Gerard Kreussling, 1931-2008

Posted on 2008-12-01 by admin

Update 2008-12-04 11:26PM:It’s the end of a long day of a long week. We fly back home tomorrow. I am both anxious to be home, and dreading leaving, as it will be one more reminder of the finality of death.

The memorial service was today. I published my reading of my father’s writing, How Old Will I Be?, and my eulogy, as their own posts.

Update 2008-12-03 10:50AM: His obituary appears in today’s Asheville Citizen-Times and Hendersonvile Times-News, the text of which I’ve added below. The memorial service will be held tomorrow at 1pm at Thomas Shepherd and Sons; they’re hosting an online register on their Web site.

Holding the hand of my father on his deathbed at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina on Saturday, November 29, 2008. He was on palliative care, only oxygen and pain medication to keep him comfortable. Except for a brief moment of recognition later that Saturday, he was already gone. His heart stopped at 5:15am this morning, December 1, 2008, after prolonged illness.

This image was used to illustrate the online article, From Pain to Palliative Care in the WBUR radio documentary “Quality of Death, End of Life Care in America”.

He went into the hospital for the last time on Friday. He was never alone. My sister and I flew down first thing Saturday morning. Blog Widow John joined us last night.

I’ll be staying in North Carolina through the week. We’ll be making arrangements this afternoon for a local memorial service later this week.

Here’s my Mom and Dad on the porch at Woodfield Inn in October 2006. We celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there in the Winter of 2007. This is how I prefer to remember him, one of the last few times he was relatively free of pain and discomfort.

No more pain, Dad. No more pain.

Update: 10:51pm, December 1, 2008

Some closing thoughts at the end of a long day. My eyes ache.

In his will, my father directed us that his body should be “cremated without ceremony and dispersed into any river in the United States at some date agreeable to living relatives. A memorial ceremony of a non-religious nature may be held at any time.” We arranged the details of that memorial this afternoon when we met with the funeral home.

Earlier this afternoon, I helped my mother compose this email, which she sent out to “all our friends and family” for whom we had email addresses at the ready.

Needed to communicate this way because of all we knew and loved. Sad news. Jerry passed away this morning at 5:15AM at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina; our children are here and helping me with everything.

He had many illnesses this year but the most important one was that his kidneys were failing and he couldn’t take dialysis because of his low blood pressure. He was in Mission from Friday til this AM with palliative care giving him pain medication; his legs were very bad and his pain was intolerable. [He was never alone. One of us was always with him. My mother stayed with him Friday night. I stayed with him Saturday night. My sister stayed with him last night.] Karen [my sister] was with him at the last minute and we had gone to a “McDonald” type house to rest nearby. [The Lewis Rathbun Center, a wonderful place. Our stay there was thankfully short.] She called and we got there about 2 minutes too late. He had a lucid moment on Saturday and recognized both Karen and Chris and even called them by name. [The “brief moment of recognition” I mentioned at the top of this post. He did look at me directly and call out my name. My mother and sister had stepped out; we called them back. It seemed to me that he also recognized my sister, but quickly fell away from us again.] He is at rest now and no more aches and pains.

We will have a memorial service this Thursday, December 4 at 1:00 pm at the Thomas Shepherd Funeral Home, 125 South Church Street, between 1st Avenue and Allen Street in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Per Jerry’s wishes, there will be no viewing; he will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered at a future date. There will be a notice and obituary in the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Hendersonville Times-News tomorrow and Wednesday.

In lieu of flowers, you may make a donation to the Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County, 400 North Main Street, Hendersonville, NC 28792. Their phone number is 828-698-1977. [My father was a founding member of the museum. Some of his contributions are in their display cases. He remained active to the end, as his health permitted.]

