My Life
I, Angela Maria Saylor, live with two female cats, Rafiki (friend in Swahili) and Cheetah. Rafiki is a nervous wreck and Cheetah is totally laid back, complete opposites, like my deceased husband, Jim, and me. I am a retired first grade teacher and still own the six rental properties that Jim, aka Yabby, and I bought together. Jim was best known as a ball hawker. I have a son, Kendall Wilson, and a stepson, Jay Saylor, two daughters-in-law, Linda and Danette, and five grandchildren, listed respectively by age, oldest to youngest: Zachory, Maji, Jai, Avvi, and Mason.
Rafiki, the black cat, is in the foreground, and Cheetah’s the tabby. They are perched in one of their favorite spots, where they can look out the back window.
Jim
My husband, Jim, was a social worker at Family and Children’s Service in Braddock, Pennsylvania, when I first met him in 1975. A mutual friend fixed us up. We had one son each by previous marriages. Shortly after meeting Jim, he came to the school where I taught to bring me a gift. Upon seeing him, one of the girls in my first-grade class said, “He’s handsome. You should marry him.” And that was what I did in 1976.
Jim was a much more interesting person than me and he made my life fun by involving me in his hobbies of bird watching, camping, and ball hawking. He caught over 1,000 balls and was the #1 homerun catcher at PNC Park. We both shared an interest in travel and took many trips together, including safaris in Kenya and Uganda.
Jim and I are in the foreground during a visit to a village in Uganda.
Kendall
After graduating from an apprenticeship program for union welders, Kendall worked in Pittsburgh and then in Philadelphia. He kept earning degrees and moving up in the ranks, becoming a quality assurance engineer. In 2009, he married Linda and had a sweet daughter, Avvi. They formed a blended family with Linda’s son Zach, (born in 1991) and Maji (born in 2002). They gave me their cat, Cheetah, before moving to Abu Dhabi. For several months after Cheetah came to my home, she was denied access to the second floor by Rafiki. Now she has Rafiki wrapped around her little paw, sitting pretty while her “big sister” grooms her. Kendall currently works in business intelligence for Facebook in Denmark.
Here's Kendall with his wife, Linda.
Maji poses in Abu Dhabi. She's a model.
Avvi poses with her mother, Linda, at the beach in Dubai.
Jay
After graduating from Florida A & M University, Jay taught math at the university for eight years and was an adjunct professor for six years. In 2003, he married Danette. Then he got a job with Gabor Insurance Agency in 2004 where he still works. He and Danette are residents of both Tallahassee, Florida, and New Orleans. They had a beautiful girl named Jai in 2006 and gave her a little brother, Mason, in 2012.
I’m with Kendall, Linda, and Avvi on a dinner cruise in Dubai.
Here’s Jay and his family.
From left to right are Danette, Mason, Jai, and Jay.
Zach, my oldest grandchild, works as a campus recruiter for HSBC bank USA. He calls it a “cool adventure.”
Mason cuddles Cheetah.
Jai is interested in costume design.