The Gene & Carola Gough Traveling Memorial is on the Road!

Today I placed the Gene & Carola Gough Traveling Memorial Geocaching Travel Bug into its first home, a cache named Scotland the Brave, placed by Atlanta Highland Bagpiper. This cache is in honor of the Scotish Bagpipes.

I thought this was a fitting first home for the traveling memorial because Gene's grandson Scott played bagpipes at his ceremonial ashes-spreading after he passed away in 1998. Carola always enjoyed sharing her artwork with people she met all around the world, so this traveling memorial will expose hundreds of new people to her artwork.

By clicking on Travel Bug Dog Tag - The Gene & Carola Gough Traveling Memorial link on the Geocaching web site, we will be able to watch as this item travels all around the world! It even lets you export a KML file to display the locations inside of Google Earth!

Gene and Carola, while you are no longer with us, you will never be apart from us. We love you always. You are in our hearts forever.

Pictures of the Gene & Carola Gough Traveling Memorial

Audio of me looking and finding the Scotland the Brave cache at Stone Mountain Park

• Introducing the Gene and Carola Gough Traveling Memorial
• Finding Scotland the Brave
• Found Scotland the Brave
• Closing Dedication

Carola L. Gough's Memorial Service from August 25th, 2007 in Salida, Colorado

We now have the video from Carola's memorial service that was held on August 25th, 2007 in Salida, Colorado. For those who were unable to attend, I've placed most of it on the web so you can watch and listen. It's amazing that people who didn't even meet her until she was about 90, like her pastor and her friend Sandy, had the same attachment to her that her family had.

I'll update this later, and scan in the service program, but here is my recollection of the service:

• Pastor introduces Carola's life
• Carola's friend Sandy speaks about her friendship with her (Part 4 - 6)
• Carola's great-grandson Josh speaks about what he learned from her (Part 6 - 8)
• Carola's daughter Linda spoke about having her as a mother (Part 8 - 10)

There are 6 more parts with music and more from the pastor, which I'll have to upload later this week.

Take care everyone!

Here is the text of Josh's speech from parts 6 - 8 in the video. As we get time, we'll transcribe the rest of the speakers, as it's worth preserving everyone's kind words of remembrance.

The Measure and Meaning of a Life Well-Lived

By Joshua Scott Gough, 30, about his Great-Grandmother Carola Laurel Downer Gough, 96 (1911-2007)
August 25, 2007, First Baptist Church, Salida CO

How does one assess the both the measure and the meaning of a life well-lived?

When it comes to my great-grandma Carola the first is boundless, and the other eternal, it seems to me.

By measurement, we can look at each other and count the number of descendants from her and her husband Gene: 3 children, 13 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and even one great-great grandson. Or, we could travel the world and visit homes and cafes to see all of her paintings that hang in places like Alaska, California, Colorado, Denmark, and Africa. Further, we could scour through our cabinets and old shoe boxes and count the number of letters she wrote to each and every one of us, written by hand, and addressed by name.

She sent her own personal journals and travel diaries to my mother Kathryn, her eldest grandchild, to have her help publish her autobiography. She started the project, and now we can all help finish it. Scanning and transcribing is well underway. See http://www.CarolaGough.com for more information. So, when that project is complete, we can count the number of pages she and Gene have shared with us. All of these are treasures that we measure far greater than gold.

Lastly, by way of measurement, we can count the years she lived: 96; the number of months: 1,153; Days: more than 35,000; Hours: more than 843,000.

So, what of these numbers? What of these measurements?

When we measure our annual salary or the amount of money we need to retire in numbers far greater than the number of days and hours in a span of 96 years, what can we say about such numbers to qualify their quantity? What can we say of the quality in such quantities? What do they "mean"?

For the meaning of a life well-lived we look again to each other, to the faces of Gene and Carola's descendants and their spouses and children; we see them in ourselves.

We look at and we feel the serenity and peacefulness depicted in her paintings. And, we read and we realize with never-ending and unrepayable gratitude the dedication and passion expressed in their writings.

When we do this the message of her life reaches out and surrounds us like a big, warm blanket.

That message is love.

