A Brief History of Don and Carol.

A Brief History of Don & Carol Mulryan

March 25th, 1932 — Don Mulryan is born in the Sabetha, Kansas hospital to Elizabeth and Dennis Mulryan

August 1st, 1935 — Carol Mulryan is born in a farmhouse in Axtell, Kansas. The doctor, coming to check on her and her mother, Mary Kuckelman, gets tears in his eyes, and proclaims her “perfect.” Her parents are Mary Carrol Kuckelman, and Herman Joseph Kuckelman

Spring 1954 — Don is drafted into the United States Army, due to the conflict in Korea. He flies from Omaha, NE, to Seattle, WA, and takes a troop ship to the Korean peninsula. He is made a corporal, doesn’t see much action, but grows to hate lines. He sends Carol money and letters, frequently inquiring about the status of his car, a 1952 Ford that he has purchased new, and which Carol drives while he is away. His horizons expand greatly, and their correspondence shows his plans — college, and NOT running the store that his mother and brother own. The land that had been purchased for their home is sold.

February, 9, 1956 — Don and Carol Mulryan are married at St. Bridget church in Axtell, Kansas.

May, 1956 — Joseph Eugene Mulryan dies, from alcoholism at the age of 40. Elizabeth Mulryan, distraught and sick of running the store, picks up her house and moves it to a larger town, on land owned by Carols grandmother. She is across the street from the church, which she attends daily. She also works in the local department store. She is widowed, and likes the company and seeing everyone.

March 30, 1957 — Steven Mulryan is born at St. Mary’s Hospital, Kansas City MO.

September, 1957 — Bonnie and Barb Staulbaumber, twins, are born to Don’s sister and brother in law, Gilbert and Theresa Staulbaumber, and with the addition of Dave Mulryan on March 30th, 1958, Elizabeth Mulryan has 4 new grandchildren in one calendar year. This was not that unique in 1950’s America.

March 30, 1958 — David Mulryan is born at St. Mary’s Hospital, Kansas City MO

May 1960 — Don receives an Associates degree from Rockhurst University in Kansas, City. MO. He is employed at Bendix corporation.

October 19, 1963 — Janet Mulryan is born at St. Mary’s Hospital, Kansas City MO

May 20th, 1965 — Gary Mulryan is born at St. Mary’s Hospital, Kansas City MO.

April, 1966 — Don Mulryan is offered and takes a job with the Atomic Energy Commission, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Mulryan’s spend the next 10 years on highway 54 traveling to see grandparents in North Eastern Kansas, traveling in an un-air conditioned 1966 Chevrolet Impala station wagon, with an 327, two barreled carburetor. Carol Mulryan is ticketed by the Kansas State police driving 90 miles an hour on I-70. Don Mulryan neglects to check the spare in 1967, trapping the family for 2 hours with two flats. He uses the top of child’s game box to write, “2 flats, send aid,” and someone does. In December 1967, the family drives on ice for two days to get to Christmas. Steve and David spend the trip using a tinker toy to break up the ice in the wiper wash container. They enjoy this.

Other highlights: Don, always interested in history, drags wife and children to see various abandoned forts. Don and Carol also drag children to see the Eisenhower car collection and birthplace in Abilene, Kansas. Don, Carol, and children tour the Kansas City Chiefs stadium. Other highlights include The Truman Presidential Library, Elitche’s Gardens in Denver, Six Flags in Texas.

Children learn how to fish from grandfather, build a fire in the brush, cook hotdogs over an open fire. They watch grandfather clean fish, and listen as Grandmother recounts various scandals and tragedies from past family events. One highlight, recounted over and over, is the drowning of 6 children in a creek, said Grandmothers cousins. Chidden are terrified of drowning, but enjoy annual outings to St. Bridget Church cemetery to examine the graves of said children, and learn about all past relatives from Grandmother, who issues strong and accurate opinions about dead relatives. Best example, “There is all of your money,” she says, pointing out a large headstone with the Mulryan name on it. Children are fascinated, and examine impressive headstone for years.

