AYARS, RICK AND KAREN
Phone: 520-567-5512
4310 Lakevew Dr. P.O. Box 5366, Lake Montezuma, Az 86342
email: FJAYARS@earthlink.net
Children: 3 Grandchildren: 6 (1 on the way)
Since the reunion in 91 Karen retired from nursing in
93 and Rick retired as Director of Arizona Department of
Public Safety in December of 94. The summer of 95 was
spent in Alaska and the summer of 96 saw a 5-week camping
trip to Maine and back. In between we worked on remodeling
our cabin at Lake Montezuma. In 97 Karen was diagnosed
with a brain tumor but a biopsy was not positive for cancer
so during 98 we watched it with MRI's and it didn't appear
to be growing but in late 98 we went to Barrows Neurological
Institute in Phoenix and they operated in
January of 99. The tumor was a bad one and Karen went
through radiation therapy in the spring of 99 and then we
went on with our lives. Our three children are all happily
married and have given us 6 grandchildren ranging from 13
years to 6 months with a 7th on the way. We continued to
travel and in 2000 we drove to Alaska for a second time and
in August Karen started to have symptoms of a recurring
tumor and when checked, the tumor was back and the
diagnosis was 6-9 months of life remaining with two more
operations or 2 months without. The operations were done
in September and October of 2000 and we went about living
our lives by traveling with our children and visiting
friends and relatives. We were helping our youngest son
Alan locate a new house in Las Vegas in March 2001 when
Karen said she didn't feel well and within 9 hours she had
died peacefully in a local hospice. A web page has been
created in Karen's memory: http://www.printmeonline.com/Karen/01.htm
Karen will live on in our hearts as our family grows and
prospers.