October 1998 Rita is having a few issues with her vision and balance; her chiropractor thought she might have the systems of MS, which freak us both out. So we get a appointment with a Neurologist and she has a couple of tests and we went back in to find out what was going on and the Dr. must have been having a bad day because he read the report as if we where doctors and I stopped him, asking him to tell us so we can understand, which kind of pissed him off and us too, so basically told us she had MS, he told us to set up another appt to figure out what kind of treatment would work best for us, Ya Right. When we walked out of there we were both Mad and Sad to have this thrown at us. After that we decided to get another opinion and definitely find a different doctor, and we went right to the research hospital in Denver and got the head of the MS department for Rita. Dr. Korboy was not only an Awesome MS DR. but he had Rita’s personality and lifted our spirits. He told us that yes it’s a pain in the Butt to have MS but life’s not over and she will live a long fruitful life as long as she keeps her attitude up, which was my job to make sure she stayed on track. You couldn’t tell Rita had MS for the 1st couple of years but every time she had an attack she lost a little of her Mobility. Rita did a fantastic job of not focusing on her inabilities but her abilities which was making everyone smile when you were around her.
Other than that Life in Brush is going Great, I finally have this manager thing figured out, of course with the help of Rita and Trial and Error, like the Time I had a come to Jesus meeting and all my Good people quit and the ones I was trying to fix stayed. In 1998 Brush Co. was #1 in the Rocky Mountain Division for the 1st time since I was promoted there in 1990, and we repeated in 1999 after we took over another depot out in Ogallala Ne. Rita and I had a routine that was always tying the families of our Route Managers to our Schwan’s gatherings, Rita would host at our house or wherever we had our function, we did a Christmas Party, Super Bowl Party, Summer Picnic at Lake McCoughy, Bowling Party around Halloween and any baby shower and all those other parties Rita would put together to get the Drivers wives involved and let them know how much we appreciate them and of course Rita would always promote the ways of supporting their husbands because they work so hard and need to know that they appreciate them because Happy Drivers have more $ales and of course the Wives get more to spend, its one Big Happy Circle. At our Banquets since we were #1, 2 years in a row, the guys always wear Tux’s and the women of course get to buy a new dress which is like buying a prom dress for your daughters and since I have 3, we have sure spent a small fortune on Formal Dresses over the years, Rita would gather as many wives as she could and go all over from Ft Morgan to Denver to Ft Collins, Greeley, Loveland and sometimes even to Cheyenne Wy to find dresses for everyone. I know when she came home she was always energized even though it would of Killed any one of us guys to shop like that. When I didn’t win the division the guys just wore suits, and of course, Rita always bought mine and the only time I tried it on was just before we got dressed for banquet, I’d tell her I can wear last years, but she was always looking out for me and trying to keep me in style, because my style is blue jeans and a t-shirt.
With all this excitement around winning back 2 back division championships and exceeding profit every year, it’s time for us to be promoted to the next level which is Division Manager, so after applying several times, they finally decided that I have calmed down over the years and see that Rita has done a fine job of honing me into mature Leader. You see whenever they interview you, they would always take you and your wife out for dinner and they would do an interview with Rita, to see if she supported me or not, because every move up required more responsibility and they wanted to make sure I didn’t have any issues at home, DAAAAAAAAAA, what they were really trying to do was get Rita on board because she was the One everybody Loved. You might not believe this but I’m a little rough around the edges, I tell it like it is and Rita Smozes everyone and she gets them to fall in Love with her and they can’t deny me the Job because it will hurt Rita and nobody wants to hurt Rita!~! So we made a Great Team together. Well off I go every week for a year, Sunday/Monday –Thursday/Friday out of town from Colorado to Texas to Mississippi, and this gets old in a hurry, because I’m away from Rita and our Family.