June, 1966 — Carols youngest brother is nearly killed in a car accident, while passing a line of cars coming back from a dance. He, on the wrong side of the road, takes a head on collision. Don, Carol, and children leave Albuquerque in under 90 minutes, and drive like maniacs to reach Carols younger brother. He, having received 10 pints of blood, miraculously lives, and Carol lectures children about the dangers of passing in the dark, with an underpowered car. “Make sure you have the big engine,” she would say. Children are fascinated while examining the wreckage of the car that was being driven, in a shed, with their fraternal Grandmother, Elizabeth Mulryan, in tow. Children, grandmother and father spend approximately one hour going over the car. Grandmother vows to never go see another wrecked car again. Children are nonplussed, having spent many Saturdays accompanying Don to various salvage yards, and examining wrecked cars. Spotting large pools of blood was a favorite activity.

December 1968 — Don and Carol and children relocate from 1728 Bloom to 10312 McKnight, a distance of approximately 1,500 feet. The new house has a double car garage, and Don sets up shop on one side, and re-assembles his tool collection, and builds cabinets, putting them EVERYWHERE, at Carol’s insistence. Don had a small sideline business in Kansas City building stereo speaker cabinets. Carol became expert at putting the finish on these cabinets. This business was put on hold when the tools were unable to be moved to Albuquerque in 1966. Carol, feeling deprived that she never had her own closet as a child in her parents farmhouse, built by her great grandfather, compensates in spectacular fashion, having more closets than anyone, ever. Carol also fills cabinets with stuff. Both will live in this house until the day they die, or go to a nursing home.

Summer 1966–1976 — Carol and Don join the Coronado Club, on the Kirtland Air Force base. Carol, an excellent swimmer, is impatient that Don doesn’t swim, and makes sure that children can all swim. Dave takes to swimming, since he can do it alone, and dives off of dangerous and uncontrolled various high dives, thrilling his siblings, who DON’T dive.

Winter 1966–1976 — Don continues to build cabinets, frequently enlisting children to sweep and clean garage of sawdust. Children do this without argument. They also rake leaves, and mow the yard. Children are rented out to various neighbors, also mowing their yards. Dave and Steven also shovel snow, when Albuquerque had snow, before climate change. Carol takes up various crafts, making ceramics, embroidering, crocheting, and learning macrame.

Spring, 1975 — News arrives that Elizabeth Mulryan, age 82, has cancer, and has a large growth removed from her spleen. Don, Carol, Gilbert and Theresa, sit vigil in various shifts for 6 weeks. Carol flies for the first time. Elizabeth never leaves the hospital, and dies on Mothers Day, 1975. Children are not allowed into the hospital, but wave to Grandmother from outside. She is buried in St. Benedict Cemetery, next to Gene and Dennis Mulryan. Steve and David are pallbearers for their Grandmother. Everyone is rattled, but survive. Elizabeth Mulryan had a life she wanted, but was subject to forces beyond her control. Her parents were wealthy, but she and her husband lost a farm in the 1920’s. They had 3 children and she had 10 grandchildren, from the two, Don and Theresa who married and had kids, but her life was dictated, for a time, by Gene. He was her oldest, he was consumed by his demons, he died at 40. She, in her way, found happiness, with her grandchildren, and even great grandchildren, but was wistful. Her husband died young, her oldest died young, she coped.

Mary Kuckelman, Carol’s mother, gets the gig, and says, without ceremony: “We won’t see Don and Carol again now that Bessy is gone.” This does indeed turn out to be true, a little. Steven Mulryan graduates from Manzano High School, the first of his generation to do so. He attends UNM in the fall of 1976 accompanied, much to his displeasure, by Dave who also starts UNM, on a program that allows high school seniors to go to college. Dave despises UNM, and plots his escape, to Boston. Jan and Gary are good students. Dave, considered the dumbest child, is not.

