Jerry's Kids - Our Blended Extended Family Network


Back Row: Marc Smith Damita Kilgore Russell Kilgore Middle Row: Peri Day Dan Smith Dorie Owen Front Row: Lisa Fritz (me) Ramon Smith	Dad with Marion (1st wife, upper right) and Dorothy (2nd wife, lower right) Marion and Dorothy were lifelong BFF's

My father, Gerald M. Smith (Jerry, to everyone) married my Mom, Dorothy B. Smith (Dot, to some) in 1969. They each contributed, from previous marriages, a son and two daughters to our newly blended family. Mom and Dad were vivacious and extroverted. They were well educated and smart (not everyone is both!) and were adventurous world travelers. Dad's work as a Chemical Engineer provided many overseas assignments where they enjoyed meeting people and would happily culture share around the world. True to their loving and generous big hearts, while in South America, they adopted two sweet orphaned toddlers from Ecuador and suddenly there were eight of us kids, globe trotting with our parents.

Many of the folks we met became lifelong friends of our family and we love them, not just like family, but as family. Mom and Dad had a genuine love of people, a rich enjoyment for life, nature and adventure. They had strong moral character, an uncanny knack for teaching eight very different children the lessons in life that we needed and they had high expectations for my brothers, sisters and I. Until their deaths, Mom in 2004 and Dad in October, this year, 2010, they were clearly the glue that held, kept and brought our large family together. Their influence is profoundly apparent in each and every one of us, all still very different but also, very much the same. Some of us use different names now in our adult lives but we are all Smiths, better than that...we are Jerry's Kids!

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