Rita has been planning a trip with her friends to New York, to catch a couple of Broadway Shows and see the sights and on 9/11/2001 she got her Tickets to New York and I was in Shreveport, La. That was a day that we all felt Violated and brought the war to the United States. She wanted me home and I wanted to be home but they shut all the airports down for over a week until they could tighten security at the airports, so Mr. Cheap?ss decided to take a bus even though Schwan’s would pay for a rental car, and it took 28 hours on a bus to get home. I Will Never Do That Again!! Rita and I Talked about her trip to New York and decided to go since it all worked out with everyone else and they have been looking forward to it. They stayed by Central Park and New York was pretty much a Ghost Town so they could get around pretty easy, I remember her friends telling me they always had to wait for Rita because she would stop and just talk with anyone and she acted like she knew them forever, in fact on a street in New York she spotted our Dentist Wife Pat from Brush Co. who was there for Forensics of identifying the Victims of 911, Small World.
I’m kidda picky and Schwan’s wants me to bid on a few openings in Texas, Missouri and other places I do not want to be, now Rita did not care where we lived as long as it was with me, so I set a goal that I do not want to be more than 10 hours from our Cabin, and of course when I apply for those positions I don’t get them, probably because they didn’t meet Rita. God has a plan and my old division comes available and Rita and I take over the Rocky Mountain Division. So now its time to sell our house and start looking for a new one around Ft Collins Co. Of course God has it all worked out and after 9 months of looking for a new home and trying to sell ours by For Sale by Owner, I’m told to move in 3 months, which means Schwan’s will cover my house payment for 6 months and after that I will have 2 house payments, Not Good! 2 weeks later I find the perfect home that meets my criteria, out in the country, big yard, Million Dollar view of the Mountains, but wait Rita has her heart stuck on a new 2 story and this is a ranch. So she tells me OK while she’s crying, so I ask her if we got all new Furniture would that help, with Big Tears in her Eyes she says Yes, so we write the contract on Saturday and on Sunday we sell our Home in Brush, God is Good!!!! So I’m thinking a new couch and chair but not Rita and $6000 later she is done shopping for our new home, Dang it I should have been more specific about how much, or what room!! But Rita is happy now and that’s all that Matters.
I have arrived; this was our Goal to be a Division Manager, that’s as far as I wanted to go with Schwan’s because I didn’t want to move again. I enjoyed Motivating people to be the Best they can be and Being the Man in the Division. But my Goals are sometimes not God’s plan for me. Evan though I have met all my Goals, I’m not happy and feel Schwan’s is changing and I’m not willing to change with them, so after lots of prayer and 21 years at Schwan’s I QUIT!! If Marvin was still there so would I, but it’s run by a corporation now and that’s not for me. So in 2004 I go to work for Centex Homes after a lot of my Fellow Friends and coworkers start there. So I go from being in charge of over 100 employees to being in charge of myself and take a 50% pay cut the 1st year. But I only work 40-50 hours per week, the pay will get better, and it does, in fact my second year I pass my best year I ever had at Schwan’s in October and still have 2 ½ months left of commission coming. So with more money, less time and responsible for me, Life is Good. And this is where Rita came up with Wine Thirty, as I would call just before I get home, asking her to get 2 glasses of Wine and meet me on the back deck to watch the Sunset. The Sunset was beautiful but not as Beautiful as Rita. In 2006 I was #1 sales person in the Centex Division and won a trip to Hawaii in 2007 for a week at a resort right on the beach and we had the Best room in the place. This was our Best Vacation we had ever taken, we stayed 9 days of just Rita and I, no work, no cleaning, no dishes, Just Fun, but wait Alicia calls us and tells us she going in for emergency surgery and our phone dies, we are 4500 miles from Alicia and stop at a bar to charge our phone and wait to hear something and we called everyone trying to figure out what happened. Finally after 2 hours Lora calls us and we talked to the doctor and told us everything was good. Alicia the night before had taken a fall while riding a scooter and woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains, so Ronny took her to the emergency room and they put a 10 inch cut along her stomach to check things out, of course they didn’t find anything wrong, so they sewed her back up. When we got back to Colorado she was still in the Hospital so we went to see her and her 1st words to us were “Look what they did to me” and then she showed us her 10 inch incision on her stomach, Alicia was very proud of her bikini and her stomach. Oh Well. Rita and I finished our adventure in Hawaii, we stayed at a Volcano National Park which overlooked an Active Volcano, and went to South Point which is where 2 currents meet, which was beautiful. with our last night in the Hotel Honaka, which she wasn’t so impressed with, but they did have a deck of cards in the room and we played Nerts, you see she wanted to stay at a bed n breakfast, but I drove too far and passed them all up and we ended up on a dead end road by an Awesome overlook and a road that had a 25% steep grade to it, which we took just for fun.
