We Have Many Special Gifts

And many special days.

Updated January 2023

This page is dedicated to our free-spirit children, one especially that we desire never to be tamed . . . allowed to stay fresh and filled with the love of life, our Hopie, sprinkled now and then with a teaspoon of common sense from her loving parents. And there are John, Mark, and Matthew, our being proud of the achievements of these young men along with our Bill, a Trophy Winner in the 2007 National Truck Safety Rodeo.

Below you can see Hope (Hopie), who visited North Carolina in November of 2005. This section represents a few moments of time that she spent here in the state's beautiful western mountain chain.

And there are many other pictures below of other visits of more of our crew, along with a dedication to someone who was very special to all of them, Matt D.

 

Sunset on Wolf Ridge North Carolina, looking West toward the Smoky Mountains.
Some of the crew at home.  Picture with John, now a top Red-Bull driver and excellent hard rock drummer.  Former Wolf Ridge Restaurant, its internal structure including tree trunks (See picture to left.)
Inside the former Wolf Ridge Restaurant.
Hopie with a very special parrot.
Dining at the former Wolf Ridge Restaurant.
A very special lady who made this long journey possible.
A back yard we could not have dreamed of.
 

October 22, 2005. Sunset seen from the Lodge on Wolf Ridge, Wolf Laurel, western North Carolina.

Hopie with one who helped her find her way.

The view from the top of Wolf Ridge, Wolf Laurel, NC.

 

 

 

 

Welcome Newborn Raine Kaylee Kallback.

 

Click on image to hear her dad sing to his daughter, Raine.

 

 

Laughing In The Raine!

Click On photo to watch Raine respond to her dad.

Raine with her dad, growing up so fast. - Pops

January 15, 2023

 

First Day School September 2022

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." - Answers

 

 

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Family gathering for lunch in Morristown, NJ, July 2022. TKS from mom and pops.

 

 

 

A Special Day In May, 2018

The Fourhorsemen at Hope's wedding in May, 2018

 

 

The Fourhorsemen Family, May, 2018

 

Former U.S. Marine, Matthew Thomas

Having climbed mountains in Afghanistan, now climbs them in Manhattan.

Click on image to watch.

 

 

Matthew, A Celebrated Uber Driver In The New York City Area 2019.

Matthew celebrated on Ubar May 2019.

 

 

Matthew Thomas: Days, Nights, and Years - Buy on TuneCore
- The Dismantling of A Lance Corporal -
 
Goodbye Ronnie: My Simple Spotless Waiting
Ronnie Lickers Band w/ Singer Hope and daughter - YouTube

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2015

(Grandpa and Grandna Connie on smartphone screen in NC.)

2015 Thanksgiving of the kids and guests at Mark's home in New Jersey. Mom and dad are in North Carolina, seen on the smartphone screen Mark is holding up.

 

 

Christmas 2021

 

 

Hopie Halloween 2021

Casting her spells again.

 

Kaydence Gone Digital

Cooper Spooked 2021

 

 

Lucas Meets Liam - October 24, 2021

Click On photo to watch video.

Lucas meets Liam, LMK brothers.

 

Lucas November of 2021

Click to watch a birthday party.

 

Captain Lucas Markovych at Five Months

Predecessor of Kirk

To boldly go where no man has gone before. -

Click To Watch Lucas Summer Of 2021

 

How Time Flies, July 2022, Growl!

 

August 2022 with Liam

 

Bill, driver of 18-wheelers with over a million miles of no accidents.

 

We are very proud of Bill, also a Trophy Winner in the 2007 National Truck Safety Rodeo, nearing ten years of a perfect driving record.

 
  Billy is driver of 18-wheeler for WalMart with zero accidents.  

 

 

Watch: A Special Day For John, Baptized May 4, 2014

2012 John Peter at the Summit of Mt. Mitchell, Western North Carolina, 6000 + feet.

 

 

A Special Day In September, 2014.

