A personal post from Graham Ellis
Lisa and Graham live in Melksham, Wiltshire, England

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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Ruth Davis, 1916 - 2010

I first met Ruth Davis in 1996 - retired in Fort Myers, Florida, with a long, interesting and distinguished life already stretching back some 80 years behind her at that time. I got to know her better - but not as well as I would have liked - over the following years as I courted and then married her daughter Lisa. Ruth passed away last week at the age of 94, and I'm going to break my usual guideline of "not talking family" here, in her honour.

Ruth and her husband - Lisa's dad Gerald, who passed on before I ever met Lisa, were a US army family, and Lisa tells of childhood memories of the Middle East, Germany and Italy, with her and her older sister and brothers as part of the family who traveled on location. And she tells of other involvements she heard a little about where the family couldn't go ... but rather they stayed and lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And when he retired, they continued to live in Carlisle as a good eduction base for Lisa, before retiring to Florida and living down there - Lisa also moving south after college and living half an hour or so from them for many years. It takes a remarkable lady to support her husband, rising to roles such as camp commander at Camp King, and bring up four very bright children as well as she clearly did - and it takes a dedication to settle down upon retirement based largely on the upbringing of the youngest of the those children.

As I said, I first met Ruth in Fort Myers when I was courting Lisa. She was still driving, living quietly in an immaculate single storey home in the city, although her sight was just starting to blur a little. We went round to visit, we ate Thanksgiving Dinner and - as I later learned - she said and did some things a little our of the ordinary to see how I would react - whether she considered me a suitable suitor.

The following Christmas, we drove with Ruth from Florida up to visit the rest of her "children" in Manasas, Washington and Lynchburg, and our own combine families - my parents and children - were on the trip or part of it too. I've fond memories of that Christmas. Of lifting our feet off the floor every time we crossed a stateline in the car. Of Ruth insisting that my parents tried boiled peanuts which are the Florida equivalent of marmite - incomprehensible to outsiders. Of meeting Pat, Phil and their families, and how they all welcomed not only me, but also my family.

Ruth found the drive rather exhausting, and indeed she was getting on and decided to move into some more sheltered accommodation a few years later. Her extraordinary background was such that she was eligible for a facility "par excellence" in Virginia, and for the last 10 years or so we have visited her there from time to time. It's not everyone's cup of tea to go visiting such places (it's not usually mine), but I was honoured to go to another continent to visit - and Ruth always made it an experience to enjoy too. Sadly, the last time we visited, she had had to move out of her apartment for a while and into the hospital wing after a fall, but even that was "classy" and you felt that the patients were customers and real people and not just "yet another old person". And Ruth was certainly not just another old person.

There's so much I don't know about my mother in law - and much of what I do know was come through Lisa's loving words. I'm not sure that I understand Kilburn, Illinois connection. I certainly don't know what it's like to walk up the street in a land where your country is not welcomed by the locals. And I don't know the Ruth as she was in earlier life. I suspect that if I look at her daughters Pat and Lisa, I'll have a pretty good idea. (Pat - if you're reading this - please close your eyes for a sentence). Pat's been a rock - a true support - for her mother for the past few years. I know the family has said "thank you", and I do too. Nothing is too much trouble for Pat - utterly selfless, but as the same time looking out for family, and not suffering sillies. I know that Pat was concerned for a younger sibling moving halfway across the world - and rightly so - and she rightly asked some rather deep questions of me. But this is not about Pat - it's the reflection of her mother in her.

I'm writing of someone I knew not-all-that-well ... and I hope to learn more of her in coming weeks and months. Lisa and I will be visiting the US in due course for a graveside service, and the family will be getting together. It will also give us a chance to say an additional "Thank you" to Pat, and to brother Brian. He and his wife Jean (especially), have been dedicated to ensuring that Ruth got the best of medical care and attention in the last weeks.

I hope to come back and fill in some stories - and add some new ones - on our return. And our getting together will be a celebration of the life of Ruth Davis, all that she was and did, and how she continues on in those who follow her.

