August 19, 2007

Cindy Jones Ondrak AIS class of 1969 ondrak@montana.com

The Ondrak family are (left to right) Back Row: Greg Ondrak (in gray suit), Connie Jones, Jon Ondrak, Don Jones, Casey Jones. Front Row: Reed Kroloff, Cindy Ondrak, Melba Ondrak, Tim Ondrak, Heather Gates, Jane Jones.

We've had a very busy summer. My youngest son, Tim, got married in early July. It was a wonderful opportunity for my family to be together for the first time in two years.

My family was in Delhi from 1968-1970. After returning from India my mother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and died in 1973. In 1976 my dad and my brother went to Pakistan where my brother attended AIS in Lahore until the summer of 1980. Kristine Malone, AIS class of 1969, was one of my brother's teachers in Pakistan.

I have lived in Montana since 1973. I've been married for almost 30 years to a great guy from Nebraska. Upon retiring my husband, Greg, bought a ranch and is now raising cattle. This is certainly not how I thought I'd be spending MY retirement, but we have a beautiful place and enjoy living here. I have 2 adult sons. Jon, who lives in Richmond VA and Tim, who lives nearby in Missoula. My dad remarried about 10 years ago and lives in Billings MT. My sister lives in Salinas, California and my brother just moved to the Detroit area.

Cindy Jones Ondrak, Ellen Turner, and Judy Newberry Ashley in Montana. See more photos from Judy and Ellen.

Also, this summer I have enjoyed the visits from Ellen Turner, Judy Newberry Ashley and husband Bob, and Barbara Wilcox Bitetto and her daughter, Krista. I've also been spending alot of time trying to reconnect with class members of 1969 as a co-secretary for our class. Ellen, Judy and I spent an entertaining afternoon looking at Taka Yamanouchi's CD of AIS high school photographs together. We had many, many boughts of laughter and enjoyed all the new pictures on the disc. The 1969-70 school year photos were all new to us and had so many old friends in them. We would encourage everyone who was at AIS from 1968-1970 to make a dues donation and request a copy of Taka's CD.

I've had recently talked or emailed with many old friends and will have more on that soon. I talked briefly with Ralph Cote and Brian Grimm last week. Brian reported he had a nice conversation with Gregg Anderson who is now living in North Carolina. As we find more classmates I'll keep you posted. Thanks Tim for all your great work keeping the website going.

Cindy Jones Ondrak

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