Sunday, January 18, 2026
Dear my Rob,
It is hard to believe it is already time for your birthday letter again.
If you were still living, you would be 67 years old today.
One of your children joked
that the Gen Alphas could make fun of your age this year..
… 6 7
That made me smile.
I never plan what I’m going to write to you in your birthday letters.
I just sit down and type.
So here is your 2026 letter.
A lot has happened this year – some wonderful – some awful.
I’ll start with me.
I’m teaching again.
Remember when we talked about me teaching preschool
when all of the kids finished college?
That is exactly what I’m doing.
I’m teaching fifteen 4 year olds
(thankfully, I have a good assistant teacher!).
I really enjoy all of my new little friends
and it is always a joyful moment when one of them
has a breakthrough on making progress or
mastering a skill I know he or she will need
for the rest of his or her life.
It has reminded me how much I love those light bulb moments
and how much I really do love teaching.
And, just like all of my students always did,
I know my new students would have loved you reading to them
using all of your voices –
and playing your guitar and singing silly songs to them.
They have no idea what they are missing.
Maybe before the end of the school year,
I will figure out how to get the VHS tape transferred to digital
so they can watch you reading to my 4th graders in 1996.
Luke is following in your footsteps of coming to my classrooms.
You would be proud of him and his Lauren for that.
He and Lauren came and sang at one of our chapels
and my students still talk about Mr. Luke.
Our Crystol Erin is next.
We were blessed to get to see her a lot this year.
She was here for graduations,
a college friend’s wedding,
and for Luke’s wedding.
It was SO GOOD to see her that much!
She is a great mom to our grandpups
and she is still enjoying her job.
Crystol’s husband, Alan, was able to be here for Luke’s wedding
and it was so good to see him, too!
It had been 3 years since we had seen him.
He is a great dad to our grandpups
and he still loves being a professor.
In fact, he was given an award for his teaching this year.
Can’t remember the name of the award but it was a big honor!
I am proud of Crystol and Alan!
I know you would be, too!
And I just wish they didn’t live so far away!
Next is our Anna Elizabeth.
Anna is still a teacher.
She has been teaching in a multi-age classroom
at a Montessori school and she loves it!
I was so happy for her and so proud of her!
She had really hit her stride.
Until November 2025.
When shortness of breath sent her to the emergency room.
A CAT scan revealed a mass on her thyroid.
There was an eleven night stay in the hospital.
On December 4, 2025, we found out for sure that
our 29 year old Anna has cancer.
Large B Cell Lymphoma.
It’s hard to type those words.
Surreal still.
And I hate it.
My heart breaks into a million pieces every time I think about it.
She has a good prognosis, the doctors say.
They even use the word, “curable.”
I am so, so, so very thankful for that.
I really am!
But I hate the reality that it’s happening at all.
She started chemotherapy in December 2025.
Plummeting white blood cell counts causing
a neutropenic fever led to another hospital stay.
After she lost most of her hair,
we shaved the rest off last Sunday and
God led us to the perfect wig for her on Monday.
She had her 2nd round (of 6) of chemo on Friday.
She has been throwing up since.
And today, on what would have been your birthday,
we spent the day going back to the cancer center
for her to receive a white cell booster shot
in hopes that she won’t end up back in the hospital this round.
The doctors took Anna out of work.
Since her immune system is almost non-existent,
she cannot work with little children.
As much as we love those little children,
they are little germ magnets,
and those germs could literally be life-threatening for Anna.
So, to sum up Anna’s time since last year’s letter,
she was having a great year until she wasn’t.
Next is our Wesley Robert.
Our Wesley graduated from college again –
he earned his master’s degree in history.
He was accepted into
a doctoral program in
So he left for
My heart broke into a million pieces when he drove away.
Yours would have been breaking, too.
I know that because I was beside you when
Crystol drove away to
move to
What is it with our children moving to those “O” states!!!?!!!
It’s not that we didn’t want Crystol to live her life.
We just wished it could be closer to us.
That’s the way I feel about Wesley.
I am so proud of him and I know he has to live his life.
I just miss him so very much
and wish his life could be lived closer to me!
He is actually deferring for a year –
to work full time and save money for tuition
and to maybe be eligible for in state tuition.
Alexcina, the woman he loves, also earned her master’s degree
on the same day as Wesley. Her degree is in Museum Studies.
And she loves him very much.
So much so that she
applied for jobs in
She is the curator of a museum there.
I am so proud of her, too!
The other big news about our Wesley Robert is that he is engaged!
On September 8, 2025,
Wesley asked his Alexcina to marry him
and she said yes!
They are planning a 2027 wedding
and we are all excited for that!
And lastly comes our
baby, Luke Edward.
He will always be the baby, won’t he?
The one you treated more like a grandchild.
The one who called you Papa.
Luke graduated college –
earning his bachelor degree in
music – vocal performance.
His senior recital was awesome.
You would have loved every second of it!
I was so proud of him and you would have been, too!
There was a mix-up with his transfer credits
so he had to take 2 classes during the summer.
He was able to walk in the May ceremony
but his actual graduation date was in August.
God brought him the perfect job
and he was hired before he even graduated.
He is the choir director at a local church
and Lauren is the accompanist.
It is exactly what they wanted to do.
They had both wanted to work in a church setting
and their dream was to work together.
This job was and is their dream come true.
Reminds me of when you got your first appointment to pastor a church.
It was fun to watch your dream come true then.
It’s been fun to watch Luke’s (and Lauren’s) come true now.
But the BIGGEST news about Luke since your last birthday is that
he and Lauren are married!
They were married December 13, 2025.
Luke wanted to get married somewhere that he had a connection with you.
So they got married at Mt Hermon, your last pastorate.
One of the pastors who officiated wore your white stole for the wedding ceremony.
They used your communion chalice and plate for their first communion together.
So parts of you were a part of the day.
Watching the two of them watch each other was the sweetest part of the whole day.
You would have been smiling and crying as much as I was!
It was a glorious day!
As I said,
a lot has happened since last January 18th.
A lot of happy.
A lot of sad.
A lot of heart warming.
A lot of heart breaking.
So life moves forward.
And you are missed in every part of it.
We didn’t go out to eat this year.
Anna was vomiting.
She can’t really be in restaurants right now anyway
with her compromised immune system.
But I did cook some steak (your favorite food)
for Luke, Lauren, and me.
And some toast for Anna.
And we all remembered you in our own ways this year.
You will never be forgotten.
Love,
Your Janna
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will be posting lots of photos so the kids and I can all smile at the memories.
Hope they make you smile, too!
I will also post links to what I've written before on Rob's birthdays
in case you would like to read them or see more photos.
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2013/01/fifty-four.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2014/01/fifty-five.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2015/01/fifty-six_18.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2016/01/fifty-seven.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2017/01/58.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2018/01/59.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2019/01/60.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2020/01/61.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2021/01/62.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2022/01/63.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2023/01/64.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2024/01/65.html
https://jannasview.blogspot.com/2025/01/66.html
