GLORIA

By Bud Vear and The Children

About the book information is not available at the moment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369415689

Bud Vear

Charles “Bud” Vear (Grandpa Doc to his Grandchildren) was born in 1926 and lived through the Great Depression and World War II. He grew up in Wheaton, Illinois, a small Suburb of Chicago, spent two years in the Navy during the War before returning to earn an undergraduate degree from DePauw University. His dream of becoming a doctor took a while to blossom. He first earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Indiana University and worked for the Chicago Boys Club in the inner city of Chicago for three years, trying to direct troublesome teenage gangs into more productive pursuits. After a 15 month stint in the hospital with tuberculosis, he taught middle school science and math for seven years before finally pursuing his doctor dream after he and his wife had eight children. After finishing medical school, he became a small town Family Physician in Hillsdale, Michigan for the next 24 years, delivering over 2000 babies in a town of 8000. He and his wife, Gloria, ended up with twelve children, 43 grandchildren and 30 great grandchildren (and counting) and are co-authors of a book, “Love, Laughter and Dreams”, the sometimes frolicking story of raising twelve children and pursuing dreams. His wife of 68 years passed away in 2019. Bud Vear has authored four other books Love, Laughter & Dreams (Co-authored with wife, Gloria) Ask Grandpa Vear Clan Tales Small Town Doc All books available at Xlibris [e-mail]

Book preview

Copyright © 2024 by Bud Vear & The Children.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Adobe Stock images depicting people are used with their permission and for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Adobe Stock.

Rev. date: 01/29/2024

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

851475

CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1   Her Beginnings

Chapter 2   The Genesis of a Long Marriage

Chapter 3   Motherhood

Chapter 4   Supporting a Husband’s Dream

Chapter 5   Helping Moms

Chapter 6   Community Impact

Chapter 7   Theatre

Chapter 8   International Relations

Conclusion

PART TWO

REFLECTIONS FROM THE CHILDREN

Steve

Ray

Gay

Tony

Terry

Candi

Pam

Rick

Lisa

Michael

Kelly

Kevin

The Last Word

Introduction

This is the story of a remarkable woman. Not famous. You won’t find her name on a statue or a building or in a history book. She was not endowed with exceptional talent or intelligence. She was average. However, her impact on others was exceptional.

She birthed and raised twelve children, supported her husband’s dream of becoming a doctor after they had eight children, helped many mothers through childbirth and breastfeeding, enabled many families to welcome foreign exchange students, contributed in many ways to community theatre productions and encouraged two local non-profit organizations to successfully purchase buildings when they said they couldn’t afford them. These are just the highlights. I will expand on these accomplishments in more detail in the pages that follow, but, if a person’s goal in life is to make a difference, Gloria achieved that goal in spades.

Acknowledgements

I owe thanks to my children who contributed their thoughtful reflections about their mother and their lives in a large family. Thanks also go to granddaughter Taylor, who contributed her thoughts about her mother and to Richard NaVarre, a friend who shared a unique perspective of Ray.

A special word of gratitude goes to son, Kevin, who provided much computer help to his technically challenged father to enhance the design of the book. And to Kelly for her help on enhancing the cover.

And, finally, a word of thanks to Xlibris for their help in bringing this book to fruition. This is the sixth book they have assisted me in publishing, and I have always been pleased with their work and their dedication to fulfilling my goals as an author.

Chapter 1

HER BEGINNINGS

glyph.jpg

G loria was an optimist. Her optimism can be traced back to her childhood. She grew up in Oak Grove, a small town in Louisiana and was a devotee of Pollyanna, a series of books about a child who, no matter what her circumstances, always found something to be glad about. This was the genesis of Gloria’s development into an optimistic visionary as an adult. She adopted an attitude of focusing on the goal and not worrying too much about the journey,

Gloria’s childhood was far from ideal. She remembered seeing her father only twice in her life. He was in the army and his deployments kept him away from home for long periods of time. This did not produce a stable marriage, and, when Gloria was quite young, her parents divorced. Not long afterwards, her father died in a fire caused when he tried to clean his clothes with a flammable liquid. Surprisingly, In spite of her father’s absence, Gloria still held fond feelings for him.

