Here are the 10 most recent messages from John and Lucinda. For a more complete archive see Archived Updates.
July 4, 2010
Dear All,
Seems about time to update the website. In fact, we are about to update this site in many ways! For now, we will just bring you up to speed on our lives.
It was 17 years ago today that John Tull and Lucinda Marker met in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a lovely mountain biking expedition/4th of July picnic in the Jemez Mountains with a group of friends who to this day have remained true blue. We are truly in the mood to celebrate!
Last we wrote we were still living in Stamford, CT where we had moved for Lucinda�s job for a private equity firm which is located in Greenwich. Alas, Lucinda was downsized right out of that job at the end of January and we were faced with yet another major change in our lives. After careful consideration, we decided to head back west and packed up our belongings for temporary storage. Lucinda made a trip across country through a February blizzard to take Puck and Chica to her sister�s place in Albuquerque for a bit and after her return by air to CT, we got in our other car and drove southwest. We took our time and saw the sights while headed to New Orleans where we spent a few hours with John�s daughter Katy who moved there recently. Then we moved on to Austin where we had decided to check out the possibilities of living and working. (We were well aware of the fact that the economy in Austin has been doing better than much of the rest of the country and we also have many very good friends there). After a month or so of seeing many friends, meeting some very interesting new folks and eating lots of barbeque and Tex-Mex, we drove on to Santa Fe to see how we felt about our old home. Within hours of arrival, we both knew that we wanted to be here again.
It has been an emotionally and physically exhausting six months or so marked by moving complications and other major stress inducing factors, but we are finally back in our beloved adobe home with most of our �stuff� put up and away. We took a little trip to California in May upon learning that we could not get back into our house when we had expected and so we have literally driven across the entire country in the last few months. We do not feel like taking any long drives for a while.
So that is the basic scoop for now. Again, the site will be updated soon and we have plenty of news to talk about. We hope you all have a grand 4th of July!
Love,
John and Lucinda
November 26, 2009
Dear All,
Happy Thanksgiving! We spent the day with our lovely next door neighbors who were gracious enough to have taken us in last Thanksgiving as well when we had literally been in Connecticut for perhaps two weeks.
After a year in Southern New England, we are finally settling in a bit. We have made friends, we know our way around town and we have had a blast traveling through Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Rest assured that we still pine for the west, but we both believe in making the absolute best of the hand one is dealt and so we are in intensive Yankee training for now.
We have also been into New York City with some frequency to see plays, meet friends, visit museums and generally do our best to enjoy the finest city in the world. Just this past Tuesday we drove in to see an exhibit at the Met and on the way we realized that we would be very close to Dr. Ron Primas� office. (For those of you who don�t know, he is the travel doctor to whom we were sent by our hotel seven years ago when we finally realized we had something more than the flu and who immediately diagnosed us with the plague and sent us to Beth Israel North in a big hurry). So we decided to give Ron a call to see if he might meet us for lunch. He was unable to do so, but invited us to drop by the office for a quick visit. We parked in the garage at the Met and wheeled downtown three bocks to the office where seven years ago we arrived by taxi with blistering fevers that rendered us both semi-conscious. We had staggered into the office that early November afternoon where John promptly laid down on the floor unable to sit or stand any longer due to the severity of his illness.
On this November day we went into the office with our wits as fully about us as they ever are and hugged the doc who saved our lives, after proudly informing his waiting patients of his medical genius. You talk about a full circle experience! The three of us reminisced of that day in 2002 that forever changed our lives and agreed to have dinner together in the very near future. And this time we left his office not to journey to a hospital where we would see, among other things, some of the darkest moments of a lifetime, but to one of the finest art museums in the world and then on to our home on the Long Island Sound where we would have dinner and later go to bed knowing that, at least for that night, we would likely sleep well and wake up to a new day in the morning. That�s plenty to be thankful for.
