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The Pandemic Year of 2020

December 11, 2020
Sam would have hated having to deal with all this Pandemic stuff! Once she got older, she just had no tolerance for change or new rules, so it is better that I can simply remember fun times associated with her now that it is 2020 and not have to be at the mercy of her complaints. 
Ron and I have shared many stories about her this past year because of him being up in New Jersey from Florida during the Covid19 threat. He came complete with his little dog Cosmo who gets along very well with Redford my ginger-once-feral cat. Ron was clever enough to use old wooden parts from past structures to construct a covered hutch for the many raccoons, ground hogs, opossums, chipmunks, squirrels and birds we feed throughout the year here in Hanselwoods. He also used some of the wood to reconstruct the swaille bridges back to my home. There is now a commemorative area where the Gazebo once stood and it honors all who have lived here over the years, including Sam. She would have loved seeing the lit Pumpkin heads on each side of the park-like bench!

Jimmy, Barbara and Ron

December 23, 2011

My father returned from WWII after being shot down and spending 2 years in a German Prison camp.  My mother spent those years living with her in-laws in Paulsboro, NJ where they raised Boston Bull Terriers.  They had been married only a short time when my father joined the Air Force and he returned a stranger, damaged by his war experience to a woman who didn't have a clue about the mental devastation of war.  They had a child, a boy whom they named James Robert who was two years old when I came along. Shortly after my birth, they were living in Philadelphia with my father's Aunt Sis.  This was where Jimmy succumbed to pneumonia at the age of four.  This awful ordeal was added to the other things in their lives never dealt with.  My Aunt passed away and we all moved to Benson Street in East Camden,NJ. where my baby brother Ron was born and our home life proved to be more and more dysfunctional.  When my brother, four years my junior was old enough to go to school, my mother went to work at Campbell Soup Company in the Home Ec Department so they could pay the bills.  This made it possible for us to move to Hilltop Road in Cinnaminson, NJ.  Over the years, she lived in fear of my father who drank to excess, gambled and had his share of lady friends.  In spite of all this, she worked her way up to Secretary to the Treasurer at Campbells and finally divorced my father, relying heavily on my brother Ron for moral & financial support.

SAM

December 21, 2011

Ethel SAM Hanselman passed peacefully at home a few weeks after her 92nd birthday.  Sam was the youngest of the five Sherr sisters all of whom resided in Lancaster, Pa.  She graduated first in her class from McKaskey High School and met her future husband, Elmer Clarence, while working at Franklin Marshall College where he was a student. 
She lived in Paulsboro NJ, Philadelphia PA and eventually Camden and Cinnaminson, NJ after being married and is survived by her son James Ronald and her daughter Barbara, both of Cherry Hill, NJ.  The last five years of her life, she resided in Cherry Hill with her son and daughter and led a very full life making jewelry for sale at local galleries  as well as becoming an accomplished decoupage artist.  Her last claim to fame was winning 3rd place for her piece Terradactyl in the annual Camden County Juried Art Show in 2010. 
She will be missed by her friends & children, her cat, Baby and her new found friend, Buster (better known as Stewart Underfoot) who was curled up next to her when she left us.

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