The Edwards 2019 New Year's Letter!

January 19, 2019

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow!  It is hard to believe we are already 3 weeks into the new year.  As usual, my wanna be Christmas letter has turned into a New Year’s letter.  But unlike some years, where it was a Valentine’s or Fourth of July letter, I actually had free time during the holidays but spent it doing absolutely nothing!

2018 was a rough year for the Armbrister – Edwards family.  We started the year off strong with a random trip to Florida to kick off the construction of our dream home outside of Gainesville.  Herman, the kids and I met up with Nana and ChaCha and we had a blast picking the construction material, countertops, and designing each room.  The hope was to have the house done by Christmas, so we could all be together in what would be Tony and Juanita’s retirement home.

As fate would have it, the Lord decided to call Cha-Cha home a few weeks later and our world turned upside down.  But despite my sadness and grief, we are so thankful for that trip to Florida in February and all the great memories we have built over the years.  Nana and I are still working on the house and we are doing our best to “stick with the plan”, as the Lt. Col. would say.


Mom is hanging in there and trying to find her new normal. I know she would welcome your phone calls, visits, and invitations.  She loves the company and she still loves to cook.  I think we all gained 15 lbs while she was with us over the holidays!

William is a 6 foot 2 inch tall 15 year old who is as handsome as ever!  He loves playing sports, watching sports, and talking about sports.  He also loves nice clothes and fancy cars.  We pray his engineering mind enables him to be a pretty wealthy professional who can support his expensive hobbies. 

Zora, also known as Alex is a beautiful 13 year old who is an awesome soccer player.  She plays goalie and center forward and is not shy when it comes to going after the ball.  The multiple visits to the emergency room are proof of that.  I think my kids keep my healthcare system in business!

Herman is a few weeks shy of a year at Boeing.  He absolutely loves his new job/career in aviation maintenance. If you recall, Herman decided to go back to school while we lived in Oakland.  It is nothing other than providential that my career brought us to Seattle where he has been able to put his training to good use!

I just hit my three year anniversary at Providence St. Joseph Health.  I am proud to say that I was promoted to Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer last summer. It is such a humbling experience to be able to work for such a large corporation that is founded by women religious.  Even though my day to day work is quite transactional, I know deep down that the decisions we make are driven by our core values of compassion, dignity, justice, excellence, and integrity.

In closing, we ended 2018 with the painful loss of Uncle Glenwood to the nasty “C” word.  I hate cancer! Herman’s brother, Glenn has been a part of our nuclear family since 2011 when he followed us to California to help us manage the craziness of two small kids and my career.  When we moved to Seattle and Glenn decided to come with us, I remember counting my blessings.  Even though, Cha-Cha and Glenn have transitioned to the glorious heavens, their spirits live on.  When you see the love, kindness, joy, and compassion in William and Zora – you see Cha-Cha and Glenn shining through.

Please pray for us as we are still grieving pretty deeply.  My hope and prayer is that we spend our time doing the right things and enjoying every moment. In the words of my wise, beautiful, faithful mother “Life is too short and unpredictable to be unhappy!”

Love, peace and soul!

carladenise