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Dear Friends and Family
This year's holiday letter begins with sad news. Susan's mother, Franze Wiedorn Atherton, passed away on November
25, 2000 at age 82. Mother had been frail and in failing health for most of the past year. Still, her death was
unexpected when it came. She was in a Pittsburgh hospital to have her medications adjusted while many of the family
was in New York for the Thanksgiving holiday. Mother was buried next to Daddy at the Grove Street Cemetery in New
Haven, CT, the city where they first met. Her siblings, children, grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews and other
family members were all in attendance.
For the first time in quite a while, none of the Hanson-Kleine family moved during the past year. However, that
record will not stand through 2001. Susan and Rich
have to leave their loft apartment by May as their building is going condo, with the units priced to sell to the
dotcom crowd.
Susan is still the Director of the French Legation Museum and the President
of the Association of Living History, Farms and Agricultural Museums [ALHFAM] and traveled to Salt Lake City, Connecticut
and Pennsylvania in that capacity. She particularly enjoyed eating lobster with her colleagues at Mystic Seaport
in Connecticut last June. Susan had elective gynecological surgery in August, which slowed her down for a bit.
She is now fully recovered.
Andrea continues her career as a performance
artist and choreographer in New York. After a quick detour to a start-up dotcom, she returned to her day job in
website development at barnesandnoble.com. Andrea, still a resident of Greenwich Village, now teaches drama and
performance part time at a private school. Her partner Jill continues to work as a writer and as the author of
astrology columns for a variety of publications.
Hilary, who continues as a resident of
New York's Upper West Side, is now the manager of family counselors for the New York Organ Donor Transplant Network
in November. She also managed trips to the Bahamas and to England, in addition to learning the ups and downs of
management and supervision.
Jared still resides on Manhattan's East
Side with his girl friend Seema, an art history graduate student. After toiling for the U.S. Census , he is in
the midst of his final year of undergraduate work and doing a project on urban agriculture. Jared continues to
cultivate a garden on his fire escape and is applying to graduate school in New York. Seema, who finished her Master's
degree and launched her doctoral studies this year, wrote a paper about Andrea's work as a performance artist for one of her classes.
Rich, who continues as the Manager of Network
Technology for Southern Union Co., saw the millennium in by making sure no computer glitch stopped natural gas
flowing through a collection of Texas pipelines. He sees that we attend our fair share of concerts, that are part
of the active acoustic music scene in Austin. With Susan, he is now experiencing the trials and tribulations of
having a President-elect live two blocks away. We will all be glad when the satellite trucks and Secret Service
move on.
Susan and Rich will return to New York
for Christmas, to be with Andrea, Hilary and Jared,
as well as Susan's sister Deborah and her son Tim. We are all still adjusting to Mother's passing. She was the
last grandparent for Andrea, Hilary and Tim -- and her loss continues to resonate.
Wherever you are, we wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season and a grand New Year.  Come and see us if you ever pass through the hill country of central
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