(written 2010-03-28)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z950 - Purely Personal
  [1014] Christmas Season Piccies - (2006-12-30)
  [1051] Too busy to blog it - but it's great (mostly) - (2007-01-24)
  [2195] A two day gap - first time in five years? - (2009-05-24)
  [2547] The great thing about snow .... - (2009-12-23)
  [2886] Congratulations, Kimberly - (2010-07-25)
  [2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03)
  [3034] Birth Notice - Aeryn Cassandra Ellis - (2010-11-07)
  [3037] Looking back and forward personally - 6 years each way - (2010-11-08)
  [3055] Zyliana Kyrei Cox - (2010-11-16)
  [3108] My First Christmas - (2010-12-26)
  [3224] Melksham Campus - a win / win opportunity, but a severely lacking decision process - (2011-03-31)
  [3240] Melksham Town Council - vacancy in the Spa Ward - (2011-04-10)
  [3283] The juggler - (2011-05-08)
  [3298] Quiet Monday in - (2011-05-23)
  [3413] If its Sunday, must it be Weymouth? - (2011-08-30)
  [3450] A threat in the post? Poor marketing practise from Smiletrain? - (2011-09-19)
  [3511] Melksham has a heart - have your picture taken and support the defibrillator appeal - (2011-11-06)
  [3556] Aeryn at 1 - (2011-12-19)
  [3566] Initial thoughts - response to GW Rail Franchise Consultation for Wiltshire - (2011-12-31)
  [3602] Emerging proposals for land to the east of Spa Road, Melksham - (2012-02-03)
  [3711] Kiss - (2012-04-28)
  [3905] How should we choose our Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner? - (2012-10-27)
  [4111] Zigzag bus - forward for the future, or decaying service? - (2013-06-09)
  [4157] Wedding Photos - Kim Ellis to Kyle Londors, 22nd August 2013 - (2013-08-23)
  [4165] Improving travel advise information in Wiltshire - (2013-09-06)
  [4187] Not treading water, but not risking the ship for a 0.5th of tar either - (2013-10-06)
  [4201] Looking to the future at Melksham Station - (2013-10-26)
  [4221] Celebration of the fruits of LSTF, and of the people who have helped and are helping - (2013-12-15)
  [4235] Sharing my personal best of 2013 - (2013-12-31)
  [4275] Eurpoean Elections, and other elections ahead. Some thoughts on campaigns and policies - (2014-05-08)
  [4281] A different vision for the future - (2014-07-09)
  [4286] Reaction in Radstock to new First bus prices - (2014-07-12)
  [4308] What can you and I learn from online quizzes? - (2014-09-27)
  [4476] Upcoming election - Chippenham Constituency - the major candidates compared - (2015-04-29)
  [4485] Misusing statistics? - the seedy side of election campaigning - (2015-05-04)
  [4489] Election results - what if we had a party list system? - (2015-05-08)
  [4600] A big change in August - (2015-12-25)
  [4625] Where does Wiltshire bus subsidy money come from? - (2016-01-19)
  [4657] Rumours of bus changes by First in Wiltshire - what we know and suspect - (2016-03-01)
  [4658] The end of competition on a bus route - the effects from then end of the 234 - (2016-03-02)
  [4669] Buses - how did we get into the situation we are in? - (2016-04-02)
  [4698] Lisa writes - on the referendum vote today - (2016-06-23)
  [4714] The technical article feed continues - personal updates more proactive on Facebook now! - (2016-10-30)
  [4728] Visiting Los Alamitos Bay Yacht Club - (2016-11-23)
  [4734] Thoughts on the new Blackmore Ward of Melksham Without Parish - (2017-02-22)
  [4735] Revisiting - should I stand for Melksham Without Parish Council in May? - (2017-02-24)
  [4737] Why you should vote for Lisa in Melksham Central - (2017-05-01)
  [4739] A year of changes for Lisa and Graham Ellis, and Well House - (2017-05-27)
  [4756] Learning how to be a more effective community partner - (2017-07-15)
  [4759] Sale of effects and furniture - 12th and 13th August 2017 - (2017-07-25)
  [4761] Looking forward to the autumn. - (2017-08-19)
  [4767] Some thoughts on 2017, and looking forward to 2018 - (2017-12-31)


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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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