Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver is upon us once again.

This week’s challenge:

1)  Do you recall what you were doing in 1985?  Family, school, work, hobbies, technology, genealogy, vacations, etc?

I remember 1985 well, as, overall, it was a sad year. Dave and I were married and living in our second home, both of which were in Alta Loma, California, together. I was resource specialist working with special education students at El Camino Elementary School in Ontario, California.

My father had been diagnosed with lung cancer the previous year, but he went back to smoking early in 1985. The cancer returned and spread and he died on 24 March 1985.

Nana, Dad’s mother, was in reasonably good health for a lady in her 90s. Although she had fallen and broken her hip, she was recuperating nicely. However, when I told her that Dad had died, her reply, which I distinctly remember today, was “I am not needed here anymore.” Nana lived for eight more weeks before she died in her sleep on 29 May 1985. She had outlived her husband, George, who she adored, by almost 49 years and then she outlived her only child by 8 weeks.

We hear stories about family members who don’t live long after a relative passes away and I’ve always thought that Nana willed herself to not live on. She was very religious and not afraid of dying.

On a happier note, I also remember Live Aid being on TV that summer and spent quite a bit of time watching the various musical acts. I don’t remember if Dave and I went anywhere on vacation that summer, but, if we did, it was a driving trip around the West visiting sites that are in the National Park Service.

By this time, I had already been working on the family history for over five years and I most likely spent much of my summer writing tons of letters to various town clerks and county courthouses seeking vital records and other documents.

Our “children” at that time were our fur babies, Jasper and Jenny, our two cats, and we welcomed Keesha, our new puppy that year.

Mom came out from New Jersey for Christmas and spent a week with us. I think we all spent the day in Hemet with Dave’s parents and the rest of the family.

I wasn’t sorry to see 1985 come to a close!