Paul Edward Zuelke, M.D. Tribute

I am sad but truly able to be in a deep place of gratitude for his life and my life because I was one of his kids. My last day with him was an outing to Macleay Park…there is a wheelchair access trail that winds up the creek a bit from below the Thurman St. bridge with a lovely turnout overlooking the creek. We spent an hour there just holding hands and talking. I reminded him that this is where I used to play and catch crawdads and even tried smoking a few times. (He admonished me a bit for that last thing). I asked him if he remembered going there on a picnic on one of those hotter than normal days with all of us...mom must have made dinner and it was too hot to eat at home so we went down there where it was cool and we could play in the creek. I remember eating our dinner on the rocks with our feet in the water. He did not seem to recall that but decided that it probably did happen because it seemed like such a good idea. We agreed it was most likely mom's idea! I told him about the time Suzanne Wehrley, Christa Grimm, Lisa Cameron and I were throwing rocks trying to hit the wooden bridge by the rock house from up on dead cat’s trail and this man yelled at us and we ran like scared rabbits all the way back through the meadow to Aspen and he followed us and we were just sure we were going to be arrested or something…I remember hiding under a car in that garage that was on that lot near Grimm’s house…I even saw the guy’s feet going by as he was looking for us…geesh, I was scared that day. We, of course had no idea that we might hit someone!!! Dad just laughed and laughed at me and that story. After a time we went up to the old neighborhood and had a drink out of the fountain, stopped at all the familiar homes (ours being one of them of course) Saw that Kenny Mackenzie’s old house was for sale and he about died on the spot when he saw the price! Then when we got to the top of Franklin Ct. there were these 4 little girls selling lemonade and of course we bought some (no fresh mint leaves in his) Dad made sure they each got a quarter even though we only bought two cups…can you imagine that kids still sell lemonade for a dime? The little girls squealed with delight at their good fortune...dad and I were just as delighted. He was so grateful for the time away from Maryville and I was just grateful for the time...so very sweet to have had that time…