Spring, 1976 — The family, minus Dave, forgoes the annual trip to Kansas, and goes to Disneyland instead. Grandma Kuckelman is not surprised. Dave stays in ABQ, since he will be leaving for Holy Cross in the fall, and does not feel the need to be packed into the new Pontiac Boneville, even with air conditioning.

Summer 1976 — Dave is poised to go to college. He, after attending a going away party, sideswipes a car, leaves, and has the police arrive later. Dave, in some unknown way, talks his way out of something, and accompanies Don to court. The charges are mild, however, when it is discovered that the owner of the damaged car is a priest and a graduate of Holy Cross, and drops all charges. No one can believe this, except Dave.

September, 1976 — Dave packs up three suitcases, and Don drives him to the airport, and he flies to Boston, and then takes the bus to Worcester, Mass., to attend Holy Cross. Carol, mysteriously upset, decides to fly to Kansas and attends the farm sale of Herman and Mary Kuckelman, who are selling out and retiring to town. She comes to appreciate that Dave is gone, and he cannot drive on campus, and he LOVES Holy Cross. Don and Carol recognize that he is out of their hair. Steve continues at UNM, and his girlfriend, Diane O’Laughlin, attends beauty school, which Carol drives her to every day. Jan and Gary appreciate Dave’s absence, tired of being roped into his various schemes, and study and do well in school. Jan sends Dave cookies, and letters. Carol sends Dave letters. Dave LOVES college, and the 18 year old drinking in Massachusetts, the beer, the pot, and the tourist opportunities that Boston, during that bicentennial year, has to offer.

Summer — 1977 Don and Carol announce that they cannot afford to send Dave back to Holy Cross. Dave, nonplussed, gets 2 jobs, working from 2 am until 11 am at one McDonalds, and from 12–5 at another. His lack of a drivers license, due to its supposed suspension, means that Don must drive him, and he does, without fail. Carol also drives Dave, and by mid-July, both are exhausted from the driving. Dave, thrilled with all of the work, pays his own tuition and Don and Carol happily put him on a flight to Boston, and are again glad to be rid of him. Dave, thrilled to be back, knuckles down and improves his grades, because the threat of expulsion looms, but he pulls it all off, and is safely off of academic probation. Steve is doing fine at UNM. Diane graduates from beauty school, and gets a good job at JC Penny. Dave meets MJT, at Holy Cross, and his future, for better or worse, is sealed.

Fall, 1979 — Dave, clearly having inherited his Uncle Gene’s type of alcoholism, crashes and burns, and leaves college, to take a de-tox sabbatical. He works at GTE Linkurt, and waits tables, and stops the booze. He escapes New Mexico in the summer of 1980, and is determined to finish Holy Cross. Having acquired new skills, he gets a job waiting tables, and finishes Holy Cross. Don and Carol, having married off Steven, and having him move to California, do not attend Daves commencement, which features Helen Hayes, who tells the graduates, “If you can dream it, you can be it.” This is both good and bad advice for Dave, who dreams up lots of schemes, and tries most of them.

Fall 1981 — Dave gets a job at a computer store in Worcester, which he loves. His relentless working gets him a managers job, and he sells computers to everyone, and attends all sorts of conferences, and sees Steve Jobs at the Boston Computer Society meetings. Alas, Dave has a relationship turn sour, and decides to dump Worcester, and like all good gays, escapes to New York.

Fall of 1983 — Dave, under the auspices of his great friend Margaret Lanzetta, begins spending a lot of time in NYC. He eventually lands a job with the city of NY, and completes the move to New York.

Fall of 1985 — Dave, thrilled with NYC, lives in Queens, and then moves to Manhattan, to an apartment at 6 Charles Street, in the heart of gay New York. He is THRILLED, although uneasy about the people who are sick and dying. But, he works, first at the city, and then for a brilliant and nuts guy, Lloyd Bush, where he stays for 5 years, with little to do. He studies the market, reads magazines, and helps Lloyd sell off antiques. He also has a weekend job, at First Boston, a very fancy investment bank, where he works from 8 am to 8 pm every Saturday and Sunday. He will stay at this job for the next 13 years, the longest and most lucrative job of his career.