Update 2008-12-03: Obituary

Hendersonville – Gerard “Jerry” Kreussling, 77, of Hendersonville, died Monday, December 1, 2008 at Mission Hospitals after a prolonged illness.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, he was a prior resident of Florida and New York where he was very active in community theaters before moving to Hendersonville 16 years ago; the place he chose to live. He is preceded in death by his sister, Patricia Rubak and his loving uncle, Emil Kreusling.

He served in the US Army from 1952 to 1954 and was employed with Grumman Aerospace for 37 years.

He was a founding member and volunteer for the Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County. He also was a member of the Henderson County Gem and Mineral Society, local photography clubs, and volunteered with the Henderson County Sherriff’s Department.

He was a loving, generous, humorous, and gregarious person and will be dearly missed.

He is survived by his loving wife of 52 years, Mary Kreussling; a son, Chris Kreussling and his partner, John Magisano of Brooklyn, NY; a daughter, Karen Provinzano and her husband, Mike of Brick, NJ; two granddaughters, Michaela and Cassandra Provinzano along with several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Thursday at Shepherd’s Church Street Chapel with the Rev. John Magisano officiating.The family will receive friends immediately following the service at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to:

The Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County, 400 N. Main St., Hendersonville, NC 28792.

Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors and Cremation Memorial Center is in charge of arrangement. An online register book is available at www.thosshepherd.com.

Links

Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County
Lewis Rathbun Center
Obituary and online Guest Book, Thomas Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors
Obituary, Asheville Citizen-Times, 2008-12-03
Obituary, Hendersonville Times-News, 2008-12-03

‘Fantasticks’: Charm Major Asset, Theatre Review, p. 7, SUNY Stony Brook Statesman, V.17 n. 88, July 11, 1974 [PDF], a review of the Theatre North performance at the Setauket Holiday Inn. My father played one of the fathers in the play.

2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show and Sale, Part 2

Posted on 2008-04-01 by admin

Continued from Part 1.

Thwaitesara ‘Angel Sound’

Here’s the second round of photos from yesterday’s visit to the 2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show at the North Carolina Arboretum. There are the flower portraits, the closeups and other details, of the stars of the show.

I’m ignorant of orchids. I tried to take photos of labels so I could identify the flowers later. But the labels weren’t always so obviously associated with the plants. I transcribed the names as best I could. So take any names provided here with heaping teaspoons of salt.

Unknown Moth Orchid

Some kind of ladyslipper

Pharg. ‘Ashley Wilkes’

Detail, Flower Arrangement

Another unknown beauty, perhaps a Cattleya relative?

Moth Orchid, Dtps. ‘Elmore’s Pink Silk’

These little guys look just like Turkish dervish dancers to me

The name on the label was Paph. JulisRothschildianum ‘Eureka’ x Lowii ‘Princehouse’ AM/AOS. I guess this is a hybrid of two “Paph.” (Paphiopedalum?) varieties. Anyone want to translate?

I’ll close out with two detailed portraits of two amazing orchids.

This is a detail of Phrag. caudatum, some kind of ladyslipper orchid.

That’s beautiful enough. But check out the lateral petals. They’ve evolved into straps hanging down over 18″ on each side of the bloom.

Here’s a view of the entire plant. I can’t imagine how one would even transport such a thing

It’s a little hard to pick out from the mass of foliage surrounding it, but the hanging basket (seated, in this setting) in the center of the photo contains a specimen of Chamaengis harotiana. You can see this won First Place in something.

It doesn’t look like much at first glance. Let’s take a closer look.

Hard to appreciate it, so I put my fingertip in the photo for scale. Ten of those flowers could fit on my fingernail.

2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show and Sale, Part 1

Posted on 2008-03-30 by admin

Display Room of the Western North Carolina Orchid Show in the Education Center of the North Carolina Arboretum

This morning I attended the second day of the 2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show and Sale at the North Carolina Arboretum. Although I’ve gardened outdoors for many years, I cannot keep a houseplant alive. I certainly haven’t ventured into the Orchid world. My experience of an event like this is much like how I describe myself going to Sunday services: like a dog in church. I enjoy the sights and scents for their own sake, and have no interest in tapping into the deeper religion of the event.

