"I can't say I knew Stan very well. I know he was a great modeler in
reference to some of the cars he was making. Perhaps it would not be fair to
paint Stan in such a broad stroke but I heard from him that he was a
"planner" too. In my last conversation with him he wanted to "start" a small
layout."
Dear Friends,
I'm currently involved in helping Linda, Stan's widow, clear out all of his
model railroading inventory.
Linda like most of our wives isn't into model railroading, perhaps only to
the point of pleasing their husbands. "If that's what you want, do it!"
This past weekend Mary and I went to see Linda, as I wanted to photograph
all of Stan's models that he had in a hallway display case.
Linda then said would I go down the basement with her? Of course I did, and
was "Floored" at what I saw laying around there on the bench work.
Frankly I knew Stan pretty darn well, but I never knew he was into model
railroading that much and Linda had little knowledge of what was going on
either.
She had asked Stan in the last year to put everything down on paper [hard
copy] as she is not a computer person. Stan never did!
Suddenly, I knew this was above my expertise. I immediately called two of my
friends, (1) Bert Mahr, my LVSG Buddy and (2) my good friend, Jeff Wilson
(Hoquat hobbies) and made arrangements for them to meet with Linda.
I did remove the models that were on display, brought them home and
photographed them. Mary and I then returned the models to Linda.
Stan's physical life is over and as far as Linda is concerned the models are
there and someday she hopes they will be gone. She has no use for them, it
would be nice if she was compensated for them.
While Stan was in his final stages of Hospice, upon my recommendation,
Linda sent boxes of Stan's model building materials to good friend, Gale
Hall. Gale is a very generous person and has been with us for as long as I
can remember. Gale was pleased with what was boxed up and sent to him and
he in turn compensated the Furmanak's. Stan was very relieved that that was
taken care of for Linda. (over the years, Gale and Stan did a lot of
corresponding)
Yes, Stan did build a layout and like all of his work, it was done with the
finesse that marked Stan as an excellent modeler. His beautiful track work
is still laid out on the bench top... There is a lot more to this story, and
perhaps I have already said too much?
I'm hoping that this situation will be resolved soon for Linda.
But folks, how many of us are currently in the same situation with our model
railroads?
I ask you, are we being fair to our spouses ?
"S"incerely,
Bill (Fraley)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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