By LUELLA DOW
Contributor
Most people have enough relatives without adding on more who don't belong.
I confess to a monumental mix-up in [July 26's] story about Don and Jean McMillan. The McMillan ancestry of Scotland and Welch ancestry of Ireland are not related. What the McMillans told me is that they discovered the current Welches living in Ireland are distant cousins on Jean's family tree.
My apologies to Don and Jean.
We continue with memories during their 60 years of marriage, which began June 21, 1947.
When the McMillans lived at Espanola the former owner of the place told Don, “Don't put any gasoline in that tank out by the road. Folks will steal it from you.”
Don had an idea. He placed a gas can beside the tank and wrote a poem: “Live by the side of the road and be a friend of man. Take the gas, but leave the can.”
Don said sometimes he would find money left with the can. Once he found the can tossed in the ditch.
One Easter, when their son Bob was a baby, the McMillans started out for dinner with relatives. Along the way a chunk of blacktop on the road sheared the gas line on their car.
“A nearby farmer took us in,” they said. “He fixed the gas tank, gave us some gas and invited us to stay for Easter dinner. His name was Harold Emtman, brother of Ralph Emtman. We never did get to our destination that day.”
Many of you have seen Don McMillan's horseshoe art. He has a table full of original designs he makes with a wire feed welder and keeps inventing new ones. His latest challenge is to fashion the names and initials of family members on them.
Jean McMillan hopes to take up her oil painting, which has been on sabbatical for a while.
Sixty years of marriage is a long time in some ways. Those who have lived it will tell you it went by fast. Don and Jean McMillan began their celebration with a dinner at the Davenport, then a family picnic in a park. “Family came from all over,” Jean said.
Then the McMillans took off for Otter Rock Hideaway on the Oregon coast.
“All of Bill's family went with us,” they said. “It was a five-minute walk to the ocean.” They spent time whale watching, spotting seals and visited the 134 year-old lighthouse on Yaquina Head. “I'd like to paint it,” Jean said. She and Don relaxed and read while at Otter Rock Hideaway. “It was quiet. We're all card players, and we played in the evenings,” she said.
The McMillans aren't quite through celebrating. They are looking forward to a visit to Beaver Lodge Lake at Gillette on the Little Pend Oreille River. This has been an annual trip since their honeymoon. This year they will take along their great-granddaughters Danielle and Sarah Jean McMillan.
An additional celebration was a get-together with Jean McMillan's Beta Sigma Phi group. They met at the Olive Garden where the McMillan's granddaughter, Mallory, was their waitress.
Don McMillan added the final touch; “I've enjoyed living with Jean for 60 years. You might say it was a piece of cake!”
Blessings to you both, Don and Jean.
Luella Dow is a local author and can be reached at [email protected]
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