Dan Biedler in 1963 and about 1972.

My beloved brother Daniel Van Morgan Biedler, Sr. (1945-2020) died (Nov 13) at 10:24pm Central Time in Tulsa, OK. Thank God, he was able to live with our brother John the last 2 1/2 years of his life so he had lots of help as his cancer progressed. I could post hundreds of photos but shall be satisfied at this time with those I could rustle up quickly from my computer files.

II found these notes (below) just now on the beginning of Dan's illness the day after Dan passed-over.

Dated: August 2018

Brother Dan was just been told that he may have pancreatic cancer. They did a biopsy yesterday and he will get the final results today. They also discovered a large blood clot (in spite of all the blood thinners he has taken since his open heart surgery 10 years ago) on his spleen, which they think may be the result of the pancreas malfunctioning….which is also a common sign of cancer being present. He has been nauseous and in great pain for 3 months but they didn't choose to run all these additional tests until just this week after he checked himself into Emergency for the 4th time in 6 months!!! (All this time they have told him he simply had c-diff ..... which he contracted from being in the hospital in January.)

I am so dumb-founded at how many times the doctors have failed to run additional tests that could have caught this sooner! All I can do is sputter about my frustration!!!! I know I have to choose to deal with reality “as it IS”, not as it “could have been IF….” .

Someone sent me a link to this National Review article. I don't subscribe yet I was able to read it. https://www.nationalreview.com/.../berkeley-free-speech.../

So ironic to read this article at this time since we Biedler Elders were asked about this period in our lives during our recent Family Reunion July 27- Aug 4 (2018) here on the island. We held a session the first morning at our place after everyone had arrived. It was at the request of the younger generation. They wanted to interview / ask questions of the older generation (6 of us counting the 2 mates). During this session, we got our brother Dan (who was too ill to come) on my iPad via FaceTime so he was able to “be present” for the whole two hours, too.

Dan was able to answer questions and hear everyone's responses and watch the family at the same time as his son Craig carried the iPad/FaceBook about the group. This is the aspect of modern technology I absolutely love -- the ease with which it makes interviews and capturing stories possible!!! We weren't sure how long we would hold the younger generation's attention (ages 6-50) but by golly, they went on for two hours! My 15-year old granddaughter taped it all and is going to create a Biedler Reunion YouTube channel for the family and upload it there.

We are still hoping and praying they'll be able to do something to bring him some greater comfort at the very least. Don’t know if chemo will help much. (I do think he has cancer. He has all the symptoms a distant Biedler cousin (whom I discovered in VA 30 years ago) has who was diagnosed in January of this year.)

So wish Dan could move in with us but he can't get the kind of medical care here on this island that he now needs. My simplistic take on life is that when all is said and done, what we always have left in the face of any of life's challenges is LOVE and how we CHOOSE to face the challenge. It's not easy but I think LOVE makes it doable, like childbirth. Yes, the older I get, the more I see end of life challenges like a prolonged childbirth. I choose to believe we are being birthed into the next stage of Life as we age and embrace our passing with whatever grace we can grasp as we inch our way thru the birth canal of Life. So much for my waxing eloquent.

Daniel Van Morgan Biedler, Sr. born 1945

Below, the two girls are Dan's granddaughters.

Dan in the Philippines getting ready to attend the Boy Scout World Jamboree that just happened to bde held them while we were living on Panay Island Jan 1959-June 1060.

Dan with friend in Tanzania with whom he attended the Outward Bound training course in order to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

So seldom saw Dan all dressed up fancy like this while we were living in Tanzania 1963-1964. Don't know where he was headed.

Dan learning about the foods of India while we were living in Tanzania, which has a very large Indian population. He LOVED Indian and other Asian foods the rest of his life!

Don't know what Dad his feeding Dan in this photo!

Another gathering with his many Indian friends in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Someone seems to be assisting him with a drink of water!

Below: Oh my, the camping Safari across the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania that Mom & Dad put together for us in first half of 1964!! What an incredible adventure that was!! L-R: Dad (J. Sam Biedler), Mary Biedler (my one year older sister), Mother (Betty Peebles Biedler), Dan Biedler (my one year younger brother), and myself

Dan and I were in chorale together during our high school years at Stow-Munroe Falls High School in NE Ohio. This photo was taken my senior year 1962 (his Jr. year) when I sang "Italian Street Song" from Naughty Marietta. Can you spot Dan? (front row on right with his head cocked to the side)

Who else do you see there that you can ID?

Dan in 1963 and about 1972.

Dan in 1968 in Pasadena, CA

With his three sons at a reunion with Mother in Pasadena in 1988.

By 1947 the two had become six!

   

The Four Angels about 1952

It just gets funnier and funnier folks! (1957) 

The extra male here is Dennis Carpenter, 

a family friend. Don't you just love those hats! 

My dress was straight from the Thrift Store....a rustling purple taffeta! I LOVED it! 

(Purple and Easter kind of go together, right?)

A few years later...

The Four Musketeers in 2011 gathered for our daughter Lori's wedding here onLopez Island.

The Four Elders gathered again soon after Dan has his leg amputated in Sept 2019.

My sister Mary with Dan and Mary's youngest daughter, Amy, the day before Dan was moving into the nursing home in the Tulsa area

.

Dan with his old high school Stow football buddies. Dan in gray at end of table. Next to Dan on his left in maroon is  football buddy Larry Csonka (former Miami Dolphin pro player). Ron Marhofer front left in black is on Dan's right. I can't recall the names of the others.  When one of Dan's sons tracked down one 

of his old high school football buddies to let them know of Dan's cancer situation, they planned a reunion and all flew to visit him.  Wow!  He hadn't seen any of them since graduating from high school! 

