NEWS
A4 • CJN-MMA • JULY 4, 2012
Hermann’s closes after 90 years
In spring 1922, Charles and Dora Hermann opened Hermann’s Plants, 435 Main St. in Milford. They raised vegetables for Findlay Market while making their home on the property. Dora loved flowers, so Charles added hot beds. They were very successful with the vegetables and Dora’s flowers were known as being large and beautiful. One day, a friend asked if Dora could make an arrangement for a service at Craver Funeral Home and that is how the flower shop began. Charles smoked and for every pack, Dora saved a nickel in a jar and built a greenhouse so they could grow flowers all year. The business name was changed to Hermann’s Greenhouse. Doors were left unlocked in those days. People would stop, take a plant or flower, leave a note and stop back to pay. In 1936, Charles died at age 46. Family members helped Dora with the business. Bessie, her husband Omar Leming and their children, Lucille and Robert, moved in with Dora after they lost their home
This Model A sat outside Hermann's Florist for many years. PROVIDED and belongings in the 1937 flood. Dora and Bessie were sisters. The business was doing well with Dora selling vegetables to Findlay Market and buying flowers from wholesalers for arrangements. Omar regained his job at Union Terminal working as a nighttime railroad timekeeper. Union Terminal was near the wholesale flower markets. If Dora needed flowers, Omar would bring them home and Bessie would help during the day. The family helped when they could. Dora had no children and depended on Bessie’s children. When Lucille and Robert
started their own families, they became involved in daily operations. Robert and Rita Leming had two children, Pam and Dave. Lucille and Forrest Bainum had two children, Lucille and Diana. In the 1950s, during holidays, adults worked and children ran errands. The children would walk funeral arrangements to Craver Funeral Home and Milford Methodist Church, stopping by Langdon’s Grocery for penny candy and bubblegum. In 1959, when the Little Miami flooded, the greenhouse was full of Easter lilies and other holiday plants. The children were called from Milford Main School to help
and the family formed a chain rescuing plants from the greenhouse. In 1960, Dora died, leaving Bessie and Omar the business. Lucille and Forrest Bainum’s daughter Lucille Bainum Wamsley’s was now working parttime. In 1962, her son-in-law Forrest Bainum, after working 24 years for LeBlonde Machine Tool Co., began working for her. In 1964, Forrest and Lucille purchased the business. Bessie retired and became the first resident of Sem Villa I Retirement Home in Milford. At the time, Lucille was employed at Milford High School as a secretary. She would help after hours and weekends. In 1965, Forrest and Lucille’s other daughter, Diana Craig, began working part-time. The family worked with many wonderful, dedicated, hard-working employees who were considered friends. In 1981, Forrest retired. Lucille and Diana took over. The greenhouse was not profitable because of fuel costs and it was demolished. The business was renamed Hermann’s Florist, Inc. They decided to buy a 1930 Model
A rumble, a whoosh, then Timothy was gone
After son’s death in Nepal, ‘sea of tears,’ then solace in faith By John Johnston Gannett News Service
MIAMI TWP. — A small group of hikers stood in the early morning darkness, listening and wondering. What’s that rumbling sound? Nobody knew. On Friday, June 22, Trevor Stansbury, 43, and his sons, Timothy, 13, and Jonathan, 12, were on the last leg of what had been an exhilarating eight-day guided hike through the Himalayan region of Nepal in South Asia. Along the way they’d seen many pack horses; maybe the sound was galloping hooves, Trevor thought. Suddenly Trevor heard a loud whoosh, what sounded to him like a meteorite streaking to earth, and a whack, like a baseball bat hitting a punching bag. Then the awful realization: Timothy, who had been right beside him, was gone, killed instantly by a rolling boulder. “I’ve cried a sea of tears,” the father of four said Monday evening, one day after he and Jonathan returned to their Clermont County home. “The reservoirs are just empty.” With his wife, Becky, 40, seated beside him, and their other children, Hannah, 9, and Rachel, 6, in another room, he said he won’t allow himself to dwell on questions that begin, “What if?” What if the hikers hadn’t stopped on the trail to take off their jackets? What if they had started a few minutes later? What if they hadn’t made the trip at all? “ ‘What if’ is an expression of fear and doubt,” Trevor said. “We don’t live our lives in fear. We live our lives in faith.” The Stansburys moved to Cincinnati from Arizona 11 years ago to launch a software business. Five years later, Trevor began climbing mountains in Colorado. As his boys grew older, he introduced them to the pastime, which they immediately loved. Last year, the boys reached a 14,000-foot summit for the first time. The trip to the Himalayas had been in the works for more than a
year. It “seemed like a really neat thing to share with the boys,” Trevor said. Becky agreed. The timing seemed perfect: Timothy had just completed eighth grade at Loveland Middle School. Better to do it before high school, they felt, when he’d be busier than ever. They signed on with Himalayan Glacier Trekking, a 20-yearold Nepal-based company that specializes in adventure travel. The company did not respond to messages left on Tuesday. The plan, at first, was to hike primarily in Tibet, but visa problems forced an itinerary change, Trevor said. The focus became the Annapurna Conservation Area, a region in north-central Nepal with numerous peaks above 20,000 feet. It’s been called the “holy grail of trekking” by Backpacker magazine.