So here is my report from today’s visit, emphasizing the visual experience, which was more than satisfying to this orchid-ignorant gardener. This first part gives the overview and most of the exhibits. When I get home I’ll be able to filter through the flower portraits for Part 2.

The event was sponsored by the Western North Carolina Orchid Society (WNCOS). The event was held in the Education Building of the North Carolina Arboretum. Specimens from WNCOS members occupied the central display. All of these photos are from the members exhibit, taken from different vantage points around the room.

Displays from vendors and other orchid societies covered the perimeter of the room. The vendors tables themselves occupied two other rooms.

Carolina Orchids

South Carolina Orchid Society Display

Ironwood Estates Orchids Display

Marble Branch Farms Displays

Elmore Orchids Display

Orchidview Orchids Display

Carter & Holmes Display

One thing that struck me – and I wonder if others have the same impression – is that orchid society seems to be disproportionately male. If one were to judge the demographics of gardeners by that of its bloggers, one might come up with a distribution like this:

70% women
30% men
- 15% straight
- 15%gay

It’s hard to say what the breakdown would be at today’s event. Men seemed to be in the majority, at least while I was there. As for the rest of it, I would not presume to infer. I’ll just say that the orchids weren’t the only eye-candy on hand today.

Links

Program and Exhibitors for the 2008 WNC Orchid Show and Sale [PDF]
North Carolina Arboretum
Western North Carolina Orchid Society (WNCOS) [Note: The site was completely unavailable when I wrote this post.]

Outside Clyde

Posted on 2008-03-29 by admin

Anemone blanda, Outside Clyde

This afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting with CC of Outside Clyde. I’ve been following his chronicles witnessing the succession of growth and bloom on the resident gardeners’ hillside. This is just my small contribution.

There’s no single vantage from which you can take in the entire hillside at once.

Daffodil Hill

The trails wander and intersect organically, having evolved over three decades of clearing, planting and gardening.

Over the hill, through the woods

The trails are rough, and steep at times. But it pays to stop often and look around, and up, and out.

Daffodil “Rip van Winkle”

Narcissus, cyclamineus tribe

Possibly “King Alfred”

Shelf fungus

Pulmonaria

The threatened thunderstorms never materialized. CC’s site is adjacent, and we hiked along another trail to get there. There was only a sprinkle of rain.

Lichens

Old foundation

Last year’s Goldenrod

Claytonia

A lovely afternoon.

The North Carolina Arboretum

Posted on 2007-08-17 by admin

Today was our day to visit the North Carolina Arboretum. CC accompanied me for about half of the photos I took. It was a pleasure to be able to explore the Arboretum with another plants-person. It’s been too long since I had the opportunity to do so.

Here are some photographic highlights of my visit. You can see even more photos of my visit on Flickr.

Annuals in Container

This is a detail view of one of the many combinations of annuals and other tender plants in containers around the plazas and promenade at the Arboretum. The plants here are:

Upper left: Golden Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans “Golden Delicious”
Upper right: Coleus, Solenostemon scutellarioides “Coco Loco”
Lower center: Shamrock, Oxalis vulcanicola “Zinfandel”

It was interesting walking around with CC for this, since he’s familiar with many of our “annuals” as year-round landscape plants. He recognized the Pineapple Sage immediately; I thought it was another Coleus.

Here’s a full-on view of this container and its neighbors.

Detail, Rex Begonia Leaf.

And here’s that Begonia with its companions.

Passion Flower

Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata), on the Nature Garden Walk.

Flower of Franklinia alatamaha in the parking lot.

Papyrus flowers.

Bark of Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), on the Nature Garden Walk

Tiger Swallowtail on Hydrangea off the promenade.