Thank you, to each one of you!  That was such an incredible blessing for Dan.

So many many wonderful times and memories!

Biedler Spinning Wheel - Shenandoah Valley

Biedler Covered Bridge Farm of New Market Virginia

I have no experience spinning or weaving but I couldn't resist this quilt (67x98 from SE Ohio).

Anyone know if there was a published pattern at one time? Or do you think someone just created their own from a silhouette image?

(above) This is the only other spinning-wheel-focused quilt I have seen an image of seen.

The photo above is just one block from a quilt in my collection 

by African American quilt artist Marie Wilson.

This is another Marie Wilson quilt I jut discovered in the April 1987 back issue of Quilters Newsletter magazine. Does anyone know where this quilt resides now?

Why did I buy the spinning wheel quilt (other than the fact that I loved old quilts, period!) Because I inherited a family spinning wheel from 

the Shenandoah Valley before I left Virginia in 2004!

Below is my youngest grandson exploring the old family spinning wheel.

 I am so grateful life took us to Virginia for 15 years, thus enabling me to do primary family research.  I inherited this beautiful object from 101 year Mary Lucille Biedler Piner, a distant cousin.  I discovered her brother Claude Daniel Biedler in Vienna, VA about 1991, which eventually led me to Lucille who lived in Shelby, NC at the time.

 Just above is a photo of Luciile's grandparents, her grandfather being my Grandfather's uncle and her grandmother being the one who originally owned the spinning wheel and from whom Lucille inherited it. This branch of the Biedler family lived near New Market, VA and built the Biedler Covered Bridge in 1895, the last covered bridge in Virginia on private land (not owned by the state) that is still in daily use.  Some of my research on this family was referenced in the book "The Covered Bridges of Virginia" by Leola B. Pierce.

Besides the spinning wheel, I also inherited 15 Farm Ledgers from Lucille about the building and working of the Biedler Covered Bridge Farm from the 1870-1960. The ledgers even list all the men hired to make the bricks right there on the farm and lists all the construction supplies Daniel ordered
from Baltimore.

One or two of the ledgers I have were kept by the women of the family. In those ledgers they recorded the money they made from the selling of their turkeys / chickens / and eggs. I was told that money was theirs to spend as they chose for they hard earned it. It is all great reading if you love studying cultural history!

BELOW: A spinning wheel I found on line that looks very similar to mine.

Here is another photo I found with the parts of the spinning wheel identified and labeled.

You can read more about this family farm here.

So many more things to write about, but it is time to get back to a quilting deadline I have.   I actually don't quilt very often. As much as I love it, I love research and writing even more so that is where I spend most of my time.

Hope you keep files of your own family history for future generations!

Happy Holidays!

Karen

Remembering The Philippines & the Gonzaga Family

Spent all day yesterday scanning a photo album I created so many years ago I can't even count any more. And yet as I look at the photos, the memories come flooding back. Click on the photo to enlarge the view.

Dr. Eduardo Gonzaga and his wife Anita were both graduates of American universities.  Dr. Ed was an an eye surgeon and the President of the Board of Central Philippine University at the time. Auntie, as we called her, was a musician and soloist as well as mother of six.  They were a wonderful couple and made sure we Biedlers had many wonderful and unique (for us) experiences in our 18 months on Panay. Their oldest son Otoniel was born in 1942 so he was just two years older than I.  He was singing even then, just like his mother did. It was wonderful to sing around the piano with those two at the Gonzaga home for I, too, loved to sing and did some solo work at age 15 at special vents while in the Philippines. But I had no idea at that time that Otoniel would go on to become an opera star!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoniel_Gonzaga_(tenor_singer)   and http://otonielgonzaga.com/recording.html

One of the most memorable was spending a week on a fish farm on the island of Negros, sleeping in nipa huts, riding carabao and getting up in the middle of the night to help net fish in the fish ponds!  We also hiked back into the mountains to where their extended family had hidden during the Japanese occupation during WWII.

I had always had an affinity for history and geography from about age 10 on. Now as our family traveled the world to and from The Philippines, history came alive before my eyes. WWII came to life as I heard stories from those who had personally lived thru the Japanese occupation of The Philippines. As we family camped across Europe on our way home the summer of 1960, we even saw remnants of some of the devastating bombing that the Allies had imposed upon Germany.

We also saw wonderful museums, ruins of ancient historic cities, and visited people in their homes.

You can read more my clicking thru to my other blog here.

In the 3rd photo of this first scanned page from my album, I am at the far right. On my right stands Otoniel Gonzaga, the oldest son of Uncle Ed and Auntie, who went on to become an opera star.

Otoniel Gonzaga, the eldest son, stands next to me in the photo above.  Otoniel went on to become an opera singer in Europe. Music ran in the family for both his mother as well as his older sister had beautiful voices. Here are a few links if you would like to hear him sing. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apspYKejHGQ  (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g4lHqgjdH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG51-XIbRPE

Here are recordings with no videos: http://www.otonielgonzaga.com/recording.html

Being exposed to so many different cultures during my teens also introduced me to a great diversity of design and crafts, especially in The Philippines. I still have several yards of handwoven jusi from the Island of Panay as well as the barong that my youngest brother wore. Below Daday, the daughter in the family my age, is dressed in the lovely silk-looking fabric that I remember so well and still have several yards of.