The Lansbrook Years
 We moved to Lansbrook in March, 1970. I had diligently worked on the house plans the preceding year. We had the first pick of lots in the development and since we both love water, we chose the one closest to a little ten-acre lake just 35 feet from our back deck.
Kent went to Sunnyvale to see Ed, who had moved there after getting his degree at Purdue. Dana, Anna-Marie, two French travelers and I drove to California to see Ed and pick up Kent. Kent had left before we got there and had gone to Los Angles, so I flew back home. Anna-Marie went back to Germany in October; she just did not like the United States. Ellen died in the early part of July.
During spring break of 1971 Dorr and I, Kent and Jon met Ed (coming from California) in Hawaii. We went to all of the islands. I saw the covenant rainbow as we were going to the Honolulu airport. In August Kent and Denise were married in the Westminster chapel. Dana arrived that day from Europe in time for the wedding. Dorr and I were alone in our house for the first time in 31 years of marriage. This gave us a chance to minister to one another and heal our wounds. We had hoped for a grandchild for quite some time; we even had a tiny nursery off our bedroom. Kent and Denise moved back into our house for three months before Chris was born. This was another healing process for all. During this time Kent remodeled a little house that we bought them. On March 12 Kent and Denise gave us our first grandchild, Chris. I left two days later for my first Adventure in Living conference in Sorrento and Rome. I was home in time to start taking care of Chris through the daytime. In 1973 Kent, Denise and Chris moved to Ada where Kent attended East Central College. Pat was teaching at this college at the time. Dustin was born June 1, 1975.
Pat and Kathy had moved to Ada in 1972 where he taught accounting. On October 30, 1973 Kathy gave me my first granddaughter, Megan. Margie and Tim preceded her by a week.
In January of 1972 Mother Dorr died. Dana and I had visited her earlier on the day she died. I had never heard her sing. She would whistle around the house, but I had never heard her sing. As we came into her room she was singing, “This is my story, this is my song, praising the Lord all the day long.”
Dana graduated from OU with a degree in mechanical engineering and in June Dorr and I took Dana to Phoenix, where he attended the Thunderbird International School of Management. We then went to California to visit Ed. We got to meet Margie, whom he met at a Sunday School class at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto. She has big brown eyes and long brown hair. She is a little shy, but really has a quick, warm personality. When I met her I felt sure she was the one. They were married in August. Only the parents were going out to the small wedding. Two weeks before the wedding I heard this little voice coming through saying, “The Lord would like for all of you to go to Ed’s wedding to give glory to God for what He is doing in Ed’s life. He will honor this.” I was sort of overwhelmed, and said “That’s fine, but you know I can’t do anything about it or they will just say Mother’s at it again. It’s great with me, but you are just going to have to do it. I’I'll just be prepared and ready.” I felt I should tell my husband, but I was chicken until the next afternoon. It definitely had been decided earlier why it was not particularly important for everyone to go. When I told him, he just looked at me and said, “If all of those kids are going, I don’t want to go.” (It was a bunch.) So absolutely nothing was mentioned about the wedding for two days. Boy, what a test of waiting, particularly since time was running out.
The next evening, my husband breezed in from work like a different person, so happy, relaxed and talkative. He said “Say, I stopped by Kent and Denise’s to leave a package and you know, they said they would like to go to Ed’s wedding.” I said “Oh, really.” Inside I was saying, “Oh, oh, Lord here we go.” I didn’t have time to tell you how it all happened, but it was hilarious! I was exhausted from answering calls and making travel arrangements by the time I got on the plane four days later. Anyway people kept coming in by car and plane all week until by the evening before the wedding everyone in our family and Margie’s family was there. It was a simple ceremony with no attendants in a medieval-like chapel. It was a beautiful sun shining day. The words the minister said all referred back to counseling they had been having with him for several weeks and mainly centered around 1 Corinthians 13. When he finished, Ed looked at Margie and said, “I love you.” And that did it, we cried buckets of joyous tears.
Jon and Carolyn were married May 25, 1974 and he received his degree in accounting from OU in May, 1975. The marriage lasted until 1977. In August Dana and Elsie came from Brussels and were married in our home by Dick Hershberger, who was the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church. They flew back to Brussels the next day. Dana came home in April and Elsie came in June. Marc, Elsie's son, went to live with his father. Elsie's mother came with her grandson, Daniel, for Christmas.
In January Dorr and I went to Maui with the Airtemp VIP group. Then I went to Scotland, England and Switzerland with Adventure of Living. Visited Stonegate, then went to see Dana, Elsie and Marc in Brussels. Dorr and I went to Greece in October.
