Living the life of Reilly: 2023

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

2023 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Alles Gute in neuen Jahr 2024!

December 2023

2023 ushered in a change we just didn’t expect, living in central Texas. Sean was assigned to the 9th hospital center of the 1st medical brigade, Ft. Cavazos (formerly known as Ft. Hood), translation – he is going to deploy to Iraq by the end of January for 6 months. It was not what we expected, but the Army is rarely predictable.

In other news, Sean and Mayland are also very close to being full-time empty nesters. Tatzie, our 9-year-old Bernese/Greater Swiss Mtn dog, is our only full-time living-at-home baby. Marcel left us in May to return to Canada. MJ spends most of the year at Lesley Univ., where they are in their 2nd year of an illustration major.

Clark is coming to the end of his bachelor's studies in Mathematics (Functional Analysis) with a minor in Physics at Kaiserslautern Univ. in Germany. The plan is to complete at least a master’s degree and then decide if the doctorate is necessary. So, he will be staying put for at least 2 more years, giving us a great excuse to keep going back to Germany (which Mayland managed to do twice this year.)

Russell has found full-time work in Charleston, SC, as a leasing agent in the apartment complex he is living in; can you say short commute? He and Baleigh will have been together for 3-years this Christmas. We miss seeing them! Mayland continues to serve on boards for non-profits and is helping to author a couple of papers on burnout in medical students. Having completed the coursework for a doctorate in education, the topic for her dissertation has been accepted, and the first two chapters are complete. Planning to finish by Spring 2025.

This year was busy with visiting friends and family, the sale of the house in GA, and the move to TX.

This fall was the capstone with a trip to Washington, DC, for two weeks. Followed by Jamacia for Sean’s childhood friend Erik’s wedding. We flew directly from Jamacia to Germany, where Sean was awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit (02M3) at the Landstuhl Ball. Our dear friend George Smolinski nominated him for this lifetime achievement award. We are so grateful for the friends who are like family that we have accumulated through our time in military medicine.

If you really want to make people stop and scratch their heads, wear winter snow boots on a plane landing in Jamacia. 😁

Below are some photos from this year!

Love, Peace, and Happiness!

Sean & Mayland

(Tatzie, Russell, Clark & MJ)

Carol, Erik & Sean

Thursday, January 12, 2023

2022 Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to a new year and a hope that it holds a lot of exciting adventures and an opportunity to see our friends and family. As each year passes, it seems the highs get higher, and the lows are more challenging. Fortunately, while we had a few difficult moments, none of them were as scary as almost losing Sean in 2021.

This year’s highs clustered around June, MJ graduated from Westtown, Russell graduated from Augusta Technical College, and Sean pinned on Colonel making the decision to extend his service to 25 years. That means at least one more move over the next five years. We anticipate that the next move will be this summer of 2023.

We had two sad, but not unexpected losses this year, Mayland’s Uncle Marlin Troutman (just shy of his 86^th birthday), the last of the uncles and we also lost our dear friend Art Shurlock (84 years), he received a heart transplant in September of 2000, and was given 5-10 years, he made it 21, medical science is truly amazing.

The fall found MJ moving to Cambridge, MA to start studies in illustration at Lesley University. Russell found a job working for Amazon doing deliveries in Charleston, SC, which allows him to be closer to his girlfriend of over a year. Clark continues his studies in math and physics at Kaiserslautern Technical University. We are grateful Clark is still in Germany, as it gives us an excuse to visit at least once a year.

Mayland gave us the health scare this fall, having a nSTEMI, which is a heart attack caused by stress and not blockage. After a lot of careful consideration, it was determined that the work environment at the Medical College of Georgia was not ideal for maintaining any form of work-life balance. So, Mayland resigned at the end of October deciding to focus on other activities and resume more volunteer work. She will start looking for other work opportunities once we know where Sean is going to be stationed.

Christmas was spent in Europe where we saw many of our friends in Germany and had some quality family time in Florence, Italy. We know how truly fortunate we are to be together. Here is to 2023!

Love, Sean, Mayland, Clark, MJ, Russell, Tatzie and Newton