Excruciating pain tempered by faith
Timothy was standing between his father and brother. The boulder threw his body 30 feet. “When I got to Timothy, there was no question he had been killed instantly,” his father said.
Diana Craig and Lucille Wamsley and all the family of Charles and Dora Hermann
BRIEFLY Write a resume
CLERMONT COUNTY — The Public Library has acquired Cypress Resume, an online tool that helps patrons create a professional resume in a few minutes. It’s easy-to-use format assures you won’t spend hours trying to perfect your document - all the hard work is done for you. Simply plug in your basic information (as little or as much as you’d like), and Cypress Resume creates a perfectly formatted document to help you land that dream job. With Cypress Resume, there is no need to compose anything, ever. Simply type basic information about yourself and leave the difficult task of writing concise, descriptive statements detailing your abilities to the resume builder. To access Cypress Resume, visit the library website at www.clermontlibrary.org.
Library meeting
BATAVIA — The monthly meeting of the Clermont County Public Library Board of Trustees is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, July 9, at the Milford-Miami Township Branch Library, 1099 Ohio 131. For more information, contact David Mezack at 513-7357193.
Beautiful mountain vistas awaited hikers
The goal was not to climb a mountain. Rather, their trek took them on trails flanked by snowy mountains and glaciers. Hiking five to seven hours a day, they gradually ascended to an elevation of 15,000 feet. By the eighth day, three of nine hikers had dropped out, exhausted, Trevor said. Of the remaining six, two opted to ride horses. Trevor said he and his boys had no qualms about continuing on foot. “We were just having fun the whole way,” he said. “It was the best father-son trip we had ever had.” Ahead lay Thorung La, a pass 17,768 feet above sea level. Their guide recommended they leave their camp, Thorung Phedi, in predawn darkness to avoid the high winds that whip the pass during the noon hour. They rose at 2:30 a.m. At 3, as they were about to depart, Trevor snapped the last of hundreds of photos. Wearing head lanterns and down jackets, the hikers within 20 minutes became too warm. The group stopped to peel off a layer. Then the rumbling started.
A Ford truck for advertisement. Their husbands thought they were crazy. They drove the Model A in Frontier Days Parades, won first place in the Reds Opening Day Parade and made flower deliveries. The men loved the old Model A. It was parked on the sidewalk next to the building and became a conversation piece promoting Hermann’s Florist. When somebody complained, the story made the front page of the Milford Advertiser. The city made them remove the car. Lucille worked 52 years and Diana worked 46 years together with family and friends. Their children have their own careers and some have moved away. It is time for a change. This small business provided for five generations of families and helped sustain many through the Great Depression, floods and tough times. To the many loyal customers and friends, we say “thank you.” Without you, we could not have been successful. We will miss you. God Bless.
Officer injured
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Still, “I must have checked his pulse and his breath 150 times.” A gynecologist and a medical student were among the hikers. He repeatedly asked them if they, too, were sure his son was gone. “When it happened,” Trevor said, “in spite of the most excruciating (emotional) pain I have ever experienced, there also came a certain knowledge that Timothy was OK. I don’t know how to explain that, except to say that we have built our marriage and our
family on a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ. “For reasons that we cannot explain, the time had come for Timothy to return to the father of us all.” The Stansburys are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormons. They attend the Little Miami congregation in Montgomery. Becky was at church, helping with the youth group, when the call came from her husband at about 7:30 p.m. Friday. “Trevor kept saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t bring him home. I couldn’t protect him.” She told her husband: “You have nothing to be sorry about. It’s not your fault.”
GOSHEN TWP. — Police Sgt. Ron Robinson is at home recuperating from an injury suffered at a gun range June 26. Robinson was at the annual range qualification for use of firearms. The gun fired as he was placing it in his holster, striking Robinson in the right leg. The bullet went through his calf, said Police Chief Ray Snyder. Robinson was treated and released from the hospital, Snyder said. The chief said the gun is being inspected to determine what happened. Test results are expected in a few weeks.
Leaders needed
CLERMONT COUNTY — Are you interested in making a real difference in the lives of girls in your community? Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is looking for volunteers to help with school recruiting. There are more than 1,500 elementary schools in the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio region and volunteers are needed. For more information , visit www.girlscoutsof westernohio.org or call 4891025 or 800-537-6241.