Spring 1987 — Tragedy strikes in the spring of 1987, when Carol and Don’s nephew, 16, is killed in a single car accident, in their hometown. Carol, too upset to talk, has Don call Dave in New York, to announce this sad and terrible news. It is decided that Dave will meet Don and Carol in Kansas City, to lend support. Dave and Don proceed to talk, and Carol, sensing that her role as primary communicator is being usurped, quickly recovers, and talks with Dave. Dave meets Don and Carol the next day, having made sure that the current sick boyfriend is securely in the hospital — he will die within the month. Dave, happy to see Don and Carol, sails into the saddest event, ever. His aunt and uncle have lost their youngest child; they will never really recover, The funeral is not even over when news comes that another uncle won’t survive the week, and all relatives decamp for southern Kansas, where Eldon, Dave’s uncle, dies at 45. There is happiness though. Steve and Diane have their first child, Caitlin, who of course arrives on Steve and Dave’s birthday, March 30th, 1987. The boyfriend dies quietly, with his parents from Iowa in attendance, and Dave. The parents will each die within 6 months, from broken hearts, Dave decides.

The Spring concludes with the death of Herman Kuckelman, Dave’s grandfather, who also dies. He is father to 5, grandfather to 19, and had a life that he would have preferred not to have, but he made the best of it. Mary, his wife, lives happily alone, and writes her grandchildren sporadically, Carol, weekly. She dispenses wisdom and judgement, and is always happy to see anyone. Dave frequently pumps her for dirt about various relatives, which she amply supplies.

Summer, 1987 — The cruelest year continues. Dave’s aunt and uncle, determined to see NY, and determined to see Washington, travel by car from Kansas, and arrive on a Friday in 100 degree August heat. Dave’s uncle proceeds to have a massive heart attack on the West Side Highway, as Dave shoves him into a cab and gets him to his apartment, As his color deepens to dark grey, there is another cab, and a 2 minute trip to the hospital, St. Vincent’s, famous as the AIDS hospital. Said uncle survives, but Dave almost does not.

Spring of 1988 — Dave is fired from Lloyd Bush, for various and fake reasons, but takes it all well. He LOVED his job at Lloyds, and loved Lloyd, because Lloyd was nuts, but highly intelligent, and his colleagues were the best. Lloyd also paid well. Lloyd will STILL play a part in Dave’s future. Dave gets a job at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver, and Jacobson, a large New York City law firm, and meets Chris, who will be a friend for life. He will also meet Norman, who will be his best and last boss, and who will, in his way, facilitate Mulryan/Nash by getting Dave a cheap apartment.

Update on the siblings, and Don and Carol: Steven, having finished Pharmacy school, marries Diane O’Laughlin, and moves off to California, the Republican part, in Ventura. Jan, having finished college decamps for Phoenix, where she works as an engineer, her major, but grows discontented and becomes a stock broker instead. She spends 2 months in NY, learning how to be a broker with Dean Witter, at their World Trade Center headquarters. This building will be destroyed in the World Trade Center attacks. Jan begins a long and lucrative career in money. Gary, spoiled, and brilliant, keeps Don and Carol busy, with his unending demands. They don’t mind. Gary graduates from UNM, and joins Steve and Diane in California. Steve and Diane frequently get stuck having everyone visit them in California, but they don’t seem to mind. Steven’s siblings Dave, Gary, and Janet are THRILLED with Caitlin, their first child, which will become ironic later, when Caitlin, as an adult, won’t speak to any of them.

Spring — 1988 Dave, happily working like a maniac at Fried, Frank, receives news that MJT has “it,” the HIV, virus, and MJT decamps for NY, to an apartment around the corner from Dave, and happily begins selling wedding invitations to women from a famous store in Greenwich village. He will maintain until he doesn’t.

