George Ann Bohling

9/27/30 - 9/27/10

Dear Curt,

It was great to see you at your mother’s memorial service. I believe the last time I saw you was at John’s memorial service. We really need to stop meeting like this.

I wanted to say a few words about your mother, but the stairs at the service made me fearful of falling. As you may know, I was hospitalized four years ago with meningitis. After three weeks in a coma, I woke up with 100 percent hearing loss and 100 percent loss of balance function in both ears.

George Ann was already Annette’s friend when Annette and I met 35 or so years ago. On two separate occasions George Ann was my landlady. Annette rented the house on Michael Street from Ethel Lilley Realty through George Ann, and then several years later we rented the house George Ann owned on Princeton Way. Then George Ann sold me my first home. I paid $41,000 in about 1983 or 1984 for a house down the street from Agnes Scott College in Decatur. Two bedrooms, dining room, den, finished attic. I sold that house three years later for $65,000, the first money I ever made in real estate but not the last. Over the years I bought and sold a half dozen or more properties, both primary residences and rental properties. Each sale was profitable, plus the rental income produced.

I am sure that some poet has said something about a dear friend being treasured more than gold. Anybody can be that kind of friend. But George Ann also showed me the way to make a little cash on the side, something everyone needs, maybe for a retirement fund, or something for the grandchildren when they go off to college.