A few days ago Kim O'Connell and a friend climbed up part of Slide Mountain, and this experience put Kim in mind of her days at Frost Valley, from 1970 through 1974. She was known then as Kim Aronowitz. (The image is reproduced from a photograph in the 1972 yearbook of Kim and the other CITs that summer. Kim is at the back right, behind Starr Hedrick who was the CIT Director.) After coming down from Slide, Kim went home and starting looking for traces of Frost Valley on the web...and found this blog. Kim now tells a moving story about reuniting with her counselors through the last weeks and days of their father. Here is that story:As a social worker for Compassionate Care Hospice I have covered many territories in New Jersey. Currently I see patients in Bergen County but two years ago I was covering the Morris, Warren and Sussex areas. I was in our Parsipanny office one day and happened to glance up at our patient board. The board lists patients and their respective nurses. I saw a name that I knew from many years ago. It was Edward Ambry a longtime member of the Frost Valley Board of Trustees. But more importantly he was the father of my two camp counselors the first year I was at Wawayanda. Meg and Susan Ambry along with Anne Marie Kremer were the counselors for the Tent Village (or dirt village as we were lovingly called). Although I was not assigned to the nurse for Ed, I asked if I could be the Social Worker for he and his wife Marge. I spoke by phone to Karen Ambry, the eldest of the Ambry girls, and asked her to tell Susan that I would be following Ed on hospice and to remind her that I had be a camper of hers. I didn't think she'd remember me but to my surprise she did. I went to the Ambry home in Denville and met Marge and Ed. Ed was diagnosed with Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease and was quite ill. Marge stated that he had begun to decline after the death of his daughter Meg in 2000. I remembered Meg as a beautiful and almost ethereal presence. She was a gentle, brilliant soul. I remained the social worker and developed a relationship with Ed and Marge. As a matter of fact we were so taken with each other that Ed asked me to marry him several times. I advised him that he was already married but it not seem to phase him. Ed became more ill and during his illness I was able to meet with Susan again after 36 years. During that time I had the opportunity to tell Sue what it meant to have her as a counselor and a mentor. I was 12 years old and badly in need of nurturing and she provided that and more. Susan had no idea how she affected me and I was able to tell her. I could not have conceived of a time when I would ever have seen her again. Ed finally succumbed and his family was grieved and uplifted by his many accomplishments. I in turn was able to repay a kindness. Unfortunately I couldn't tell Meg Ambry how I was affected by her. Maybe someday I can tell Anne Marie Kremer as well.
