Lyman and Mary are the most generous, fun, and wonderful people in the entire world! When we are together we can laugh and talk and just "hang out" for hours and hours and even days and days. When we are together we enjoy eating out and we enjoy taking walks together. I even got Mary and Lyman to buy kick scooters and go scootering with me! I sort of taught Mary how to ride a scooter by the way...
And...Mary walked down all of Vail mountain while Lyman and I and our friend Joanna rode mountain scooters down the mountain. (My husband Dan rode a bike down.)
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| JO ANN, Lyman, my friend Joann, and Mary - Vail. Colorado September, 2016 |
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| Rebekah and Chris - January, 2014 |
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| Mary, my husband Dan, and Lyman - Vail, Colorado September, 2016 |
Mary and Lyman own the coolest blue colored Victorian house that is covered with ivy in Chicago. They moved there for graduate school and just stayed. Inside the house is the coolest upright grand piano which Lyman plays daily. He is passionate about playing piano.
Mary went to law school, but never really had a chance to practice law since Mary took care of her ailing mother for quite some time. They now travel to their vacation home in Florida which they inherited after Mary's mother passed away. (I was so worried about Lyman and Mary's safety since they were in Florida around the time of that horrible Hurricane Irma in the fall of 2017. Fortunately, they just drove out of the state and enjoyed some site-seeing instead. They didn't want to leave their car in Florida during the hurricane.)
Lyman and Mary both like to drive and drive around the crowded Chicago highways all the time. They got used to driving a lot when their son Chris trained at his skating in the Chicago metro area. I am always amazed how calmly they drive through all the Chicago traffic!
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| My dad and Lyman - January 2014 |
When my family had a personal emergency, Lyman and Mary came to the rescue. They even drove my dad's car out from Chicago to Colorado after my dad moved away from Chicago. Then, they stayed with us for over two weeks in Colorado and during those two and a half weeks we had so much fun that we all felt like we were on a never-ending vacation. We even spent a day at the lake kayaking together. Mary loved kayaking in our inflatable two person kayak with her husband.
When we visited Chicago, Lyman and Mary took us on one adventure after another. We visited the museum of Science and Industry, the Chicago Art Museum, and the Chicago Botanical Gardens. I got Lyman to ice skate with me a few times and taught him how to do a beginning ice dance and some figures. Lyman even ended up getting his photo included in my book, MY SKATING LIFE.
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| JO ANN and Lyman - January 2014 |
When the Disney On Ice Frozen tour came to Chicago, Lyman and Mary, picked Joel up at his hotel and showed him around and treated him just like he was their own son. They also came to the show and watched Joel perform. That was during Joel's first season of traveling with Disney On Ice and Mary and Lyman gave Joel a feeling that he had "family" in Chicago.
Mary took care of my daughter Rebekah after Rebekah had surgery. Mary also fell in love with the cat Rebekah had then and our dog Duchess became very attached to Mary.
Lyman and my dad can talk for hours and hours about medicine. Lyman tells me he always wanted to be a pathologist like my dad, but he is now a retired pharmacologist. He helped in the development of a drug called lansoprazole. My husband and Lyman can talk about religion and politics for hours. Joel also enjoys talking politics with Lyman.
Lyman has the best laugh in the world. His laugh is so wonderful that just hearing him laugh makes other people happy.
Mary and Lyman's son Chris is the love of their life just like my three children are the loves of my life. Chris visits his parents in the USA when he can, but he is in Bulgaria and England and Chris is an elite ice dancer.
Yes, Mary and Lyman are the best friends in the world and really are "like family." I wish we could be together more often, but we know that if we need anything at all, they would be there for us. How totally cool is that?! And...our wonderful friendship began because of figure skating, but so much more than skating now connects us for life!
FURTHER READING:
- Only My Hairdresser Gail "Knows For Sure"
- Lisa Believed In Me and I Believed in Lisa
- Lori Was the "Coolest Boss" Ever and Is Also the "Coolest" Friend!
- I May Have Never Taught Skating If It Hadn't Been for Sandy
- Rosie's Life and Past Should Be Made Into a Television Movie
- Maureen Is One of the Most Caring People I Know!
- Susan and JO ANN: "Sisters for Life" Because of Gamma Phi Beta
- Alice - A Former Boss and Friend
- June and JO ANN - Celebrating Forty Years of Friendship 1977 to 2017
- Remembering My Friend Jeff
- Dan and I Treasure Our Friendship With Frank
- Facebook Reunited Me With My Junior High School Friend Bernadette
- Spur of the Moment Dog-Walking-Scootering With My Friend Larisa - 12-1-17
- Dog Scootering-Hiking-Running With My Friend Margar - Cheyenne Mountain State Park 12/1/17
- What This JO ANN's Friends Blog Is About
- I'm Thankful for My Friends
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