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| Arnie and Newlin, 1952 |
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| Arnie and Newlin, circa 1980 |
There is no transition after death. Newlin and the family's lives changed dramatically after July 4, 1986. Newlin became a widow and went into mourning for a year or more, avoiding social functions for the most part. Her sister Eloise visited frequently during that year and made sure Newlin was never alone during holidays. Andrew and Eric lived at home and continued their studies, while Joel left Florida at the end of the summer for a conference in Europe and then lived in New York City for a year while looking for a job in Academia. Allan came to Florida for the funeral and returned to northern California to resume his life there.
Newlin worked as an Alachua County school nurse several more years before retiring and working as a traveling nurse for the Florida State Children's Medical Services and she volunteered in Florida's Guardian ad Litem program.
In the early 1990s, Newlin had their son Eddie disinterred from Forest Lawn in Glendale and re-interred in the Tallahassee Memory Gardens in the family plots there. (This was done largely because Arnie's sister Laura had cancer so moving Eddie from Bill and Hazel's four plots in Glendale made room for Laura next to her sister and parents when she died in 1992. But it was also part of a long term plan for moving Eddie when Arnie and Newlin found a "final resting" place. Eddie's casket had been put in a vault so it could be disinterred more easily. Newlin was not able to be present for the reinterment so her sisters Eloise and Floreine had to do the grim job of verifying the body in the casket before it could be placed in the ground.)
Of the four plots in Tallahassee with Arnie and Eddie flanking an empty one reserved for Newlin, the fourth was promised to Joel since as a gay man he had no prospects for marriage in 1986 and had no plans to have or adopt children, so he was expected to die alone.
next post Newlin's Story: 1987
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first post in Flashbacks How the Nevis family came to California
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