A Ray of Hope 1962 - 2000

"In 1962 I met Raymond Geiszler at a New Years Eve party. I brought spaghetti for lunch. He said he wanted to marry whoever brought the spaghetti and he did. 

"He had 3 children by a former marriage to Loretta Gwin: Raymond ElRoy, who was 20, Lorray, who was 14, and Raney, who was 8. At that time Jack was 15, Dan was 10, and Herb was 9. 

"We suddenly had a large family. ElRoy was in the army. Ray sold his house in north Moorhead. We quit having roomers, since we were able to fill all the rooms with our children. 

"Ray worked for Selland Motors in Fargo as a mechanic. 

"April 18, 1963 Dina Rae was born. I worked only part time for awhile, taking work home with me. When I started working full time, Rays brother, Edwin and his wife, Vange, baby-sat Dina and during the summer months Dina's older brothers and sisters baby-sat her.

"I retired after 29 years at Concordia in 1989. Our first ten years of married life, Ray and I and our family traveled during our vacations, going to National Parks, Texas and California.

"Then we bought a lake home on Turtle Lake in Minnesota where we spent most of our free time fishing, swimming and relaxing. After about 10 years we sold it and bought a trailer home, which we parked in a campground on Buffalo Lake. Later we sold that also, deciding wed like travel again or just stay home.

"One memorable trip was to England and France during the 50th celebration of the Normandy invasion. Ray had been a part of that when he was in the army and was wounded on the 3rd day of the invasion. We saw and heard President Clinton and the Premier of France, Mitterand, give speeches.

"We went to many small towns that had been liberated where we marched in parades and partook in lots of banquets. We also stayed in the home of a French family for a few days.

 Ray(ElRoy), Jack, Herb, Dan, Mom, Raney, Dina, Lorray 1998

"We sold our house and moved into a condominium in 1995. The yard work and snow shoveling was getting too much for Ray.

"Ray died March 30, 1998. Since then I've been learning how to get along on my own, with lots of help from family, church and friends.

"My main interests are playing the piano for the Eventide Choir and for Young at Heart meetings, playing games on the computer, receiving and sending E-mail, needlework, church activities and traveling to visit family or going on tours, helping with the family reunion, being treasurer of the condo board.

"Not necessarily in that order."

from The Ann Adeline Dravland Story on dravland.com