New Life

After two years of living in Auburn Alabama, Bruce and Susie decided to separate. In 1987, Susie and Jenny moved to Bakersville North Carolina. Bruce and Joey stayed in Auburn. Jenny was starting 9th grade and Joey was entering 11th grade, he had two more years of school at Auburn High and did not want to leave his friends.

Bruce was teaching at Auburn University. A year or two after the divorce, Bruce started traveling back up to North Carolina. His brothers and other family members were still up there. He taught on Mondays and Wednesdays and then after his last class on Wednesday, he would drive back up to Bakersville - a 6 hour drive. He would stay in Bakersville til Sunday evening and then would drive back to Auburn. I think Joey (who eventually wanted to be called Joe) enjoyed this as he had the house to himself on the weekends - and probably had a great party or two!!

During one of Bruce's travels up to Bakersville, he ran into a woman he had gone to elementary and high school with. Her name is Amelia. She was recently divorced and had 2 grown kids of her own. For the next 10 years, Bruce would drive every week to Bakersville to see Amelia. This was good because he also was able to spend time with his brothers, their wives and kids and also was able to spend time with Jenny.

After 10 years of driving back and forth from Auburn to North Carolina, Bruce was able to retire from Auburn University. He retired, sold his home in Auburn and moved in with Amelia. In 1998, Bruce and Amelia went to the Bahamas and married.

Amelia and Bruce

Bruce continued to do work for the university and he also had time to develop a website development company. He enjoyed his retirement. He and Amelia traveled across the United States and also to Mexico and Europe. Since he was still doing work for Auburn University, he also travelled to Columbia South America every year to work with teachers in that area. Bruce and Amelia also did work around the house. They put in a new kitchen, finished part of the basement to make an office for Bruce and enjoyed time together. Amelia had two grandchildren, Katie and Samantha, and they enjoyed spending time with them also.

During the years that Bruce was living in Bakersville, his kids had moved to several places. Joe moved back and forth between Auburn and North Carolina. Joe opened a restaurant in Boone and then opened another restaurant in Bakersville.

Jenny and Joey

Jenny had a son (Todd), married (Glen) and also moved several times. Glen and Jenny lived in Auburn, Coral Springs Florida, Linville North Carolina and then in 2004 moved back to Auburn.

Jenny, Todd and Glen

In 2007, Joe had also moved to Auburn.

Joe at work in Auburn