Spring 1989 — Dave’s lucrative and fun career at Fried Frank ends with a bang. He is summarily dumped, again. Determined to end the nightmare of employment, and work for himself, Dave gets a job selling ads at a gay magazine, and meets John Nash, and they start Mulryan/Nash. MJT advises against this, but Dave, as usual, ignores all advice, and sails on. Lloyd, ever game, provides Dave an office, and his old office furniture when he moves Lloyd Bush and Associates, and this will be the start of Mulryan/Nash. This furniture will stay at Mulryan/Nash until 2000.

Fall1992 — MJT, having disappeared, resurfaces, in terrible fashion. He is in the hospital, and unlikely to recover. Dave, ever on the scene, recognizes the end, and quickly and persistently approaches the family, and insists that the Mother travel to New York, quickly, and see her son. She complies, and, miraculously, MJT recovers. He and his mother move into Dave’s apartment. MJT recovers, the mother leaves, MJT goes off the deep end, and ends up in the rehab in upstate. He will relocate to Washington, eventually. Dave, ever optimistic, brushes all of this aside, and forges ahead. Steve, Gary, Diane, and Caitlin relocate from California, back in New Mexico, cheering Don and Carol. But, this apple cart tips when Don is diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver, and begins treatment. He recovers, and does not drink again, ever. Steve has another child, who is Dave’s goddaughter, altogether a VERY questionable choice. Dave, however, complies with Catholic Doctrine, and produces the requisite paperwork required to be godfather, a role for which he is spectacularly unqualified for, but which he does anyway.

There is a new addition, when Jan marries Jerry, and we have our first brother in law. Jerry, whose parents were divorced, brings Dave his very own in-laws, who live in New York, 10 blocks and a world away from Dave. Gerry’s father, Brooklyn born, had divorced Gerry’s mother, and Gerry moved to Phoenix, and met Jan, Jan sensing that her step mother in law needs more to do, to prevent her from focusing on Jan, volunteers her stepmothers services to Dave, and said mother in law begins a long and unusual career at Mulryan/Nash, the first one, located at 161 6th Avenue in New York, riding herd on EVERYONE, helping with everything, and providing Dave with something. Mother in laws presence adds some something to the mix. She will stay for 7 years, watch everything, and depart when it is time to move to that fabled 6th borough, Miami.

Fall/Winter 1993–1994 The year of 1987 remains the cruelest year, but is usurped from this role as 1994 dawns. The year begins on January 1st, with an ice storm, and the terrible news that Daves great friend and haircutter to the stars won’t survive the week, and he does not. The news in the cruelest year continues, as MJT loses his fight with HIV, and dies, in August. Dave, again on the scene, wonders what has happened. He wonders when he will die, like everyone else. He wonders over and over, what could have been different? What will become of New York, without the gays? Nothing he decides, could have been different. Fate is fate, one just copes. He, putting this all behind him, but never really leaving it, marches forward. There are clients, big ones, like Chase Manhattan Bank, and Subaru. There is fun at Mulryan/Nash, where the main product was laughter — Lorraine recounts, even now, that she never had a job that was so much fun.

Fall 1995 — A miracle has occurred. There are new AIDS drugs, and they are unimaginable. They work. People start taking them, and recover. Dave, on the scene, lands large clients that want to sell the drugs. Mulryan/Nash has drug company clients, and all that that entails. It is unrecognizable from the 2 person operation that it started as. Everyone take this is in stride, wears expensive clothes, and wastes money at will. It is even MORE fun.