In 2007 Kent, Dennis and I are at the cabin and I let them know that I’m thinking about doubling the cabin again, 2 reasons 1st to put a main floor master in for Rita and 2nd because the kids are growing, we need more room, beside if I’m not building something, I get bored. I also let the Lenhoff’s know from Lincoln Ne. Wayne and his boys Paul and Adam have their construction companies and volunteer their services for a week to get it done. So I start the ball rolling, 1st starting with the plans which have to be approved through the county, Holly Mackerel things have changed and it takes me 3 months to jump through all the hoops and before I even get a permit I’ve spent $7000. We start moving dirt in May 2008 with the help of Dennis running a back hoe and bobcat, Kent as Supervisor and me the Laborer with Michael Too.
Rita and I are missing something, are kids are all grown up and we don’t have any kiddos to play with, because when kids turn 16, they disappear, or only communicate with you when they need something. Alicia and Ronny to the Rescue, they show up at my house 1 weekend with this crazy looking alien picture and tell us where going be Grand Parents, Rita’s Crying and Ashley, Abbie and Michael are all Excited, me too, but my 1st question to Ronny is, When are you going to get married?
Its April 2008, Alicia and Rita are planning a May Wedding in our back yard and only have 4 weeks to get it done. Rita has lost some mobility and we have been using a wheelchair for about a year, but when she hears Wedding and baby, she’s all in and gets extremely excited and energized. I gave Rita a dollar amount and she easily triples it, but she never bothered me with that information, until it was all over and I seen how Beautiful my Daughter and the Wedding was. I did get my deposit back from the 2 kegs they drank “bonus”. Rita was in her element planning for the wedding and the new baby. Alicia is starting to show now and we have to see her weekly to watch the belly grow and since she knows how us Boyles are, she shows off her stomach Proudly, and we take advantage, saying did you feel that big kick? On August 7th 2008 Centex has a special meeting for all employees and I’m the 1st one they escort off the property because they are shutting the doors, now that’s a shocker, I was on my way to having my best year in income and loving my career helping people get into homes, but the economy wasn’t cooperating and so homes lost value and Centex had to adjust their prices only to lose money on every home they sold. So I consult with God and Rita and decide to get my Real Estate License, which takes about 6 weeks to take the class and pass the examine, Walla I’m a License Realtor, But after 6 more weeks of doing the real estate, I am very dissatisfied with my boss and most of the people working in the business, which I can’t control so I quit in November after selling my 1st home.
After Dennis, Kent and Michael help me every weekend to prep the cabin 8 weeks before the Lenhoff’s show up, we have the foundation set for the cabin, and the post’s in the ground for the new 24X24 shed were building too, and in July 2008 we begin the construction, and in 1 week we have built a 1200 sq ft addition and a 24x24 shed. Of course there’s a lot of work after this but the hard part is done and there’s No Way I couldn’t have done it without the help of our Fantastic Friends. Now I did have to feed them and make extra trips to town for more beer and wine and some of the Lenhoff’s abuse like shooting their nailing Guns at me and Michael or the famous titty twister when your hands are full, “Ouch” if I liked touching men’s breast I would of got them back, but had to settle for a few wrestling matches which I lost too.