John & Vanessa, September 2014

 

 

And A Special Day For John When He Realized P.F. Chang Was Not Just A Restaurant On South Park.

John Peter in earlier days discovers in WNC that PF Chang is not just a restaurant in South Park. The hostess at P.F. Chang was not amused.

 

 

A Special Day October, 2014

Mark & Oksana, October 2014

 

2012 - Mark and Oksana at the Grove Park Inn's Blue Ridge Room North Asheville

 

Mark, Oksana, and Connie at Grove Park Inn's South Wing

 

 

Just In Time When A Friend Was Needed

 

A Very Special Day For Matt

Matthew home on leave from the U.S. Marines.

 

Hats off to a beautiful international family.

 

Potter Family 2020

 

Happy and still going strong.

 

A Very Special Day For Kaydence

A Potter's Night: Father and daughter night at Browncroft Church in Rochester, NY, January 2016

 

Halloween 2015 In The Potter Family

 

Hopie, Shaylah and the Statue of Liberty off her perch from New York Harbor (2015)

 

 

Gifts Came In All Sizes For The Potter Family

Hope, Erik, Shaylah & Kaydence Dec. 2014

 

March 31, 2015, of Potter family in Rochester, New York, Erik owner of High Rev Imports.

 

Potter Family Visit July 2014.

 

Hopie, and her very special guy who is one of the best motorcycle retail salesmen we have seen.
Erik & Hope, Rochester, NY - April 2006

 

And then . . .

And then there were three.

. . . in the fall of 2007 where there had been two,
there would soon be three in January 2008.
Welcome to our new world - January 2008.   Click here to see a few in her family.   Other pictures will follow.

 

"Welcome to our world, Kaydence."

 

 

Hopie sings with Ronnie, 2013 - Click on the Rise.

Hopie with Kaydence withj new-born Shaylah Madison, December 2011

 

Meet our newest member of the family, Shaylah born on January 23, 2012. What a wonderful smile and a happy baby, Hopie!

 

 

He Gave His Life That Others May Live!

A very special human being who we will never forget.  Click on the Journal Link to read about his journey home.

Dedicated to Matt Delorenzo, Youth Pastor, Pompton Plains, New Jersey

Web site dedicated to his service

Matt was taken from us on August 25, 2008, after a nine-mouth struggle against Leukemia, his last breath in the presence of his loving family.

Matt's reaching out to our own four children, when they were struggling in their teenage years in the mid to late 1990's in New Jersey, was immeasurable. His guiding hand had assisted those young minds to become the adults we are proud of today.

And we give tribute to Matt's very special wife that shared her husband night after night with so many lost young souls, allowing them to become aware that there could be a more fulfilling and responsible journey for their lives. Many of those efforts by Matt changed untold minds forever. Hearing the deep sadness of his death in the voices of our own proved he had made a difference.

They say the ultimate truth in life is that you leave the world better than how you found it. And that is exactly what Matt achieved to the very end.

"We will all miss you dearly, Matt, as will hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other families whose children you never gave up on. God speed, my friend."

 

 

In A Blink Of An Eye Ride The Four Horsemen!

The destination is the journey.

 

 

We All Miss You, Mickey.

Einstein on TED.
Remembering Mickey - Died April 1, 2014

 

 

My 70th Birthday Letter to the Kids

 

 

1984: Not Just The Name Of A Movie

On Tilley in NJ, 1984

 

 

2015

Somewhere in New Jersey, October 10, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories With Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

 

 

With My WWII War Hero.

Florida 1950

 

 

Where it all started on my father's side, my grandparents Hilda and Ernest immigrating from Sweden, looking for freedom for their three sons in America in the 1920's. Only one son would live beyond 18-years old, providing one grandchild and thus the memories on this page.