It is love for life.
It is love for this world.
And, most importantly, it is love for each other, whether family, friend, or foreign.

I feel like the most fortunate person to have spent so much time in my life with Gene and Carola, from the time I was about 5 until now at 30. Not many people get a chance to learn life lessons from their mother's father's parents.

Most recently, I feel so thankful that I had an opportunity to spend some precious moments with Carola last month in Alameda and to say a few loving words to her.

She gave a message for all us when I was there with Kerry. She said:

"Thank you to all of you for coming to visit me; all my kids, my grand-kids, and great-grandchildren, and friends. I love you all. If this thing works itself out, I'm going to send an announcement to all of you and we'll have a big celebration."

During her time in the hospital, whenever we mentioned going to lunch or dinner, her persistent refrain was that she wanted to make us something to eat and to sit down to eat together.

This is of course reflected in quotes from her. I spent a lot of time hiking mountains in Georgia, New York, and Colorado with her. On these treks she told me things like:

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

"I always felt like God was right there with me, with his hand on my shoulder, not some pie in the sky."

"Whatever God or Mother Nature had to throw at me, I ran to meet it head on. Sometimes I said, 'God, well what do you want me to do that for?'"

"I didn't want to hit the rocking chair just because I'm 90. When you get older, you can either put yourself on the shelf or do something about it."

One last anecdote from last month. Before I said goodbye to drive back to Matt & Christine's, I told her:

"Great-grandma, spending time with you, seeing your artwork, learning how you have embraced change in your life, and seeing the example you set by volunteering with children in your 90's has made me believe that I can accomplish and good and noble purpose."

Then, even though the stroke had affected her ability to speak clearly, she leaned forward off her pillow and said with as much force and clarity as possible a message to each and everyone of us:

"You can!"

I close with one last direct quote from her:

"I don't eat, I dine." She spoke this when encouraging people to relax and take time to enjoy each other's company and conversation during meals.

Should I live 96 years myself these is nothing more wise I could ever imagine to say.

Thank you, Carola Laurel, you are an eternal inspiration who lives now in all of us and will be passed on forever.

Please visit Carola's web site at http://www.CarolaGough.com to see her paintings on the web and in 3D and to learn more about the Carola L. Gough Foundation, under whose name we will publish the book asked us to finish for her. Please help in any way you are fit and able to.

Also visit http://www.GoughFamily.com to learn much more about the entire family and see thousands of photographs.

Thank you

Gene and Carola L. Gough Travel Videos: Have Tools, Will Travel

Here are thirteen videos from Gene and Carola L. Gough from their life in Zaire in Africa in the late sixties and early seventies, as well as some from travels in Europe and Canada. Many of the African village scenes in these videos inspired the beautiful paintings Carola created during her time there. See her paintings at http://www.CarolaGough.com. Gene's mechanical expertise and ingenuity allowed him to build grain silos and other infrastructure necessities for the village peoples. When not working on those kinds of projects for the people there, he enjoyed big-game hunting with the local people.

The Carola L. Gough Foundation Inaugural Event Dedication

Today The Carola L. Gough Foundation sponsored its first event! This event was the first Video Game Create & Play Party. Read more about the party at this URL: http://www.carolagough.com/Foundation/PartiesEvents/tabid/136/Default.aspx

We didn't end up doing exactly what is written in the plan there, but for the most part it's reflective of what we did do.

After we had our Fellini's pizza lunch, we started to set up our gaming systems, which included Game Cube, X-Box, and the Wii system. It also included three PCs set up with SkookZee 98 running in "side-by-side" mode.

Before playing, I dedicated The Carola L. Gough Foundation to its founder, my great-grandmother Carola Laurel Gough, may she be ever present in our thoughts and actions.

I recorded the dedication with my Sony laptop's built in camera. Here is the video.

The Carola L. Gough Foundation Inaugural Event Dedication

See the end of this post for the text of this dedication.

Public Service Announcement about www.GACollege411.Org:

I recorded this public service announcement on behalf of http://www.GACollege411.org. This web site lets students aspiring to go to college learn how to plan, apply, and pay for college! Great for students, great for parents!