Much love,
John and Lucinda
July 11, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
Given the mind boggling changes in the internet in the last seven years (i.e. since we became sick with plague and made such huge news), I doubt that anyone looks in on our website these days. But just in case, thought I would write a note.
We are managing here in CT. Living on the water is most wondrous. We are both homesick for New Mexico, but Tull suffers quite a bit more than Lucinda since he is a true Westerner and Lucinda, much to Tull�s chagrin, really is a Yankee. And so it goes.
We have continued to have sadness with some of our friends. Our dear friend Daniel�s father died last month and our very dear friend Mary Sq. was diagnosed with breast cancer about a month ago and is about to go to battle.
We can say that life is so very precious. One must embrace every moment and especially during such dire economic times, try to live life to its fullest and think always of those who are less fortunate, because even when life is kicking you in the posterior, it is kicking someone else in a more vulnerable place.
Love to all,
John and Lucinda
May 3, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
John Tull got home safe and sound last night from a 9 day trip through Texas and Oklahoma where he was able to visit kids, grandkids, friends, his sister and family and his mother and her husband. He did quite well venturing that far on his own and had a fabulous, albeit tiring trip. Lucinda enjoyed some time alone, but Chica was rather annoyed at being alone during the day (stuck just with Puck and no humans).
It has been a cool and rainy New England day. Lucinda walked both dogs in the rain and they still aren�t dry. We are looking forward (not) to rain the next number of days. We continue to adjust to this very different way of life. And by the way, yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary�.together 16 years!
Love to all,
John and Lucinda
April 23, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
How deeply sad and stunned we are to have learned that our friend Cheryl Coleman has died in Santa Fe. She was a most beautiful woman who (we all said ) was one of the few who could pull off a great thick mane of white hair. She was beautiful in it with her wonderous blue eyes. She was fit and healty, full of life and curiosity and could laugh a deep, heartfelt laugh that would draw in all around her. She loved animals and she loved people. She was passionate and kind. There is simply no explanation as to why this remarkable woman would suddenly suffer a heart attack (or cardiac event as our very good nurse friend who was also a good friend of Cheryl�s well described it) hit her head on the floor, be without oxygen and then ultimately have to be let go of advanced life support by her grieving husband and family because it was obvious that she would never recover. She had been quite fit, quite loving and someone who none of us would have expected to �go� so suddenly and at the age of 60.
We are so very deeply feeling this because it was so damn close to what we went through. It is not at all the same, though except for the fact that your life so very suddenly and dramatically changes and not (today) just because of the downturn or loss of jobs, but because the person you have slept next to and who is probably your very best friend�..is not there�and never will be again. John did stay there and we are still together. We all know that we don�t get out of this alive. But it just seems pretty damn unfair that this very giving, empathetic woman would have to go so suddenly and be found by her equally kind and intelligent husband in the house after she had fallen. They had lived in their beautiful home in Santa Fe for perhaps 7 years and had a herd of cats. Our hearts are breaking for Allan.
This is it for tonight. John Tull does leave tomorrow for TX and OK to see his sister, friends, kids and grand-kids. Should be a good trip. One that you just don�t want to put off,\.
Love,
L&J
March 29, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
Well, we have survived our first New England winter. Wow, was it cold and snowy and icy which made it difficult for John to leave the house. But we made do. We hate to think of what our friend, Brenda, went through in Caribou, Maine, four miles from the Canadian border.
We have both been struggling with living so far from our beloved Santa Fe and Texas. We like it here. It is beautiful. But, JHT has never lived east of the Houston Ship Channel, and it is a big change.
We will keep you updated. We are so happy that spring is upon us. Last month we received a gift from God, Luke Tull, the third child and first son of Trey and Leah, and our fourth grandkiddie. We hope to get our hands on him in the spring. We are truly blessed.
