A Family Story - part five

Well, it has been nearly a month since I wrote here.  Kind of a long time, for me!  Once Marion, George, Peter, Mr. Marshall, my grandfather and his wife moved to Florida it was long spells between visits.  We traveled to Florida several times to visit with them.  Then, with more family of our own, we moved to Florida, too.  By then I was married and we had a daughter.  My folks moved down at the same time.  We all lived about two and a half hours from Marion, George, Peter and family. 

Over the next few years the families visited each other frequently, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thanksgivings would alternate between the households.  Always Peter would say grace and although we could not understand most of what he said, we could always hear our names in his prayer.  Shortly after Thanksgiving of 1990, Peter became ill and died.  While obviously a sad time for Marion and George, they were relieved that he would not have to be without them to care for him.  They put the Morse Shores house up for sale and moved further north in Florida.  They bought a small house on a lake where George enjoyed fishing until his death in 1993.

Paul at home in Connecticut

 Marion felt very insecure living by herself after George's death and Paul left his home and job in Connecticut to move in with his mother.  Hating the hot and humid weather that draws others to Florida, Paul wanted to move back north but Marion didn't want to live with the cold winters.  They decided to move to South Carolina where the climate was a bit more moderate and where Marion and George had often spoken of living.  They bought land and built a house in the north western part of the state in 1996.

Marion, Christmas 2003

It was in that home that we continued our holiday exchanges, particularly at Thanksgiving, and as my parents had become seasonal Florida residents (snowbirds), they stopped to visit with Paul and Marion on their trips back and forth between Massachusetts and Florida.  And it was in that home that both Paul and Marion died.  Paul in December of 2010 and Marion, just over six months later in July of 2011.

Paul (L) and Marion (R) with Marion's PT nurse after Marion's stroke in 2006-07.  This is the last picture we have of them.