October 15, 2008 Alicia announces she heading to the hospital and we are heading there to, Now Ronny can’t handle the whole delivery thing, so Rita, Ashley and Abbie are now Mid Wife’s and get to be in the delivery room, I did watch Rita through all her births of our children, and don’t remember her ever snoring through a contraction, I could see it on the monitor, but Alicia was sleeping, Oh she took this new drug that allows her to be comfortable, Rita was jealous. When they wheeled her into the delivery room, they wheeled Rita in too. Rita got to see her 1st Grand Daughter Mejana take her 1st breath in this world and cut the cord. Rita came out Beaming; she had arrived as Grand Mother now and was excited about the new role in Alicia Life of coaching her through Life with Mejana.
After the Lenhoff’s leave Kent, Michael and I are up at the cabin every weekend working on it and were having a blast. I still need to find a new career path and Kent and I have been doing investools (Stock Market) for about 8 years, and there having a seminar in Denver in December, so off we go to get some new knowledge in the Stock Mkt but end up buying a 2 year PHD program that fast tracks you into trading full time. This is right up my alley, as I do not have to work for anyone, and able to be home with Rita full time, and we can do whatever we want, say like go to the cabin more!! 2 weeks before Christmas I come home after working on the cabin and Rita’s not doing too well so I want her healthy for Christmas and we take her to the doctor and she prescribes a strong medicine that you only take for 5 days and your done, so I’m doing my training in the stock mkt through the week and working on the cabin on the weekends and I come home on December 21st expecting Rita to be all healthy and she actually worse so off to the doctor again and this time we get an x-ray and her lungs are full of fluid, so we head to the hospital and get check in and the doctors are telling us pneumonia and have to drain her lungs and she might be out before Christmas. So I stay with her night/day, and see that she might get out before Christmas so off I go to the cabin for some final touches because her brother Ron and Family are coming along with all my kids. I came back to the hospital about 11pm that night and the staff let me take a shower in Rita’s room, and were praying she can get out, but the draining in the lungs hasn’t quit so not looking good, but Rita’s spirits are high and we spend Christmas Eve with the Family at the Hospital, complete with Christmas tree and presents, which the hospital staff said I couldn’t bring a tree with lights in her room but whatever I did anyways and all the nurse’s Loved it.
Rita and I wake up Christmas morning to find a beautiful day on our Lord’s Birthday. The doctor shows up about 8:30am and says Merry Christmas, your test results came back and you have cancer. What, you said she had pneumonia, What the heck are you talking about, she couldn’t tell us any more as she isn’t an oncologist and we have to wait till tomorrow to see one. After she left we prayed and asked God for strength, because now we had to tell our family on Christmas Day, when we should be celebrating. Rita and I didn’t cry then but when the family showed up we let the flood waters come. At the end of the day Rita still had her Happiness for Life and Faith that God would take care of this for us. When the Doctor show up about 6:30 on the 26th we were checking out of the hospital to finish Christmas at home, when he informed us that she had stage 4 Lung cancer and about 7-14 months, I immediately responded to Rita, that we were suppose to grow old together and now the flood waters really came. When we were done again Rita had the strength and faith that she was in God’s hand and that he would take care of her. When we got home we finished Christmas at the house and there was a hugh mess because even though I was out of work Rita went all out shopping for everyone, especially her new granddaughter Mejana. Rita was in her wheelchair and I told her to start cleaning up, and she immediately responded “I can’t I have cancer” and we all busted out laughing, Rita really knew what we all needed when we needed it and not to dwell on the negatives but the Positives in Life. And her life’s motto was “All our Trials, Make Us Stronger”. We had a lot of company and Parties over the next few months and Rita’s always kept her strong faith in God. February 14 2009, Kent and I decided to take the girls out for dinner and a little