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Annual Letter, Neergaard and van der Werff Families, December 2019

Lois and Dick

Lois thrives, conscientiously preserving energy; she will live forever. I on the other hand, while remaining an enthusiastic smart-ass, now find myself trapped in an old-fogy body experiencing creeping decrepitude. (I'm not complaining; there's nothing lethal - I'm glad to be here at all!)

But alas, no more tennis - a manifestation of that old-fogyness; nor will there be a Hilton Head sojourn this winter - or other travel. Alas.....

Sparkles to life there are still aplenty, particularly brilliant among which are the Events streamed by the Metropolitan Opera and the Bolshoi onto the silver screens of theaters around the world. And I still try to earn my place on the planet by generating smiles from the saucy greeting cards I cobble up with Photoshop for friends and family.

And now, moving right along, here are updates of the members of our family who are actually interesting...

The van der Werffs: Sue and Jan Willem; Willem and Nick

The van der Werff Family Out West

Willem and his GF Lavania, Sue, Jan Willem, Nick and his GF Brittany

From Jan Willem: 2019 was a very busy and a very good year for the Van der Werff family. Nick is a senior at Miami University. He plans to add another semester next year so that he can graduate with a major in Biology, a minor in Spanish and a second minor in Micro-Biology. Willem graduated in May from St Louis University and now works for Commissioning Agents in Indianapolis, on assignment at Eli Lilly.

At the beginning of the year I started as VP Operations for Deceuninck, a global Belgian firm making windows and doors. I also joined the board of LION, a Dayton based company providing gear for fire fighters. Both roles have allowed us to stay in Cincinnati, so we made the next move and bought a 32 acre property in a wooded area west of Cincinnati*.

As we speak, the barn on the property is being remodeled to become a workshop, office and guest house. The design and drawings for our new home have been completed and hopefully we start construction next year. Sue is in charge of the operation*. And with this much space, of course we had to get dogs again. A lab puppy arrived early December from Holland. Her name is Max. In February we will pick up a Stabij pup in Friesland, his name is Lex. Lex and Max - a royal duo (named after the very popular king and the queen of the Dutch Royal Family).

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*EDITOR'S NOTE: Lots of quite muscular land-clearing and road-building is being undertaken. Projects include an old house being razed, a venerable barn restored, and heavy-duty landscaping. Several trees from a majestic stand of walnuts are being harvested to make floorboards. Etc, etc. I stand in awe of what they're doing, and am very, very, proud of them.

Arthur

Arthur is still fortunate enough to be doing what he loves - inventing and technical development - as a “retirement-job”, running ShootingSight, a small company he founded to manufacture and market equipment for target-shooting. (His sister Sue is Senior Vice President of HR and Customer Service, and his brother-in-law Jan Willem is Packaging Clerk and CFO [when he's not VP-ing and Board-Directing]).

Arthur's mercy-inspired menagerie of rescued strays continues to provide nourishment for his caring nature. His newest adoptee is a Mostly-Doberman full-grown puppy with boundless energy and ADHD. The good news is that as the dog proceeds through adolescence, his constant ricocheting off whatever objects and persons happen to be nearby has (thanks be) ameliorated...... somewhat.

Richard and Thi; Samer and Lila

Richard and Thi Samer Lila

From Richard: Thi and I get the prize for indecision, moving back and forth between London and Los Angeles after spending a year rebuilding our LA apartmen t to perfection, then finally settling on living in London full time, selling our LA digs.

I continue to work on "car art", and have a one-month solo exhibition in February at the Royal Automobile Club in London, with most pieces being part of a series for which I make collages using original parts from the actual cars being depicted, then affixing angled aluminum tiles to pixelate the images:
, examples of which are this Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari GTO.

I note with pleasure that time indeed does fly; Thi and I have just celebrated five years together, and every day is still a honeymoon that we enjoy together in our retirement. Travel is still abundant despite attempts to limit it and reach the ever-illusive goal of being lazy.

Samer graduated from Boston University in Mechanical Engineering and found his dream job as an innovation engineer in Sonos, the "Smart Speaker" company, which allows him to stay in Boston and work downtown. Because Sonos is very innovative but tightly staffed, he is often working 20 hour days but learning a huge amount.

Lila is still at Northeastern University but completed a work-study semester in the Marketing department at Coty Cosmetics in NYC for six months, working in the Empire State Building, then during the summer at art classes in Florence (Italy) and London (with one art class taken jointly with her dad) plus beach time in Egypt, and then a semester abroad in Athens. She is not bored.

Thi’s son, Ryan, living in London, is an entrepreneur dabbling in both online selling as well as stock investment coaching for day-traders, and plans to focus on one after a learning curve for both, so we get to see him quite regularly

Peter and Cathy; Steven and Alex

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Peter    Cathy

Steven Cathy Alex Peter

From Peter:

I’m now fully retired!  Yay!!  Wait a sec, still doing a side gig for one of the groups I used to work with at IBM... but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count. Just call me happily retired. That, of course, means that I’m busier than ever and my to-do list just keeps getting longer. How the heck does that work???

Cathy has been at SAP now for 2 years. It’s full of new challenges almost every day, and she's thriving as she moves from project to project. On the side, she's steadily improving in tennis and is all excited to try out her brand new birthday tennis racquet.

Steven is off at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology ) and having a great time. By all reports doing very well and enjoying himself. His favorite activity so far is the Improv group he’s joined. His being located in Rochester, New York, caused me to worry about him surviving the cold and snow. He assured me that won’t be a problem since he likes both the cold and the snow. Check next year's letter to see the results after he’s had to live through one of those winters.

Alex had his ten-year-old trip this summer (thanks grandma and grandpa!!!) and can’t stop talking about it. Our entire family spent a month in Europe. We had a week on a canal boat with Richard and Thi, and also visited London, Paris, Brussels, Normandy, Sienna, Rome, Venice, Munich... and a couple of other places. In other words, a relaxing Continental walkabout.

Alex is doing well in school and has advanced considerably in piano; it's amazing to watch the progress. He’s also playing a number of sports including soccer and basketball. But the truly impressive thing is his table tennis. Last Christmas I got a ping pong table. We play almost every day, and it is amazing to watch him not just return the balls I smash at him... but smash them back at me!!!  Finally, just in the last couple of days, Alex went through the process of becoming a certified Scuba diver. So proud of the (no longer so) little guy!!!

All in all, a great year was had by all.

Happy Christmas!

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

....and may the New Year turn out to be better than we dare hope.

Cordially, Dick, Lois
& the entire Neergaard and van der Werff families