Community

Oysterponds: Monthly meeting of Orient-East Marion Park District, Aug. 4

It’s so good to get lots of happy news to report from Oysterponds this week. Births, weddings, engagements, reunions, parties and puppies!

Let’s start with the most fun, the birth of six puppies in the Carol/Lyle Tuthill home. Resident black lab Stella gave birth on June 29 assisted by Carol and newly trained puppy midwife niece Sarah Tuthill. There were three boys and three girls. Stella is one step away from being a champion. But the father, whose name is Trouble, is a yellow Lab and a titled Westminster National Labrador Retriever. Congrats on the new additions.

The Tuthills are celebrating the recent engagement of daughter (summer kid) Katherine to Tom Quinn. Tom popped the question just before the July Fourth holiday and the plans are in the works for a wedding next June 16 in Orient.

Speaking of births, congratulations to the Reeves family on the arrival of their new daughter (Keri-Ann’s), granddaughter (Tom and Cheri’s), great-granddaughter (Marge and Bob’s) and great-great-granddaughter (Gert’s). Jordan LeeAnn was born one month premature on July 25 at Winn Army Hospital in Georgia, weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces. Mom and baby are doing fine — such a blessing, since a major part of her first trimester was spent in a war zone and on military transports winging their way back to the U.S.

Congratulations are also in order for another “Orient kid,” Ryane Rogers, who tied the knot with high school sweetheart Sean Hoeffling in Mitchell Park on July 10. Ryane was attended by sister Kaitlin Rogers and, as flower girl, daughter Madison Rose. Sean’s best man was best friend Sean Kansewick. Ryane was given away by her dad, Jeff Rogers, and arrived by boat captained by uncle Ed Caufield. A celebration followed at uncle Tim Caufield’s home in Cutchogue. It was a special family affair and we all wish them the very best for a happy/healthy marriage.

Then there was an amazing family affair that, like that of history’s most famous family (the Holy family), started in Israel. Many St. Agnes parishioners signed on for a pilgrimage to Israel in April 2010, including Noreen Bischoff and Jane Winsch. When Jane had to back out due to a family crisis, Noreen’s brother Denis, who lived in Charlotte at the time, jumped in to fill the gap. It was there in Jerusalem that Denis, a recent widower, and Peconic Landing’s Pat Becker, a recent widow, met and quickly fell in love. So on Sunday, surrounded by a gaggle of relatives (close to three score of them!) who came from North Carolina, Illinois and Texas as well as New York and Connecticut, Denis and Pat celebrated the sacrament of matrimony, witnessed by Father Tom, who declared that miracles still do happen at Cana (site of another famous wedding feast, where a “first” miracle was performed). Oysterponds sends only the best in thoughts for this serendipitous, meant-to-be union.

The monthly meeting of the Orient-East Marion Park District is Thursday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. at Oysterponds School. All are welcome to attend.

Oysterponds is always a great place to revisit your childhood and Deane Fox Jr. (Skipper) did just that last week when he and his wife, Kay, were in town from Lewisville, Texas, for a holiday. On Thursday night at the foot of Village Lane, they enjoyed the sunset and reminisced about the early days of the Orient Yacht Club, which his father, Deane Sr., help to found in 1933. It’s always good to welcome back old friends.

Lastly, Oysterponds extends sympathy to Doris Sherman on the loss of her husband, Captain Dick Sherman, who was a familiar and frequent silhouette in Oysterponds.