Page 25 - NM Summer 2023

SUMMER 2023 23
to Nevada. She stays in touch with them by phone
and e-mail.
“I just brought them with
me,” said Kim.
Harold was a standout high
school basketball player growing up in Shallowater, Texas, and
took up golf and tennis. He figured retirement was going to afford him
plenty of time to play both of the latter sports, especially tennis. That
plan went awry quickly.
“My big idea was I was going to get
fit and play more tennis,” he says. “They had a senior league and tournaments. But I tore a tendon in my foot the first year and
had to have it operated on.”
Harold, who will turn 73 on Christmas
Day, went through a major health scare during Covid. Over a period of four months, he lost 40 pounds. He had three MRIs and two CT scans done but doctors had trouble diagnosing the source of his problem.
“I couldn’t sleep, and I couldn’t eat,” says Harold. “They tested me for MS (Multiple Sclerosis). They thought it might be pre- cancerous or an autoimmune problem. I had a burning in my back. I couldn’t lie down, and I couldn’t hardly drive the car. You don’t know what’s going on and I thought, I’m going to die, that’s all there is to it.”
Cheryl owns a company (Innovative Meetings) that books conventions and other major events. She does a lot of overseas trips.
Thus, sleepovers at the grandparents’ new
Rosa’s Cantina
was one of the
favorite lunch spots for Harold and friends.
home are often a given.
“There’s a room upstairs with bunk beds
and a TV,” said Harold. “The girls stay here quite a bit.”
The pinch-hitting grandparents have a plethora of to do’s. They drive Everly and Sadie to school, to gymnastics and soccer practices and help them with homework. This past winter the girls took skiing lessons and are in Broadway Kids, a theatrical program where children perform in Broadway shows such as Dr. Seuss.
Helping Everly with her assignments this past school year gave Harold a whole new appreciation for second grade math.
“Second grade is a whole lot tougher,” says Harold. “I’d ask her, `you have to do that?”’
“They go to pretty intense schools,” said Brian.
As with any move, there is a period of adjustment. Old routines are replaced by new ones. Familiar places and faces are no longer there. And your taste buds go into denial when Hatch chili is no longer part of the weekly (or daily) menu.
“I miss the New Mexican food,” says Harold. “You can’t get anything like that here. I was down at the Las Vegas Golf store the other day and there was a guy on the corner selling tamales. I didn’t stop, but I probably will sometime.”
“Green chili, that’s the thing we miss the most. We go to Taco Bell of all places.” That tamale street vendor and Taco
Bell are no match for Rosa’s Cantina, the restaurant and watering hole located across the street from Sunland Park whose notoriety is tied to Marty Robbins’ big hit “El Paso.”
Four months after they moved into their Las Vegas home last November, Kim and Harold got a visit from longtime friend Nicole Harmon. A friend indeed for friends in need of a real chili fix.
“We got her to make enchiladas,” said Harold. “Nicole makes really good ones.”
Besides the unmatchable New Mexican style cuisine, Harold and Kim also left behind a lot of friends. Kim grew up in El Paso and Harold spent 50 years there. From folks on the backside at Sunland Park to golfing buddies, tennis partners and social friends, they’ve always had a large circle of amigos.
Unfortunately, that circle inevitably gets broken.
“In the last few years, I’ve lost all of my coffee groups, my lunch groups, my golf buddies. They’ve all died off,” says Harold.
Friends like Lonnie Elam, Dr. John Harlacker and Gene Boswell.
After his retirement, Harold stayed in touch with racetrack friends and what was going on at Sunland through Kim’s work. She has for years done taxes for New Mexico trainers, jockeys, horse shoers and racetrack personnel. She also keeps the books for the Frontera Racing Center and helps with the center’s daily operations.
“At least once a year, my clients came to the (El Paso) house,” said Kim. “So, when he retired, every year ... he’d catch up with everyone that came to the house to get their taxes done.”
Kim’s work for her New Mexico clients, some of whom have been going to her for 30 years, hasn’t been affected by the move