Fall and Winter, 1998 Cracks appear. The Asian financial crisis provides stupendous trading opportunities, on the short. Dave takes full advantage. M/N, in success, has opened a chasm between JTN and Dave. Yet, there is fun and happiness. CT, arrives, young and female, and spending the summer doing something at Goldman Sachs, and cheering Dave. CT, first of the next generation of MJT’s family, takes over Daves life. She brings the entire family along, parents, grandparent, cousins, a cast of hundreds. Dave, having stayed in touch, has tangential knowledge of all of this, but has restrained from full blown immersion in the MJT family. CT, with a shove, completes the immersion. CT, ever alert, senses that there are secrets to mine, and tries. She, unknowingly, has met her match, and this particular well comes up dry. The secrets will remain that.

Spring 1999 — Mulryan/Nash takes a mortal wound, when the gap that opened between JT and DM opens completely. JT departs, cash in hand, and DM attempts to run M/N, but is also informed that Don Mulryan has cancer. Dave, ever on the scene, closes Mulryan/Nash, and takes a job at a Satachi and Satachi unit, which you know by now will end badly, which it does.

Fall 2001 — Dave is in NYC as the 9/11 attacks begin. It is primary day, for the Mayor’s office, and he is voting as the first plane goes in. He is standing on the corner of 5th avenue and 28th street as the second plane goes in, terrifying New Yorkers, who don’t terrify. Dave beats a retreat to his apartment, and begins a frantic search for in-laws, who live 4 blocks from the World Trade Center, and are missing. Don, calmly sitting at a computer in Albuquerque, manages ALL communications, between Dave, a brother in law in Connecticut and missing in laws. In laws make their way to Dave’s apartment, as does MJT’s niece, and everyone watches TV and drinks. In laws stay 6 weeks. Dave has rumblings that New York is no longer safe. The air is acrid for months. Everyone copes, but somehow, the terrorists win.

September 2003 — Don Mulryan aged 70, dies. He is father to 4, grandfather to 4, father in law to 3. Dave, ever on the scene, has sensed that all will be lost, and spends the summer in Albuquerque, helping where he can. Don, always ready for paperwork, always concerned that all paper be ready, writes and edits a series of instructions, pages and pages of them, and Dave types and re-types, and helps Don with testing the instructions — how to access bank accounts, where the tax papers are, where the retirement accounts are. Don, finally satisfied, prints the final copy and carefully folds the document, and puts it in an envelope and puts Gary’s name on it. Dave, nonplussed, laughs, on the outside. Don is buried in ABQ, in a grave purchased from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and with room for Carol. Don, had, in the end, a life he wanted, but maybe one that he didn’t like all the time. He loved his family, most of the time. He, in the end, had to overcome his weakness’s, and he did. He, in his way, prepared Dave, of all of them, to be tough. He never tried to reign him in, he put him on the plane to Boston, he provided the means to allow DM to make his way — even if he had reservations about the direction.

Fall 2002 — Spring 2007 Carol, ever practical, has a list of wants. She does what she has always wanted to do, takes out the fireplace, manages grandchildren, lavishes attention on Barney, her ancient and diabetic dog. Dave retreats to NY, but is called back to active duty with the death of Carols mother, Mary Kuckelman, in 2003. Mary, who had a terrible start in life, was left orphaned at the age of 5, yet she persevered. She was treated by various relatives as an ATM, shuttled around to whoever needed her boarding income to survive. She was sole inheritor of a farm that her grandfather had homesteaded, and they held on to it for her. She was always sanguine; she would say, over and over, “I was meant to live,” and recount the story of her father, sharing a room, coughing from his tuberculosis, near her, but she never got it. She, at the time of her death, was mother to 5, grandmother to 19, grandmother in law to 18, great grandmother to 30+. She spent a decade in the nursing home. She had little, but had it all. She shared, probably unwisely, most of her secrets with Dave; she also shared them with a lot of other people. He hasn’t told them all, but hasn’t forgotten them either.

Dave retreats again to New York, but relents completely when Carol calls, announcing, through tears, that Barney cannot get up, has had a terrible seizure, and that the end is nye. Dave, finally, sensing that his time is up in NY, packs his apartment, calls “Man with Van,” and comes home, for now, permanently. He and Carol take Barney and he is put down. Barney had the life he wanted. He liked Carol, liked Dave, was in pain, but persevered.

