left Washington to go back to Philly, President Hoover had left my Uncle with no offices in Washington (I find this very odd because Hoover was a geologist like my Uncle Richard and a friend of my Uncle Richard's).

My Uncle helped with the election of the next Governor of Penn. (I think this was the reason he left Washington)

July - He called for disarmament of the U.S. (World War One had ended). My Uncle didn't believe in war. They fought him hard on this one too.

Sept - He installs a movie theatre in his Washington apartments

Oct - He is trying to get tax bills passed, the Soldiers Bonus bill thru and a corporation tax thru.

On Dec. 30, 1921 Uncle Richard stops by to see my Uncle in Washington. My Uncle is in perfect health, great mood and nothing is wrong. At one minute before midnite on Dec. 31st, 1921 my Uncle is dead.

The papers are full that he was sick, poor health blah, blah, blah. Lies, lies, lies. My Uncles Richard and Charles along with my father get together, they hire people to find out who killed my Uncle and who put the contract out on him.

My Uncle had many enemies, there was a senator who was going to be brought up on treason charges, my Uncle stood up for him and with him (he became his friend after that) but that is the way the Penrose's are, even if our enemies are falsely accused we will stand up and state the truth. But, there were two enemies my Uncle had, they were the Vare brothers (one of them was a senator). The Vare brothers were heavily connected with the mafia, Lucky Luciano was a close friend, the Vare boys owned one of the Philly newspapers and they were involved in what was called "the bloody fifth ward". You didn't have to go far to find out that they were the ones that put out the contract.

Why, my family didn't go to the government I'll never know. Maybe it's because of what they did to my Uncle Francis or maybe they felt there was someone higher up involved because the newspapers weren't printing the truth. No matter, they put out a contract on the hired gun and the man that hired him. For them justice was done.

My Uncle was a loving caring person, he had a great sense of humor. In his younger years he wrote plays and poetry, he even wrote a pamphlet for Barnum on elephants (Barnum passed out this pamphlet at his circus). He never married but he had a lot of mistresses. He loved America and he really loved the city of his birth, Philly. He was never involved with the mafia and he never took a bribe. He had a photogenic mind, he would read something and it stayed there, word for word. All the Penroses had this except me, I remember conversations word for word, I guess the gene said "lets skip the reading material and go for conversations instead" :)

So, there you have it my Uncle and the last year of his life. He was a very good man.

Hope

I cling to the strand of hope so tightly, drops of it run down the strand to fill my cup.

We got a call last nite from my mother in law. My husband's cousin, Josh, who has a rare cancer had been rushed to the hospital. They opened him up for the third time this year and this time they just closed him up and said hospice 2 months.

Tears are streaming down my face as I type this. Here is a young man in his thirtys with a wife and two young children and the doctors say no hope, 2 months to live. The ache in my heart is unbearable, I want to reach out and sending healing to him in that hospital in Missouri. I want to storm the heavens with my fists and shout and cry. This is a good person who is kind and loving, who has lead a good life and done harm to no one.

I feel helpless and all I can do is hold my husband's hand and say there is hope and I believe in miracles.

I cling to the strand of hope and wait.