The children of Roger Keeley, all five of them, have a
name for themselves when they all go to Third Phillips to
visit their father, Roger.
"They call us, 'The Weepy Family,'" Colleen Schmidt,
oldest daughter, said. "It's not hard to get us going."
It's not that Mary, Tricia, Tim, Kevin, Colleen or Roger's
wife, Ruthe, are overly emotional people. The tears start
to flow partly over the fact that Roger, owner of Keeley
Auto Electric in Scottsbluff, is suffering from Alzheimer's
disease. Tears also come out of gratitude for the stories,
the memories, the life their father gave them, which they
recall so fondly. Above all, the Keeley children remember
their father as a social creature, a man with a friend around
every corner and the ability to make one in every town.
To call Dad to dinner meant a phone call to the Elks Club,
where he would hang out with his buddies after work. A vacation
meant visiting half a dozen Navy buddies scattered around
the country.
"The thing I remember was he had so many Navy buddies,
when we traveled we had to go see them," Tim Keeley
said. "No matter where he was, he'd run into someone
he knew."
During World War II, Roger served as a radio technician
in Hawaii and was known for being fair, being smart and
knowing how to have a good time. Roger restored classic
cars after leaving the service, a hobby that followed him
throughout his life.
As a result, the Keeley children were known for the cars
they drove to school, one driving a '38 Ford, others driving
the wide array of motorcycles or scooters that were always
around. It was one of several ways Roger stood out from
the pack, another being his sense of humor.
A notorious joker, Roger and Ruthe once had a running gag
with another couple where they would pass around garbage,
a joke that started after garbage was left on someone's
back step after a party. The garbage was sent as Christmas
presents, in the mail and other ways.
After working at the business he started, Roger retired,
took Ruthe and hit the open road. They were avid RV'ers
and visited all 50 states, in Ruthe's estimation. It was
only after back surgery in 1997 when Roger's illness started
to show. It took a while for some of the children to catch
on, but the Keeleys said dealing with their father's illness
has made them closer. Part of what makes it bearable is
that Roger still has a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous
grin on his lips for his "weepy family."
"He always took care of us," Mary Keeley-Herring
said. "He's still taking care of us in some ways."
When Dean Gracy would enter a room and forget why or suddenly lose a name he had known for years, he would joke with his adopted daughter, Jill Strong, about her insulation from the horrors of Alzheimer's disease... Read more...
Driving antique cars, trading garbage with friends and knowing
someone everywhere you turn was part of life with Roger Keeley
before he developed Alzheimer's disease.