Visiting Grandpa in Nashville

With time running out on summer it was now or never if we were going to make it to Nashville to visit Grandpa and Uncle Bill. Fortunately we made it thanks to the Michigan law which stops school from starting earlier than Labor day. James got a chance to see his Grandpa and also Uncle Bill and his family. Uncle Bill is rebuilding his home after the flood and it is coming along beautifully. As we visited various places in Nashville you could find buildings and businesses still closed from the devastating flood. In fact the hotel we stayed at near Opryland was discounted because the Opryland mall, one of the major attractions in Nashville, was still closed and not due to open till November.

One good thing that came out of the flood was that Uncle Bill found an archive of old family pictures when going through the flood damage. Mom hopes to scan those pictures in and upload to this site in the near future.

Grandma came down on the trip as well and had a chance to visit friends from her previous home for the first time since moving to Michigan back in November 09.
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Edited: August 31st, 2010

Tribute to Loretta Kleiber (color)

These are colored pictures of Loretta so they are later on in life than the black and white ones. Loretta is James Grandmother and enjoyed traveling alot. Every Saturday there would be at least a trip to Trenton where some project or event was taken place. The evenings all ended the same way with a family game of Pinocle. They played for keeps during these games and my family was not always gracious losers when the game did not go their way.

My mother enjoyed travel outside of Michigan as well, trips to Florida, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Bahama’s, Toronto, and West Virgina were just a few of the many destinations she vacationed at. She passed away while on vacation in Traverse city.
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Edited: December 31st, 2007

Tribute to Loretta Kleiber (BW)

This is a tribute to Loretta Kleiber, all the pictures are black and white so most of these will be Loretta in her younger days. Loretta was Mother to Peg, Criss, and Chuck, Sister to Louise and Joe, and Grandmother to James although she passed away a couple years before he was born.

My mother and sister Criss look very much alike, I remember finding a graduation picture of my mom and telling her that I found a picture of Criss. She laughed and said “Don’t you know your own Mother” and then my father chimed in with his usual grace and stated that I should remember this moment and to always “look at the mother” when I am dating because thats “what you will end up with”. A typical childhood memory in the Kleiber household. I always wondered how my mother could have so much grace and style and my father have very little of either. I guess opposites do attract.
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Edited: December 31st, 2007

Judith Picture Archive

Judith is the wife of Howard, Mother to Bill and Mary, Grandmother to James.  Judith has lived in several different places including Nashville and Denver.

Judith recently came up from Tennessee to stay at the Garden City Tower apartments here in Michigan. She found out about Garden City when she visited James one year and sent in an application. It took several years but finally there was an opening and she got in. She is currently adjusting to life in Michigan and the cold winters that we have, but she is not a stranger to it, she was actually raised in Michigan, living on Woodward near 7 mile road in the 1950′s. (more…)

Edited: January 1st, 2005

Christmas 2000

We used to do the Christmas display in the basement but this year we moved it up to the living room and decorated the entire house. This made things easier for my mother who’s task was to feed the huddled masses and she did not have to go up and down the steps to do that. This was my mothers last Christmas I believe.

I would love to get some pictures of the display in the basement so if anyone has any pictures of it, let me know and I will get them up here as well.
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Edited: December 25th, 2001