Still Here

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written.  I was concentrating on my mother's side of the family.  A while ago I created Wabash Valley Families for her side of the family.

On 4 March 2017 my elderly mother broke her lower right leg in two places.  She was sent to a very poor rehabilitation center where first she was neglected and then she contracted the antibacteria-resistant gastrointestinal infection clostridium difficile that took her life a year and a month later. She also contracted a skin infection that the staff completely ignored. Even before breaking her leg, Mom was experiencing serious side effects from the cholesterol and high blood pressure medicines she was taking. I tried to get her out of the nursing home, but I couldn't.  The only way my mother got out of the center was through a septic episode that sent her to the hospital.  She didn't go back.  The second place was so much better it was like night and day, but it was already too late.

My mother wanted me to continue with my research and publish the books I intended to.  I'm hoping sometime soon I'll have the energy and desire to do so.  I hadn't realized how stressed out and tired I'd become, as the only adult child.

Juanita Wilson Winchell
1932-2018

Juanita M. Winchell, 85, lost her long battle against the antibiotic-resistant gastrointestinal bacteria clostridium difficile on 4 April 2018. at Timberlyn East Nursing Home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Juanita was a long-time resident of Columbia County, residing in Philmont and Hudson, N.Y. She most recently resided at Bethany Village in West Coxsackie, NY. She worked in several sewing mills in Columbia County. She retired from Sunoco Crellin Plastics in Chatham, N.Y. where she was a press attendant, head trainer, and member of the initial McDonald's product team, receiving an award at corporate headquarters for process improvement in 1998. She was a Girl Scout troop leader and participated in bowling teams in Hudson and in the Columbia Memorial Hospital Auxiliary. Juanita also obtained training in reflexology, Reiki and furniture refurnishing. Decades ahead of business trends, Juanita attempted to establish a business sewing and selling reusable fabric shopping bags. After retirement, she earned her real estate license and worked for Barns and Farms Realty in its Germantown and Hudson offices. She adopted several cats from the Columbia-Greene Humane Society. She greatly appreciated her British Isles, colonial Dutch, and Native American ancestry.

Juanita was born in Torrington, Conn., the daughter of Frederick E. Wilson and Mary M. Vandivier. She is predeceased by her parents; brothers Harvey, Sidney, Richard, Everett, Donald, Raymond Wilson; sisters Mildred Alstrup, Florence Davis, Dorothy Baccei, Nina Joyce Carrozzo; and her former husband Avery Winchell. Survivors include daughter Debra, sister Edna Westmoreland and many nieces and nephews.

There will be a private funeral service at Gleeson-Ryan Funeral Home in Torrington, Conn. Internment will be in Hillside Cemetery, Torrington, Conn. next to family members. Contributions in Juanita's memory to the Peggy Lillis Foundation, 266 12^th Street #6, Brooklyn, NY 11215 would be appreciated to help prevent further clostridium difficile deaths.