When Gloria was just eight, her mother moved to Chicago to marry and live with Clark Henderson a much older man, who was a successful engineer. He ultimately became the legal stepfather for Gloria and her older sister, Louise, but, at first, Gloria and her sister did not join their mother and new stepfather. They remained in Oak Grove. Their mother’s plan was to move her two young daughters to join her as soon as she and her new husband could find a place suitable for raising a family. It took five long years!

During those five years, the girls were not neglected. They moved from one grandparent’s house to another but saw their mother only once or twice a year. In spite of these long absences, Gloria always believed her mother loved her, and she said she never felt neglected. Her sister did not feel quite so accepting of the arrangement. She simply tolerated it.

Their mother and stepfather finally found a suitable home in Wheaton, Illinois, a small town 25 miles west of Chicago, and the girls became northerners. Wheaton was a pleasant middle-class suburb of Chicago, and the upscale change in their environment allowed the girls to blossom. They finally were living in a home with the presence of a father and mother.

Gloria did have an academic adjustment to make. She found her first year at the school in Wheaton very difficult. This was partly because she skipped a grade. In Oak Grove it only took eleven years to graduate from high school, and Gloria had just finished her 7th grade, so in Oak Grove she would have been starting high school as an 8th grader. She didn’t want to fall further behind her sister, who was entering 11th grade, so she decided to start high school (9th grade) in Wheaton. The education in Wheaton was also more difficult, and from a straight A student in Oak Grove, she became just an average student in Wheaton. (By her senior year she finally did make the honor roll.) However, despite her academic struggles, she brought a charming southern accent with her and made lots of good friends. Gloria would describe her high school years as happy even though she never achieved her dream of becoming a cheerleader.

Chapter 2

THE GENESIS OF A LONG MARRIAGE

glyph.jpg

R omantic attractions are difficult to define, but I met Gloria when she was a cute 16-year-old lifeguard at the local swimming pool, and I was smitten. It was just after the end of WW II, and I was a 20-year-old recently discharged sailor who was trying to impress the girls around the pool by doing fancy dives off the diving board. I really wasn’t a very good diver, but I could do enough different dives to get some attention. Gloria’s positive influence on others became evident that day when she showed me how to do a dive I had been trying for years to get the courage to attempt. It is called a reverse dive today, but back then it was called a gainer. You go off the board forward and then roll backwards toward the board. It is somewhat intimidating because of the danger of hitting the board, and, because of this, I had never had the nerve to attempt it. Gloria not only did the dive herself but she did it off the high three-meter diving board! My macho image was severely challenged, so, with Gloria’s encouragement, I learned to do the dive that day. I will have to admit that my initial attempts were not off the high board. I started off the side of the pool, then off the low board before finally having the courage to progress to the high board.

In thanks for her help - any excuse will suffice when you want to spend more time with a girl – I invited her to go dancing. A few days later we went dancing at the O’Henry ballroom, a favorite dance hall for teens and young adults, and we had a wonderful time. However, when she refused my good night kiss, I decided she was really too young for me – and she probably was.

I will now fast forward four years because that was how long it was before our relationship rekindled. By then she had just graduated from a two-year stint at Stephen’s College and was pinned. (Sort of a pre-engagement, where a boy would give his fraternity pin to his girlfriend to wear, indicating that they were a couple.) Johnny Case, from neighboring Naperville was the pinner. He was a very nice young man who was attending Iowa State and had given Gloria his fraternity pin to wear.

At the same time, I was starting a two-year master’s degree program in Social Work in Indianapolis after having recently graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I had also become pinned - to Betsy, a cute co-ed at DePauw. In all honesty, this was mostly because I wanted to enjoy the traditional pinning serenade that took place on the porch of the girl’s sorority house and not because we were serious about getting married. Romance was in the air, but romance has a way of changing courses unexpectedly, and that’s what happened that summer for Gloria and me.

At the beginning of that summer, Gloria’s older sister, Louise, just happened to let me know that Gloria had become a