Yesterday we said farewell to Gregor Robin Jackson. It was a lovely day in Arab, Alabama, with temperatures in the upper 60's. There were many "Gregor Stories" from his family and numerous friends. The United States Air Force honor guard performed their military ceremony leaving no dry eyes in the audience. And to top things off there was a bagpipe player in full attire to honor Gregor's Scottish heritage.

Gregor may be gone, but he is certainly not forgotten.

(Click for a larger image.)

Gregor Robin Jackson, age 69, passed away Saturday, March 2, 2013, at his home. He died peacefully in bed with his dogs early in the morning.

A Memorial Service with Military Honors will be Saturday, March 9, 2013, at 3 PM at Gober Funeral Chapel. Friends may visit with the family from 2 to 3 PM Saturday before the Memorial. The family requests No Flowers Please. Donations may be made to the Local Animal Shelter in care of the Arab Police Department, 740 N. Main St., Arab, AL 35016, In Memory of Gregor Jackson.

Gregor had kidney surgery last month and recovered very quickly. He felt great on Friday when he had both breakfast and lunch with family members. His untimely death came as a great shock to all of us. Gregor always lived life to the fullest and his absence leaves a huge void in Melanie's life. All of us family members mourn Gregor's passing and send our love and support to Melanie.

Gregor called us last night and was in good spirits. Below is what he posted on Facebook early this morning:

"One of two bullet wounds I received from a crazed, unknown black male motorist leaving Birmingham Sunday morning. He pulled up next to me at 55 mph and discharged six 9 mm rounds into my car. I got one in my shoulder and one in my side. They are going to leave both bullets inside me. Hopefully I go home today."

We are all wishing Gregor a speedy and complete recovery!

Wednesday, November 7 Update: Gregor was released from the hospital yesterday and is resting at home. He will return for a progress checkup in two weeks if there are no problems in the interim.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, November 4, Son-in-law Gregor took Melanie to the Birmingham airport for her flight to Tampa. He then drove north on Highway 79 to return to Arab. In a sparsely populated area north of Pinson, a car pulled up beside Gregor and started shooting with a pistol. About 5 bullets hit the car and 2 wounded Gregor. Read More...

Daughter Robin McNair of Michigan made her first trip to Alabama in late May. It was fortunate that daughter Melanie Jackson and her husband Gregor also were able to spend a lot of time at the Phillips house during the four days of Robin's visit. Adding to the fun were the Martin twin boys from next door and their dad, Butch. Ideal weather made the entire affair a time to remember. For some pictures of our back deck festivities click this link.

Much has transpired since the last update, but overall Barbara's condition is about the same. The good news is she is able to walk around in the house okay without assistance and can do a bit of gardening outside. And she continues to feel well. Read More...

Barbara suffered a relapse of the Hashimoto's encephalopathy on December 13. Since then conditions have been somewhat worse with lots of ups and downs. Read More...

Today daughter Melanie and son-in-law Gregor brought a belated Christmas dinner to our house. All we had to do was set the table and enjoy both the food and company. Slick roads led to a two day postponement, but today was beautiful with melting snow. We had a wonderful meal and a pleasant visit. Thank you Melanie & Gregor for a nice afternoon!

Barbara's mother, Dorothy Selbmann, passed away on Thursday, October 21, 2010, at the age of 95. Read More...

Things are progressing well, but slowly. The oral prednisone doses are being decreased and her walking is improved. Also, some usage of the right hand has returned. Sleep is still good and she feels very good. The balance is better, but bears watching. Tremors are still present, but somewhat reduced. Every day sees a slight improvement.

It has been an interesting period since the diagnosis was made earlier this month. There has been positive progress and though it seems slow, every day brings some improvement. Read More...

For over eight months now Barbara has been seeing doctors and trying several different medications in an attempt to quell her tremors and other associated problems. This past week she finally received what appears to be an accurate appraisal with a treatment schedule. Read More...

Daughter Dawn Sloat and her son Christoph drove up from Florida on July 27 for visit. Chris is shown between neighbors Dylan and Brenden Martin who were looking forward to his arrival. Read More...

An unexpected trip to Marshall Medical Center was Barbara's fate on Friday afternoon. It's only 15 minutes from the house, even if you miss the couple of traffic lights, and the care is great. But she would still rather not make the trip. Read More...

The morning of Tuesday, December 15, 2009, is one we may remember for awhile since it resulted in an unexpected trip to the local emergency room. Read More...

Mel and Gregor Jackson came to our house for her birthday.
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This was published in the Bradenton Herald on August 19.

John Edward Selbmann, 89, passed away on Thursday, August 13, 2009, at the Inn at Freedom Village. He is survived by his wife of sixteen years, Dorothy B. Selbmann. John was a long time resident of River Isles in Bradenton and served on the City Planning Commission. He and his wife were active members of the Hope Lutheran Church. A viewing will be held on Friday, August 21st from 9 – 10 a.m. at Hope Lutheran Church, 4635 26th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 and a service will follow at 10 a.m. Interment will be in Manasota Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Hope Lutheran Church.