Lichens on Rock, Nature Garden Walk

Three-lobed Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba), handicapped parking area

The beauty above is Scolia dubia, also known as a Flower, Digger or Blue-winged Wasp. Thanks to nafensler (Flickr) for the ID! I photographed this in the parking lot as CC and I were leaving the Arboretum. NCSU’s Center for Integrated Pest Management has an apt write-up from a couple years ago:

Scolia dubia is a black-colored insect with metallic blue highlights on the wings and thorax. The brownish abdomen has two yellow spots near the middle of the abdomen and the tip is a red-brown color. Scoliid wasps are considered beneficial insects because they help control the grubs of green June beetles and other beetles. They are present in North Carolina from June to October, but they are most abundant during August. The wasps are often seen hovering a few inches above lawns, flying in loops and Figure 8 patterns. The female wasp digs through the soil in search of grubs, burrowing her own tunnels or following those made by the grubs. These are not a stinging threat to humans and no control measures are suggested.

Quilt Garden
Baker Exhibit Center

Links

North Carolina Arboretum

The Quilt Garden at the North Carolina Arboretum

Posted on 2007-08-17 by admin

Update 2007.12.12: Added links to related posts and Arboretum Web site, including their page of past photos of the Quilt Garden.

The Quilt Garden is one of a series of gardens bordering the promenade at the North Carolina Arboretum. It’s redesigned every year with a different combination of annuals in a different design based on traditional quilt patterns of North Carolina.

As you approach, from ground-level, the garden is colorful, but the pattern is not obvious. You climb the stairs to the overlook to get the full effect.

The center of the overlook is aligned with other features of the landscape, and a view to the mountains beyond, to give you the view in the photo at the top of this post. This is as formal as the gardens get at the Arboretum.

Back at ground-level, the plants themselves are interesting. C.C. noted that they could have spaced the yellow more closely to fill in the pattern.

And from the right angle, the pattern reveals itself at ground-level as well.

The New Baker Exhibit Center
The North Carolina Arboretum

Links

Arboretum Quilt Garden, Past and Present, North Carolina Arboretum

The New Baker Exhibit Center at the North Carolina Arboretum

Posted on 2007-08-17 by admin

Today I got to spend most of the day with Christopher C. of Outside Clyde.We met at the new Baker Exhibit Center at the North Carolina Arboretum. When I was at the Arboretum last fall, it was still under construction. It’s only been open about a month.

It’s a beautiful building. It holds a great room, an exhibit hall, and a greenhouse which was not yet open. Not shown in these photos, this building also houses a gallery shop, with fine arts and crafts of mostly garden-related subjects and themes available for purchase. It opens on two levels. The lower level, with the main entrance, opens to the parking lot. The upper level opens onto the Arboretum’s promenade, which includes the Quilt Garden. I’ll have photos from that later.

Quilt Garden
The North Carolina Arboretum

Links

North Carolina Arboretum

Oconaluftee Indian Village, Cherokee, NC

Posted on 2007-08-16 by admin

I am much looking forward to tomorrow, when I get to meet Christopher C. of Outside Clyde. This will be my first chance to meet another gardener-blogger.

So it’s late and I must get to sleep to be rested and fresh for tomorrow. Here are some photographic impressions of today’s visit to Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee, North Carolina. The first set of photos, including the one at the top of this post, are from the exhibit itself. The second set comes from the Cherokee Botanical Gardens which shares the grounds with the exhibit, a self-guided tour with signs identifying many of the trees, bushes, and cultivated plants important to the Cherokee.

Pottery Tools

Weaving a white oak basket

Blowing a dart

Log canoes

Mossy Roof

Shadows on a red clay wall

At home I’ve been reading a book on moss gardening by George Schenk. The Botanical Gardens offered numerous object lessons in how well-grown mosses should look. I’m struggling to achieve this in my own garden.

Exploring Biophilia Through a USB Microscope

Posted on 2007-08-14 by admin

Tiny Strawberry. Credit: Michaela and Cassandra.

