Day 9 - Clare Wichman, Avon lake, Ohio

Clare Wichman is one of the few grade school/high school classmates that Joe still keeps in touch with. This trip gave us an opportunity to visit with her at her home instead of occasional class reunions. To our surprise, she lives within blocks of Lake Erie, marking the second Great Lake we were able to walk along on this tour.

Clare lives in Avon Lake, Ohio, close to her son and daughter and their families. She has recently retired from teaching 4th Grade and her daughter has followed in her footsteps but doesn’t admit that it was her mother that motivated her to go into teaching. We got to meet two of her grandkids, Cara and Dominic, such delightful kids!

We felt right at home immediately – she has a beautiful home in a neighborhood that reminded us of our own – only with bigger front lawns. She is friends with all her neighbors (no surprise there!) and is totally immersed in many service and social activities that go on in her town. She has a wide circle of friends and does a lot of traveling – a woman after our own heart! In fact this morning, a couple of hours after we left her, she was heading to Las Vegas for a week.

Clare gave us a tour of the town, we walked out on the pier at Lake Erie, and we went to dinner at a Cheesecake Factory that is located in a new upscale outdoor concept mall, with some friends of hers from church. Paul and Lynne are special friends and we are so glad we got to meet them.

This trip gave Joe an opportunity to talk to Clare about their common background of growing up at Angel Guardian Orphanage, catching up on other classmates and nuns that each of them keep in touch with. Clare said that one of the best things Joe did was marry Sandy, which was interesting considering that today is our 36th wedding anniversary.