This post is not finished yet. TODO:

• Add information about other videos shown
• Add info about Blender videos we watched
• Add info about XNA videos we watched
• Add info about Yugio cards
• Add info about Skookzee 2K8

The Carola L. Gough Foundation Dedication

First, thank you to Anthony, Mario, and Vincent for graciously hosting this party in their home. We have all known each other for almost a year and in that short time our friendship has grown stronger. When Michael, Pat, Laverne and I first heard about the situation you guys were in, we knew it was a great idea to help you by donating a computer and other things to you. What I did not know was quite how motivated and determined you all are for success. We commend you on your determination and want you to know that we think of you often and will continue to offer you our support.

Now, I'd like to say a few words in dedication to my great-grandmother Carola. I'm very excited to have this party be the very first event sponsored by The Carola L. Gough Foundation. I've brought several photo albums that contain pictures of her paintings, and photographs that her husband Gene and she took from Africa, and letters and newspaper interviews about her. I welcome all of you to look through these in a few minutes.

As most of you know, Carola passed away at age 96 and 3 months in late July two weeks after a stroke that resulted in bleeding deep within her brain. She stayed alive 10 days longer than doctors estimated she would after being taken off of IV tubes. This is simply a testament to her will and her deep and abiding love for life and for her children, grand-children, great-grandchildren, and friends.
Indeed, the most memorable and motivational conversation of my life is now the last conversation I ever had with her. Due to the stroke, she had difficulty speaking because she could barely use her tongue. But, ten minutes before I had to leave California to go home, I told her I had to leave and she must have summoned every ounce of fortitude she had to sustain a 100% crystal clear conversation with me. I wrote down this conversation after leaving. I'd like to just mention one part of it in dedication.

I was there with my great uncle Kerry, her son, my grandfather's brother.

Carola: Thank you to all of you for visiting. All my children, grandkids, and great-grandchildren, everyone. If this thing works itself out I'm going to send an announcement to all of you and we'll have a big event to celebrate.
Josh: I just wanted to let you know how much I've learned from you and that I'm trying to help others learn the same things.
Carola: By working with the kids?
Josh: Yes. I told you about the Atlanta Mentors Leadership Group several of my friends and I are creating to help young people.
Carola: Yes.
Josh: We are dedicating it to you and your example.
Carola: Thank you. That is an honor.
Josh: You deserve it.
Carola: Well, I don't know.
Josh: I do know.
Carola: Thank you.
Josh: I love you very much great-grandma .
Carola: I love you too, and thank you for coming here.
Josh: Great grandma, spending time with you, seeing your artwork, understanding how you have lived your life and embraced change, and seeing your example of volunteering with children in your 90's has made me believe that I can achieve any good and noble purpose I set out to accomplish.

And, these next words, I will always, always, always remember: She leaned forward and said as clearly and as forcefully as she possibly could:

You can!

I said, "I'm driving back to Matt & Christine's now"
Carola: OK, drive carefully, and call me when you get back to Atlanta. Let me know you got home safely.
Josh: OK I will. I love you always.
Carola: I love you too.

That was my last conversation with her. I feel so fortunate that I had the chance to tell her these things and to inform her of our intentions with both The Atlanta Mentors Leadership Group and The Carola L. Gough Foundation.

It is now up to us, for whom she left a tremendous example, to carry forward with her legacy and honor her memory by putting into action the following mission of her foundation:

"Enriching young lives through the wonders of art & science"

And so today I raise a toast, both in remembrance of her life and example of commitment to excellence and service to family, friends, and to the community as it came from her, and in honor of each and every one of you for your commitment to excellence and service to family, friends,  and the community as it is to come.

As we do so, let us remember the wise aphorism that reads:

People are more important than tasks. Just be there. Take time. Savor the moment. -- Unknown

This Carola embodied with full recognition. We will do well to emulate such recognition.

So, let us always keep her memory in our minds as we commit ourselves to excellence in serving our family, friends, and our community.

And let us always do our best to follow her embrace of life, exemplified in her attitude when she said, "Whatever life has to throw at you, run to meet it head on."

We can, and we will.

Cheers!

Transcription Process Instructions

This post describes how to get started transcribing Gene and Carola's letters.