surprise, 1st Alicia came up and help her with her hair and makeup and had her looking like a Queen!!, then I gave her 2 dozen rose’s but said a few where for the girls, then Kent and I started talking about how all the restaurants will be slammed and I really didn’t want to wait in line so let’s just go to Johnson’s Corner(truck Stop) even though Rita looked like she should be going to a 5 star restaurant, but wait as were driving there I spot a new building behind Johnson’s Corner and ask Kent about it and he doesn’t know either and when we get there, Rita says it’s that new dinner theater Candlelight and I hear its really neat, but you have to have reservations, so I pull up in front and stop and Walla, we do have reservations, Rita and Jeanine are excited now and totally floored that we pulled this off. It was an awesome night, because Rita loved the theater, as she was in many plays in high school. During this time everyone was sending Rita flowers and she just beamed every time the door bell rang and it was someone delivering flowers, she especially liked Juanita’s because she had beautiful flowers and an even more Beautiful Message with it. We went through a lot of Trials, and when we were in the hospital the last time, the doctors gave us no Hope, so against their wishes I took Rita Home on Hospice and they said that she might not even make it home and they could take better care of her at the hospital, Ya Right!!! I have learned to hate hospitals and shift changes, I was there 24/7 to protect her from everyone who wanted to do their job because of legality, there’s only 1 person who can take care of her better than me, and that was God. We brought her home and all the neighbors, friends and family came to our home to see Rita and help in any way they could, I’m kind of numb now and only want to tell Rita I love her every time she has her eyes open and she mouths it back to me. Since I left Schwan’s in 2004 Rita has been after my 1 carat diamond I won for being a 5th year Chairman’s Club, but I always told her it was Michaels and she had enough Bling, since I had won for her 3 Diamond rings through Schwan’s and total was about 3.5 carats and that was enough I thought. Through this whole time I never thought about that ring until I was holding her hand and saw how small the diamond was in her wedding ring and that I could replace it with that 1 carat diamond of mine so I told Alicia to get mom’s rings off and tell her you’re going to clean them and get them back to her, so she got her rings and mine and went the jewelry store and had them replace the diamonds. On April 25th 2008 with everyone watching I presented a long awaited dream for Rita, with our song from our wedding playing in the background (Longer) I expressed my love for her and all that she had given me through the years and gave her wedding band back to her on a Rose, just like I gave her 1st ring to her back in 1978. After that while we were watching Rita’s all time favorite movie “To Sir with Love” She took her suction tube and started mouthing the song and we all joined in and it was a beautiful sight, because she looked so at peace and happy, and because she knew where she was going. At 11:02 pm on April 27 2008, Rita went home to be with her Real Father.
Safely Home
I am home in Heaven, dear ones: Oh, so happy and so Bright! There is perfect joy and beauty in this everlasting light. All the pain and grief is over, every restless tossing passed; I am now at peace forever, safely home in heaven at last. Did you wonder I so Calmly Trod the valley of the shade? Oh! But Jesus’ Love illumined every dark and fearful glade. And he came Himself to meet me in that way so hard to tread ; And with Jesus’ arm to lean on, could I have one doubt or dread? Then you must not grieve so sorely, for I love you dearly still: Try to look beyond earth’s shadows, Pray to trust our Father’s Will. There is work still waiting for you, so you must not idly stand; Do it now, while life remaineth-you shall rest in Jesus’ land. When that work is all completed, he will gently call you Home; Oh, the rapture of that meeting, Oh, the joy to see you come!
It’s been a lonely year, but with all the family, Friends and traveling, I feel Blessed to have Rita as long as I did, so Thanks from the bottom of my Heart for all your Prayers, notes, hospitality, food and Love.
We are doing our Annual MS Walk on May1st in Denver with over 75 people so if you’re in the area, do the walk with us or donate to MS Society. God Bless Mike and Family
