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8 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MAY 2021 By Martha Franck I was born and raised in Cleveland about a mile from Lake Erie. Winters were gloomy, dark, and long. One rarely saw the sun. I lived in the city until I was 10 and then my parents moved to a small farm about 40 miles east of Cleveland. We always had dogs and cats, and then we had pigs, chickens, ducks, and a horse. We moved back to the city after I graduated. I married and my husband was offered a job in California. It was minus six degrees in a blinding snowstorm when we left Ohio in February 1967. It took five days to drive our VW Bug to California. On the fourth day while driving through the desert and looking at the barren landscape, I felt like crying, thinking this is what I have to look forward to in our new home. On the fifth day, we came down the Cajon Pass into San Bernardino. The sun was shining and the palm trees were swaying. I fell in love instantly with the climate. It was February and the sun was warm and beautiful! We settled into our new life and by fall, we had a baby girl, followed by a baby boy two years later. When our children were four and two, I decided to go to college. I wanted to be a registered nurse and started the pre-requisite classes at Chaffey College. A year and a half later I was accepted into the RN program and graduated two years after that. I passed the state exam and began working at Kaiser in Fontana. Fast forward a few years. My husband switched professions and went into real estate. He convinced me to join him. I loved the thought of being outdoors while working and ultimately, took the California real estate test. I continued to work part-time as an RN at Kaiser because we had full health coverage for the family. However, as things sometimes happen, we ended up getting a divorce. I remained single and was raising the children on my own. Then friends called and wanted me to meet someone. I was hesitant at first but a little over a year after we first met, Gary and I married. We all moved to his house in Yorba Linda — five children between the ages of nine and 18, three dogs, and five cats. We became The Brady Bunch on steroids. Today, all five children are married and doing well. I have 14 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. In early 2006, Gary and I wanted to look for a one-story house. A friend told us about Four Seasons in Beaumont. We drove out to see the models and were impressed. We bought in July and chose the lot bordering The Paseo. Our two Labradors would love the view of the park and could watch people and dogs walk by. The house was finally ready in February of 2007 and by then, we had lost one of our dogs to old age. There were only some 400 homes here at the time. The Lodge was new and we made friends and joined them on Fridays for dinner at the Bistro. That summer, the Social Committee had a hoedown and I talked Gary into going. It was fun, but I couldn't dance. I have always loved to dance but I just didn't know how to dance to country music. A couple of residents started a class watching dance videos. I went, but since I had never taken dance lessons of any kind and not knowing the steps at all, I just couldn't catch on. So I stuck with what I could do successfully — loving Gary and our black Labrador, Tut. Gary and I walked Tut every day on the trails. It was peaceful and relaxing. We would see squirrels, rabbits, bobcats, coyotes, and twice we saw a mountain lion. In October, Tut passed away. We were brokenhearted. Soon, I started looking for another black Labrador. I found one in early January held by a rescue group near San Diego. We filled out the application and waited weeks for someone to inspect our yard for safety. Finally, in mid-February we were able to meet him. Sparky was a beautiful four year old that had been lost in the Devore Fire in late 2007. He had been scrounging for food and weighed only 27 pounds when he was captured. He didn't like men or other dogs so we had to be very careful when walking him. He slowly improved and became such a good dog and loyal friend — with Gary, his master of choice. Meanwhile, I found a class for line dancing at the Cherry Valley Grange. I started going to class once a week. Ginny taught the steps one at a time – once – and then we danced. I surrounded myself with other dancers who

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