Barbara's step-father, John Selbmann, died today in Bradenton, Florida, at the age of 89. He is survived by Dorothy Selbmann. More details will be provided later.

Grandson Chris Seabrook had the opportunity to extend his Alabama stay and spent another 4 days with us. This allowed us to really spend some quality time together and we had a wonderful time. Naturally we also did a lot of eating and discussing food; a family tradition. We're looking forward to his next visit.

This morning Chris ended his two day visit with us.

In this picture he and Grandma Barbara are on the way to check the garden spot. Read More...

Son, Brian Bos, was on Northwest Airlines Flight 335 that took off from Detroit on Tuesday morning (June 2) headed for Los Angeles. But things didn't go exactly as planned. Read More...

Last night, once again, Melanie and Gregor treated us to dinner at the local Mt. Fuji Japanese restaurant, one of our favorite spots. But the special treat this time was meeting Melanie's best friend from Switzerland, Katharina Padrutt.
This is an older picture, but she looks much the same today; we were too busy talking and having a good time to bother with pictures. This was Katharina's first trip to Arab, Alabama, and we hope she enjoyed it. It was wonderful finally getting to meet the lady we have heard so much about. She gifted us with a box of chocolates from Switzerland that have to be described as art. We just had to take a picture of them before they are quickly devoured. Thank you, Katharina; we sure enjoyed our evening talking with you.

Last night Melanie and Gregor treated us to dinner at the local Mt. Fuji Japanese restaurant. As usual, the food was great and it gave Jack a chance to have a glass of wine with dinner for the first time in Arab (recently gone "wet"). Their menu (pdf file) has many great items you won't find elsewhere in Arab. It was a lovely evening with lots of spirited conversation. Thanks Melanie & Gregor!

Gregor took the pictures and got left out.

Melanie and Greg brought Little Guy by for his first visit in many years. Read More...

Dawn, John, and Christoph came by for an afternoon visit. They were briefly in town on a trip from their Florida home.
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Melanie and Gregor spent the afternoon with us, which made a nice Christmas Day. This is the first time in many years that they have spent the holiday season in the United States. Read More...

Barbara's mother, Dorothy Selbmann, has had some serious health problems in the last few weeks. Today she was moved to a nursing care unit. She and John have been in the assisted living section of Freedom Village, Bradenton, Florida.

Son-in-law Gregor Jackson is heading up the newly formed CARAA (Companion Animal Rescue of Arab, Alabama), which is helping to assist and place animals needing a home. Good work, Gregor!

Lots of driving concluded yesterday as we returned from a quick trip to Florida. Saturday was spent with Barbara's mother, Dorothy Selbmann, and her husband, John, to celebrate Dorothy's 93rd birthday! They are in assisted living in Bradenton, FL. Our hosts for the trip were Wally and Emily Gore, long time friends; it was great to see them again. The drive down on Thursday went well with moderate traffic until we got to Florida. A huge area of rain slowed us to a crawl for over an hour and then an accident snarled traffic in North Tampa for another hour or so; it was a long day. After all the driving in the last two weeks we now plan to stay put for awhile.

We just returned from a trip to Manchester, Michigan, where we attended the Healing Farewell Service for Pat Bergmann, Barbara's Sister-In-Law. Read More...

Barbara's Sister-In-Law, Pat Bergmann, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57. Pat was the wife of Ed Bergmann.

Son-in-law Gregor Jackson made the local newspaper today with a nice story about his volunteer work with the local animal shelter. Read More...

The Sloat family from Florida came by for an afternoon visit and we had nice weather for their brief stay. It's always nice to see them. We even got a couple of pictures. Read More...

Kim Bos's mother, Juanita (Woody) Sears died February 28 of a massive heart attack. Her death came about a year after her husband, Gil, died on February 8, 2007. In accordance with her wishes no services will be held. Our sympathies and condolences go out to Kim, Brian, and Hunter.

We attended the Veteran's Day Program at Arab's City Park this afternoon and it was a beautiful fall day. Read More...

Brian sent new pictures of his family today; check their Family page.

Brian, Kim, and Hunter Bos from Walled Lake, Michigan, visited us for several days. Read More...

It was time for our annual visit to Florida and it went well, but we're glad we don't live there. Read More...

We just returned from Saint Charles, MO, where we attended the lovely wedding of Barbara's cousin, Christine Kurtz Fuerhoff, and Lee Roy Casten. Read More...

We had a pleasant trip to Michigan to visit with Brian, Kim, and Hunter Bos.The weather was fall-like with a few rain showers, but we did get to check out Kensington Metropark, a nice nature oriented park where Hunter has spent some time. And of course, Jack got to make a stop at the local Apple Store to check out the latest computer toys. Gas prices were lower than usual with our cheapest purchase at $2.21 per gallon and even the motel prices were moderate. It was another enjoyable trip.