Dave vows, however hard it is, to never yell at Carol, and to simply adapt Don’s method, which was to do whatever Carol wants, as quickly as possible. He does. Carol gets a new dog, the fabled Toby, and Toby, one day, in 2007, senses that Carol is not well, and refuses to leave her side, and she has a massive stroke, but does not die.

Sibling update: Gary marries, divorces, and marries again, and adopts 3 kids. Steven divorces, and marries, and inherits 2 stepdaughters, in addition to his own 2 daughters, whom he ignores. Jan and Gerry live in a gilded palace — the career in money REALLY worked out and are parents, and looking forward to being grandparents. Dave, ever practical, is a janitor, and watches out for Toby, and for Carol.

Summer, 2010 — Carol Mulryan, aged 74, dies. Carol had the life she wanted, loved the kids, loved the dogs. She coped. She made sure that all 4 kids went to and graduated from college. She pushed Dave, and made him graduate. She didn’t suffer fools, and she was tough. She knew what was happening, in her way, and insured that Toby would be watched out for, asking Dave to watch him. She is buried with Don, and no one visits the grave. Toby loved the cemetery but was banned when he was spotted doing what dogs do on grass.

Fall, 2018 — Toby, defying all logic, lives 15 years and 4 months. He dies on October 6th, 2018. Toby had the life he wanted.

Albuquerque, NM — Toby, a dog of questionable lineage, died today at the age of 15 years, 4 months. Toby was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in June of 2003. He relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico in August of 2003, when Carol Mulryan went to Phoenix, AZ. and brought him, via Southwest Airlines, to Albuquerque. David Mulryan took over the supervision of Toby when Mrs. Mulryan passed away in June of 2010.

Toby had a varied career. He was expert at catching tennis balls, was popular and well known in the dog park, insisted on only eating people food, and knew the McDonalds menu by heart. He picked up and carried rocks around, dug up flower beds, ripped up cardboard boxes. He was always ready to go somewhere, and frequently slept in front of the door, making sure that he was not forgotten when someone was leaving. He rode in the front passenger seat of a truck, without a seat belt, and NEVER complained about 2nd hand smoke. He took one last drive yesterday.

He was incarcerated in November of 2015, after biting someone, who deserved to be bitten. His time in the slammer seemed to have little lasting affect.

Toby retired to a chair a year ago. He was disapproving when his owner had to work constantly, and travel, but adapted.

He is survived by his owner, Dave Mulryan, and Mr. Mulryan’s niece, Meghan Mulryan, who he liked. He is also survived by his neighbor, Carolyn, who was his frequent and willing dog sitter.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, you register someone to vote, and vote yourself. Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th.

All dogs go to heaven, said someone. Fingers crossed.

Dave, sensing that the past was prologue, restarts Mulryan/Nash, crossing his fingers that a do-over might work. The Mcknight House, purchased for $25,000 dollars in 1972, was sold for $130,000 in 2011, purchased by Dave and Jan Horowitz. Jan, and that greatest of bad brothers in laws, demands in 2018 that the house be sold. Don would approve — he would understand the work that is required to keep it up, the yard, the 36 rose bushes, the flowers, was unending. Carol, however, would not approve, especially knowing that Gerry, that greatest of bad son-in-laws, was behind it. Dave, sanguine, plays the cards he was dealt. He moves, and leaves the past behind, but never really leaving it. Donald Trumps America has made everyone mean, and Dave, understanding this, moves on. There is no looking back, there is only forward motion. “Drop fuel. Jettison the cargo. Eject crew.” Joan Didion told us, in “Democracy,” her greatest book. “Goodbye To All That,” Joan Didion wrote, when leaving New York. Drop fuel. Jettison cargo. Eject crew, she told us. Fuel dropped. Cargo jettisoned. Crew ejected. The future beckons, but only if you believe.