Abbie Marie Piette Nordholm
Abbie Marie Piette Nordholm turns 60 today. Let me read from our mother’s diary for that day: July 2 – Still 90° weather, and today we got our little Abbie Marie. She was born at 4:50 PM, weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz., and is 20 inches long. She is a real pretty little baby with lots of black hair. Mark, Mel, Abbie Chas Charlie, Abbie, Mark, Mel The Piette kids are divided into three tranches. The Big Kids (that would be Chas, Mark, and Mel), The Little Kids (Ree and Matt) and AbandDan. That is always how we would be referred to AbandDan. Sometimes AbbieandDan. And that is how we grew up. Even as we learned our names, we learned them together: We slept in the same bed until I must have been about four. This was very convenient for Abbie, being the old and wiser sibling. One of the family’s rituals was that every Wednesday evening, our father would go and count the money that was donated to the church the previous Sunday. On his way home he would pick up some Fr...