Love,
John and Lucinda
12/02/08
Dear All,
Sorry to have been so remiss in our updating. This has been an extremely interesting time in our lives. Our move to the east coast started with Lucinda having her wallet lifted at La Guardia upon arrival. Fortunately, it was discovered rather immediately. The rather bad news is that we believe the deed was done by employees of the airport. Lucinda was a victim of pick-pockets soon after moving to New York in 1980 and became very savvy after that episode, but after 15 years in the southwest had let her guard down. Being an old soft hearted liberal, Lucinda would hope that there might be a day that no one needs to steal. Being a realist, theft has gone on for centuries and most likely has increased in recent years. At any rate, it sure created extra problems during our move (i.e. no driver�s license or credit cards).
But we are here in Stamford, CT and have worked every day on adjusting. We are very lucky to have next door neighbors who are just wonderful and who invited us to Thanksgiving. We love our view of our part of the Long Island Sound. We have had good friends visit (Laura H. and Tommy L.) and Lucinda�s sister drove the dogs all the way from N.M. so that they would not have to endure a flight.
As always, we cannot believe how lucky we are. We promise to get pics up of our house and our great view.
Love,
Lucinda and John
September 11, 2008
Dear Friends and Family:
This was the most difficult September 11th I have experienced since 2001. One wonders why it takes seven years to feel the full impact of an event like that. It was a day so tragic that it is almost beyond comprehension. But today, on September 11, 2008, I and some of my oldest NYC friends exchanged a few thoughts and visceral emotional reactions about that day for the first time. It was really tough to be there that day and to see all that went on for the days after. I can only begin to imagine what those we have sent off to war have seen. So today was about thinking about and reliving that day.
Today was also about facing the fact that we are leaving our beloved New Mexico and moving to Connecticut. We are moving because of my job and we found a great house in Stamford which we shall rent. We hope to return to New Mexico sometime in the future. This will be a huge change as I will be returning to the east coast after 16 years in the southwest and John Tull has never lived east of the Houston shipyards. So life continues to toss you and turn you and you just got to go on.
Much love to all on my 50-something birthday.
Lucinda ( and the sleeping JHT)
June 11, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
This past Monday we had to send our dear kitty Jorge to kitty heaven. He had been sick for a few weeks and though we tried, we could not make him better. We both boo-hooed for a couple of hours, but knew it was the right thing to do. We will miss him terribly.
We did an interview with a local radio station last Saturday which was the first time we had talked about our experience with plague in a while. It is still difficult and painful to relive those very dark days, but we are happy to help educate people as much as possible. It will be five years ago on June 19th that John was finally released from the hospital!
Otherwise all is well enough. We are contemplating a possible move due to work. We will tell you more later.
Much love,
John and Lucinda
May 11, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
May we first say a good day to our own mothers? We are both lucky to have them with us after having lost our fathers a good many years ago (13 yrs for John�s and 10 for Lucinda�s). Though we may struggle, as most of us do with child/parent relationships, we are glad to be able to have that struggle while we are all still on the same planet. So a very Happy Mothers� Day to our mothers and to all other mothers.
We are in the east right now for Lucinda�s work and we got to see Katy Jane Tull who graduates from Bard in a couple weeks. Lucinda was wished a �HMD� by several people today both on her own and while with Katy. This made one think about the concept of both days�.one in honor of each parent and what it really means.
John and Lucinda kid each other about being dog and cat �mommy and daddy�. We are that. We have also been sorts of parental types to a wide variety of young people and at times, to our friends who are our ages or perhaps a bit older. And we have had many friends who have temporarily fulfilled those parental roles for us.
So it might seem that as life evolves we might all get to be kids again and might get to have a mother and a father even if our natural ones are deceased or otherwise unavailable and that we might get the chance to play parent to someone who is not exactly a kid who might just need a temporary mommy or daddy.
So HAPPY MOTHERS� DAY to all who have taken care of kids, friends and pets, patients or anyone who has needed a mommy. Even just for a while.
Love,
John and Lucinda