I’m in North Carolina this week, visiting my parents with my sister and nieces. It’s a confusing time, with both my nieces and parents demanding both my sister’s and my attention. “Which imaginary friend do you want to help me feed?” “Did I show you this?” So I welcome activities which can engage everyone, including me.

For this visit, my father bought an inexpensive USB microscope. I’ve been thinking about getting one of these myself, so I welcomed the opportunity to play around with one. It also turned an otherwise ordinary trip through the backyard with the nieces into an expedition. We collected samples – “specimens” – along the way, for examination under the microscope. Here are some of the highlights.

Moss and Lichen from a decaying stump. Credit: Xris.

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). Credit: Michaela and Cassandra.

Tip of a fern frond (unidentified). Credit: Xris

Diseased Leaf, Credit: Michaela and Cassandra.

Another Diseased Leaf. Credit: Michaela and Cassandra.

Nurtured by our parents, Both my sister and I have a life-long love of nature, and she has clearly nurtured the same in her children. My nieces picked out all these samples. They identified, and I gathered many of the specimens (there was poison ivy about). In a half-hour expedition, we collected about 20 samples, most of which went under the microscope. Much of that half-hour was taken up by observing the wildlife: electric blue damselflies, swallowtail butterflies, a frog, fish, a cardinal, and a rabbit. My nieces each carried their own binoculars. They’re 7 and 8 years old.

All the images are snapshots at 10X magnification. This microscope also offers 60X and 200X, but the controls are mushy and it’s difficult to hold an image in the narrow field of focus. The software is intuitive; my nieces figured out the controls before I did! My nieces did most of the manipulation of framing and lighting for the images above. I’ve credited the photos accordingly above. It took me some exploration to figure out how to capture an image and export it to a JPEG for upload. I did some tweaks for image capture, and some post-processing for shadows and contrast.

They’re brilliant, sometimes scary-smart, children. It’s a privilege to share and explore the world with them.

Guest Post: The Man From B.R.O.O.K.L.Y.N.

Posted on 2007-05-18 by admin

I received the following from my Dad this afternoon. I asked him for permission to share it here.

APOLOGIA: YOU WILL FIND “I” AND “ME” IN HERE OFTEN. That’s because my wife, who is also from Brooklyn does not agree with my outlook. These are MY opinions and do not mean I am insulting my wife or son or other Brooklynites and THEIR opinions.

I AM FROM BROOKLYN AND PROUD AS PUNCH !

(Nope, that’s not right. How about)

I AM FROM BROOKLYN AND PLEASED AS PUNCH !

(I’m still not getting my point across. Lessee)

I AM FROM BROOKLYN AND HAPPY ABOUT THAT !

I’m gone, by-bye, far away, moved. It took 65 years but no more $500 annual parking ticket budget, sky rats, strange people sleeping in the streets, passersby arguing with themselves and losing. No more rush hour, subway, shoulder to shoulder bustle and bump, “cleaning” windshields, strange green gobs of mucous on the sidewalk.

I was a Great Depression baby, born at home near the intersection of Myrtle and Decatur in Ridgewood. We moved to Queens early in my life but, same thing. Brooklyn was The City, just like Manhattan.

If you were a baseball fan, you had died and gone to Heaven early. A ten cent subway ride took you to the Wonderlands of Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds. I was not a fan.

No sense belaboring it: it was a nasty Era and life stunk. My Mom made me wear knickers and a beret !

Our electric was more off than on. Fridays were always cod fish cakes and spaghetti (Franco-American) night.

During WWII we also had Meatless Tuesdays. Not that we could afford meat anyway but it makes a good bitching point.

When I was married we managed to move out on “The Island”, first to Nassau county and then Suffolk.

From that point on I tried very hard to protect my kids from the Big Bad City. I didn’t want them to endure what

I had gone through. I was still too much a Dad to realize or even conceive that my kids could think for themselves and make decisions. Wrong again, and not for the first or last time.