Kent and Karen were married March 20, 1977. Dorr and I, Jon, Kent and Karen went on an Airtemp trip to Switzerland in October. Kent and Karen have given me three more granddaughters, Karoline (March 6, 19 ), Karly (June 17, 19 ) and Kamille ( ).
Dorr and I went to Israel with Pastor Robert Wise in February. I went on my first crusade trip with Nora Lam in August. The trip included Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan. This was the first of many trips to China. In October Dorr became quite ill with a liver problem. He lost a lot of blood and the recovery was slow. In January, 1979 Dorr and I flew to Maui for a rest and stayed at a condominium near Keihi. Met friends from Seattle that we had met in 1976. We were with our friends, Andy and Margaret Newcomer, and visited the Japanese Congregational church they were pastoring. Fog delayed our departure and we had to spend the night in the airport. I also made a second crusade trip in July to Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines.
Amber was born May 3, 1979 and I went to Stillwater to care for Megan.In May I had a bladder operation and got my first doll house, fun! In 1980 we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in June. The kids had a home party for us and Jon even had T-shirts made. We then went to ShangriLa with Carter and Joan. I took Chris and Dustin to Disney World at spring break. The following year Chris and I went on a crusade trip to Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong. Then in 1981 I took Tim and Diane to Disney World. We also went to Epcot.
Kathy, Megan, Kay and I went to Kimberly’s (Sterling and Rae Donna Jones's daughter) wedding in Houston on January 2, 1983. Fran, Dorothy and I took a trip to Israel at Easter; it was a wonderful trip.
Ed, Margie, Tim and Diane came for a visit the last of August, 1984 on their way to Pennsylvania. EDS had transferred Ed to Pennsylvania. In September Dorr and I flew to Harrisburg and visited them. In 1985 Tim and Diane came for a three-week visit. Ed came for five days; good visit. The kids and I drove to Texas to see their other grandparents, Lemmah Perry and friends in Plano. Chris and I went on the Oklahoma Friendship Force trip to Australia.
In early 1991 Dorr became desperately ill and was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver from all of the heavy drinking he had done over the previous ten years. After this incident he stopped drinking for a while and regained a lot of the energy and confidence that he had lost. He moved his office from the Comfort building to the little room we had for the grandkids upstairs. He got interested in the computer and even helped Jon build a new home. He spent time keeping up with income and expenses and about a dozen investments in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. He watched quite a bit of TV including 60 Minutes, Rush Limbaugh, old 1940’s movies, Perry Mason, Murder She Wrote, Father Dowling, Sherlock Holmes and Matlock. He would walk the dog every day at 4:00.
Dorr and I traveled extensively over the years to Europe, the Middle East, and Hawaii. His last trip abroad was in 1980 when we to see the Passion Play in Germany. In 1994 we went on our last trip to Las Vegas. When Dorr got off the plane his knee had gone completely out and it was a quarter of a mile from the gate to the baggage claim, so we got a wheelchair and I pushed him. We stayed at the Vegas World on the strip. We took taxis and visited the other hotels. We took it easy for the first couple of days. The amazing thing was Dorr never had a drink the whole week we were there. I enjoyed playing the slot machines while Dorr played blackjack.
The really big show was Siegfield and Roy, the illusionists. They came from Germany and had been together for twenty-five years. Their show is so big that the Mirage built a twenty million-dollar theater for it. This was our last night so we went there. When we called they only had 40 seats left for the 11:00 show. Because of Dorr’s knees we got first class treatment everywhere we went. They even gave him a stool at the head of the line to wait for the opening, then a table right in the middle. We both agreed that this was the biggest thing we’d ever seen.
We got back to our room about 2:00 and we were so exhausted that we went to bed thinking our departure was at 3:45 the next day, which really was our arrival time in OKC. Thus we missed the flight and took a later flight that arrived in OKC around midnight. Kent picked us up and we got home around 2:00. We were so exhausted we didn’t go out of the house for several days. I did not think I would enjoy this trip but it turned out to be one of our best.
In his last few years Dorr enjoyed writing a number of letters trying to reach members of his LST ship. Dorr enjoyed writing letters to his old friends and would write them nearly every month.
Dorr’s pastimes the last few years here at home were working on the computer and watching TV. He had four color sets with cable, three with VCR. He would tape the late night shows on NBC and CBS and watch them the next day along with murder mysteries, Rush Limbaugh, and movies. In his early years he loved photography and played golf and tennis. He also enjoyed fishing.
In March, 1995 Dorr went into the hospital with pneumonia. He died at home on July 13, 1995.
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