Rules & Assumptions

1. You know what they say about rules? They're made to be broken.
2. You know what they say about assumptions? They make an ass out of "u" and "me".
3. Seriously though...I assume you have been given the URL to the web site where to find the images. We will not make this URL public, so you have to email Josh for the URL for the URL if you do not have it.
4. You are fairly adept at reading messy handwriting!

Required Software

1. You must have an image viewing program that allows you to comfortably zoom in and out and scroll. If you need a free program for Windows 9X - Vista, download and install IfranView from this URL: http://www.download.com/IrfanView/3000-2192-10021962.html?part=dl-IrfanView&subj=dl&tag=button
2. Note that when installing IFranView, I did not let it add any special file associations and I did not install Google Search.

Process

 

1. Once you have IFranView, or some other image viewing application, installed and ready to go, load the program.
2. Navigate to http://thewebsiteurl-that-you-asked-josh-for/Carola/
   1. This will contain the scanned images directories and zip files.
3. If you are tasked with transcribing the 1970 - 1971 Our Congo Years collection, for example, then navigate to that directory.
4. Right click on the first image in the directory, in this case Congo Years 001.JPEG, and select the Save Target As option from the popup menu. This will look something like:
    
5. Save the file in a location that is easy to remember, such as C:\Carola\1970 - 1971 Our Congo Years\
6. Now, start a text editing program, such as Windows Write or Windows Notepad. You can do this by going to Start / Run and then typing either notepad or write. It will look something like this:
   
7. Now, it will be important to be able to both read and type without having to switch back and forth. Dual-monitors is nice for those who have it, but if you don't. You can fit both Windows Write and IFranView on one page by putting Write above IFranView, so that you arrange the windows as so:
   
8. You will be able to use the horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of the IFranView window to move to the right-hand side of the scanned image. You will be able to use the vertical scroll bar of the Write window to move up and down as you type the text.
9. Once you have finished transcribing both halves of the scanned pages, save the file in the same location that you saved the image file itself. Give it the same name of the file. In this case, name the file Congo Years 001.rtf.
10. Once you have saved the file, then attach it in an email and send it to Josh

Please let Josh know if you have any questions or need assistance.

Thank you!

Introducing The Carola L. Gough Foundation : Enriching Lives Through Art & Science Education

Welcome to The Carola L. Gough Foundation's blog!

Introduction
This blog is dedicated to Carola L. Gough, who lived from April 17th, 1911 to July 25th, 2007. Here life and her influence will continue to be known and felt by the activities pursued by this foundation. This blog will chronicle our journey and allow for interaction from family and friends.

About Carola
Carola will forever be remembered as a loving daughter, friend, artist, wife, mother, volunteer, grand-mother, great-grandmother, great-great grandmother, and mentor.

Carola and Her Husband Gene's Body of Work
Learn more about Carola on her web site at http://www.CarolaGough.com. On her web site you will soon be able do the following:

• Read bout her life through newspaper interviews
• Watch video about her art training and volunteering activities
  
• View more than 100 photographs of her paintings
• Take a tour of Carola's 3D Art Gallery in Second Life
  
• Read her journals dating from 1947 until 2004
• Read letters sent by her and her husband Gene and their friends and family to and from many nation-wide and world-wide travel destinations, including:
  
• Three years spent working on a work-team in the Congo where Gene worked as a workman while Carola worked as an art teacher
• Travels to Europe through Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, and Italy
• Living and traveling all throughout the United States, including living in Alaska.
• View photographs from all around the world from their life and travels.
• Watch movie footage taken during their world travels in Africa and Europe.
  

We are working to digitize all these works to share them with family and friends to follow their wishes that their legacy be passed on to those who come after them.

Foundation Long Term Goals

• Publish a "coffee table" style book for Carola's family and friends that contains pictures of her paintings and highlights from her written journals and correspondence.
  
• Promote her legacy by presenting the book and her web site and 3D Art Gallery at local art circles and associations, in the same way she did during her life.
• Organize events to expose under-privileged youth to the wonders of Art and Science.

How to Get Involved
If you are interested to learn more or to be a part of our efforts, email Joshua Gough, Carola's eldest great-grandchild, at jsgough gmail com.