My son moved first to Manhattan and eventually to Brooklyn where he has a 100 year old Victorian home.

The daughter is very happy with her family in New Jersey.

The son writes a well received and popular “Blog” about life in Brooklyn, especially gardening.

They’re happy, I’m happy. I miss them but not Brooklyn.

Here is a partial list of things I do miss: American Museum of Natural History; Coney Island Aquarium; MOMA; the Bronx Zoo; hot chestnut vendors; Horn and Hardart’s Automat; Charlotte Russe; Loew’s Valencia Theatre; Tony the Ice Man; Macy’s Christmas windows; Rockefeller Center at Christmas; more. BUT, I could always visit. Oh my: swimming at the St. George hotel with its’ salt water pool and the mirrored ceiling; the Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day parades; Times Square on New Year’s Eve (just once);……..

Had to stop, starting to choke up. Take a deep breath.

OK. I now live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, selected as my retirement spot after years of study. Been here 15 years. I do very well, thank you. We eat out several times a week. I love it. We have a backyard about 100 feet deep and two football fields long. A stream runs through it at the rear boundary.

We live at the foot of a mountain.

The backyard is visited by a variety of wildlife: squirrels, flying squirrels, several species of rabbit, red foxes, muskrat, wild turkeys, deer, gray fox, ducks, geese and an amazing variety of birds including several hawk species. (They tend to harvest the mourning doves.)

Just a couple of healthy stones throws away is a herd of elk and a pack of red wolves. The gray wolves have not yet been re-released to the wild. The cougars/panthers/mountain lions are gone but you can still find feral pigs, some mixed with European Boars. They hunt them on foot, with spears!

What about bears? They are all around us but have never been seen on our property. Sightings have been made within a half mile. Usually a daily incident in the local papers.

We gotcher streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, lakes and hundreds of waterfalls. Local fishing waters hold all species of trout; bass species include largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, peacock, striped, hybrid.

The North Carolina state record for Bluegill sunfish (2 ¾ pounds) was caught in our home county.

Culturally, we miss major league sports. However we have seen Itzaak Perlman, the Lippizaner Stallions, David Copperfield, many operas. We have musical and stage shows, lots of Celtic music and dancing and, as you might expect, tons of Blue Grass. The circus, pow-wows, gem mines. We’re not lacking.

Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina are within a half hour’s drive.

City lovers would miss the 24 hour lifestyle. We tend to roll up the sidewalks around 9:30 PM.

So, all-in-all, it was a great move. We still visit the son in Flatbush and the daughter in Brick, NJ. We absolutely avoid Long Island at all costs.

There are a few other ties to The City. I still have a plot in Calvary Cemetary. It will go unused.

So, my dear son: revel in your Brooklyn home with your partner. You have chosen, and wisely for you. My plan to protect you was a flop and thank goodness for that.

I am still happy to be FROM Brooklyn. But I have a friend there whom I can visit whenever possible. He opens my eyes to the things I overlooked and broadens my knowledge base and horizons, even at the age of 75.

I am blessed in all things.

Flatbush Gardener

Urban Habitat Gardening with Native Plants

Tag Archives: North Carolina

Gerard Kreussling, 1931-2008

Update: 10:51pm, December 1, 2008

Update 2008-12-03: Obituary

Related Content

Links

2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show and Sale, Part 2

Related Posts

2008 Western North Carolina Orchid Show and Sale, Part 1

Links

Outside Clyde

The North Carolina Arboretum

Related Posts

Links

The Quilt Garden at the North Carolina Arboretum

Related Posts

Links

The New Baker Exhibit Center at the North Carolina Arboretum

Related Posts

Links

Oconaluftee Indian Village, Cherokee, NC

Exploring Biophilia Through a USB Microscope

Guest Post: The Man From B.R.O.O.K.L.Y.N.