Photo of my Swedish grandmother, while visiting my parents in Florida in the early 1950's. I remember visiting her in what they called the servant's quarters at an estate in Mt. Kisco, New York, in 1944 where my grandfather worked. At that time she had already lost two of three sons that had come with her to the United States through Ellis Island, Evald and Stig, one to food poisoning in a middle school and the other to polio while in high school.

Although I was only about three years old at the time, I remember her saying nothing as tears ran down her face while I was sitting with her at a small, white metal kitchen table, her cigarette smoke twisting its way along her sad face. I later discovered they had gotten word that their third son was missing off of Okinawa in WWII.

He was eventually found, having to go across the island with the Marines after the shore boat he was driving died on the beach.

 

 

 

Ray Lowrey's dance band that played in Peach Lake, New York, 1948.

Dad played the sax while Allen See played drums (aka Gavin McLeod) to later become Captain of the Love Boat.

During their gigs they would put mops on their heads and imitate the Andrew Sisters.

 

Dad with Liberace and Victor Borge In Lugene's of Palm Beach.

In the spring of 1984 Liberace's premier engagement at New York's famed Radio City Music Hall broke all sales and attendance records of the 51-year history of the Art Deco palace. More than 80,000 people were on hand for what Liberace described as "the fulfillment of a dream and the culmination of my 40 years in show business." Commenting on the engagement, The Wall Street Journal said: "Liberace occupies his own special rhinestone-studded niche in the American dream."    Victor Borge was born in Copenhagen, Denmark Januar 3, 1909, the son of Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum. He was named Børge Rosenbaum, and his musical talent was no surprise as his father was a musician in the Royal Danish Chapel.

Liberace

 

Victor Borge

Listen to sound clips - (May load slowly)   Listen to sound clips

 

 

 

Where It All Started On My Mother's Side.

"Helena appeared as a child with the Mapleson Company at the Academy of Music and was able to see and hear Patti, Gerster, Scalchi, Nevada and many others. At the age of 17 she began official vocal studies, first with Tagliapietra and then Alberto de Bassini. She wed writer N. A. Jennings in 1897 and in 1898 used the name “Jenynge” on stage and for her first recordings (Berliner, 1898). Shortly after, her husband suggested a more attractive and flowing “Helena” as a professional name. For a period, much publicity was made of her phenomenal high notes, but she was eventually discouraged from promoting them, this approach not having been of great help to Ellen Beach Yaw who, at the same time, was publicized as “the world’s highest soprano”. Source: http://www.holdridgerecords.com/auction_pdfs/14.2_Cylinders_7-15.pdf   Remember The Maine: Words by N.A. Jennings, Written by W.A. Phillips. Published 1898
Edith Helena   N.A. Jennings

 

 

The crews proud parents retired to western North Carolina.

To all our kids: Love Mom and Dad

 

 

________________________________________________________

 

 

In God's Double Agent, Fu tells his remarkable story, from growing up in heart-breaking poverty, to discovering the life-changing power of the Gospel as a student, to his efforts to help persecuted Christians in China. Reading Fu's story will inspire you to boldly proclaim and live out your faith in a world that is at times indifferent, and at other times hostile, to those who spread the gospel. PSALM 83, The Missing Prophecy Revealed - How Israel Becomes the Next Mideast Superpower.  Request a complimentary copy of Tortured for Christ at Voice of the Marters.

 

 

This Western New Jersey Christian Retreat Center offers a quality well-rounded retreat program and an excellent place for personal and group growth for all groups regardless of age or size.  Let us assist you with part or all of your retreat program geared specifically to your groups needs.  We hope you will feel free to call and ask how we can assist you with your groups needs."

 

 

LOVEFIELD is a short film by Mathieu Ratthe, 5 minutes of a mixture of horror and supreme drama.  It is a must see!
Lovefield by Mathieu Ratthe

 

 

 

"Freedom is Knowledge"

Web Domain Dedicated to my Swedish grandparents, who wanted freedom in America, circa 1920's.