Our spring visit to Michigan is now over. It went smoothly with the exception of Jack picking up a sinus-related problem on the last day in Michigan; that took some of the fun out of the return trip. The grand kids are growing quickly and we attended Nathan's graduation ceremony (from nursery school). We also got to see Hunter play a baseball game where he hit a double. Our favorite junk store in Van Wert, Ohio, was closed for an unknown reason, but we did get to have lunch at the Earthen Treasures Natural Food Market in Berne, Indiana; always a great stop.

Well, we're back from another excellent trip to St. Charles, Missouri, where we visited Barbara's cousin, Christine Kurtz-Fuerhoff and her daughter, Hannah. As usual we ate a lot of outstanding meals, but Christine introduced a new twist when she brought home a 50-piece box of our favorite fried chicken! And of course we again checked out Whole Foods Market in St. Louis where we had lunch after "grazing" the store. Christine also introduced us to Global Foods, an international supermarket with nearly 30,000 products from every continent; a real adventure. And we saw the Missouri home of Daniel Boone, Boonesfield Village, which we enjoyed. It was a smooth trip both ways and the new Civic got over 43 miles to the gallon when we drove at the legal 65 mph in KY and IL.

Just back from our spring trip to Florida. Our new car performed great and got over 40 miles to the gallon while cruising at 70 mph. Visited with the Selbmanns, Ed & Pat Bergmann, and our hosts, Wally & Emily Gore. Another very nice trip with good weather except for the seven hours of rain on the way down.

Our semi-annual Michigan trip is now history; an enjoyable journey with pleasant weather. It was again an 8 day trip to visit Robin and her family in Kalamazoo and then Brian and his family in Walled Lake. Madison had a quick trip to the emergency room after eating some poisonous berries, but is back to normal now. We mostly take back roads on our trips and sometimes find interesting places. This time it was a fine health food store in Berne, Indiana. Earthen Treasures Natural Food Market had a great selection and a nice cafe, where we had a wonderful meal and gourmet coffee.

We just had another very nice trip to St. Charles, Missouri, to visit Barbara's cousin, Christine Kurtz-Fuerhoff and her daughter, Hannah. A terrific thunderstorm welcomed us and we lost power for about 4 hours in the evening, but it was only a minor annoyance to us; others in the city were not as fortunate. One of the highlights was a trip to the Whole Foods Market in St. Louis, a great store we will investigate more closely in the future. Thanks to Christine for once again being the perfect hostess.

Back from an 8 day trip to Michigan to visit Robin and her family in Kalamazoo and then Brian and his family in Walled Lake. All went well except for the traffic and road conditions in Michigan. Several major interstate exits were closed and other main roads torn up without any clues on where to go; it made a 2 hour trip into 5 hours on Friday, but we made it anyhow. Check the family page for a couple updated pictures.

Just back from our spring visit to Florida. It was nice to see our hosts, Wally & Emily Gore. It was an opportunity to see some family members that we don't see very often; there is a nice picture in the next section. Read More...

Our last trip of the year was another great experience. Christine Kurtz-Fuerhoff and her daughter, Hannah, shared their beautiful St. Charles, MO home with us for several days. We always find lots to talk about and her dinner parties are exceptional. And St. Charles is always an interesting city with lots of civic pride. We especially enjoyed our visit to The Foundry Art Centre, where you can talk with artists at work. Tony Schanuel is a digital artist who essentially gave us a half hour lesson on his G-5 Mac; his work is wonderful!

A quick trip to Florida was made this week to visit Wally & Emily Gore and Dorothy & John Selbmann. It was an enjoyable trip except for I-75 in South Georgia, where we had to use side roads to avoid huge back-ups. At least the weather was fine.

We just returned from a seven day trip to Michigan where we visited Robin and family in Kalamazoo and Brian and family in Walled Lake. The weather was unseasonably warm and the drive both directions was great. We also discovered that the Fairfield Inn now has high-speed internet access in all of its locations, so we have a new favorite motel!

Our grandson, Christoph Seabrook, and his step-father, John Sloat, visited us on Thursday and Friday. They came up from Florida for loads of fishing and even a picnic on the back deck; lots of fun for all.

We spent the past four days visiting Christine Kurtz-Fuerhoff and her daughter, Hannah, in St. Charles, MO. They were the perfect hosts and made us feel very welcome. Look at these pictures of a local statue. Read More...

Edwin Kurtz, Barbara's uncle and God father, passed away Monday evening, May 17, 2004, at age 86. There were no services as he wished.

Nicholas Edward McNair arrived 5 weeks early at 11:18 pm, Wednesday, 5/12/04! He weighed 4 pounds, 14 ounces. As luck would have it, Barbara and Jack arrived in Kalamazoo on Thursday afternoon for their spring visit and got to see Nicholas when he was only hours old. After two days with the McNair family we headed over to Walled Lake to see the Bos family.

Dawn Phillips and John Sloat were married in a small, private ceremony in Florida.

John and Dorothy Selbmann have moved to a very nice retirement village in Bradenton, Florida. They already knew some people there and that made the transition easier.