Gemma Cabardo Anderson

9-26-07 I’ve heard it all my life, but never sensed the gravity of it until last Saturday night when I engaged in a furious one-on-one B-ball with my 10-year old son. It really happens like they say: Your mind is stealing, rebounding, and shooting the ball, but your body goes in this horrid slow motion—like in nightmares when you are trying to outrun the half-duck-half-man creature—you are running with all your might, but you are going SO S-L-O-W! I limped off the court gasping for air and thought “Aahhh! The joy of getting older-- isn’t it great!

I graduated from AU in ’88 with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. In the same year, I married Landon Anderson. We settled in the Chicago-land area, where I worked at Hinsdale Hospital for 10 years. In 1997, I traded my nurse’s cap for a full-time job as a home schooling mom. It is the most humbling, yet gratifying job ever. I spend a lot of time on my knees (asking for patience, forgiveness, and mercy) and countless hours at ball games, music lessons, rehearsals, co-op classes and grading papers. At present, I still homeschool my 17-year-old daughter Elyssa and 10-year old son Evan, but I also work full-time as a Triage Nurse for a company called Hospice On Call. When I can, I volunteer for my home church, the Northern IL Conference Women’s Ministries, and the Eunice Wavomba Foundation (I wanna be like Eunice when I grow up). I sing in a ladies group and also do some free-lance writing for the adult and children magazine markets. We’re presently looking everywhere for a country home to get away from the rat-race of Chicago, so moving in with Susan and Eric O. in their 400 acres sounds great right about now.

Landon graduated in 1986 from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York with a BA degree in Printing Management. He has spent almost 30 years in the print and film industry. However, he has spent the last 5 years growing his own custom-home construction company. He is busy in church and music ministry, but spends a lot of time putting us in stitches with his great sense of humor and soothing us with his smooth mellow singing voice.

Elyssa Nalani is a senior in high-school taking college level classes so by the time she graduates HS she will be half-way through her college years. She is an aspiring author, musician, and speaker and will be preaching her first sermon for the main worship service for church in October. She is a delight and a real sweetheart.


Evan Zachary is in fifth grade and loves to tell me the stats of all these new basketball players I don’t care anything about (after Michael Jordan, who is there to watch?) He actually is pretty good in most sports—especially basketball, and his fingers do a pretty good job on the piano keys. He plays the keyboard and percussion for a youth band. He is so cool and I truly enjoy his company.

Reunions are special. In July of '06, we had a "20-Something Reunion" (a group that was started after the deaths of Randy Bauer, John Tingzon and Randy Schultz) in Hinsdale, IL honoring our sponsors Dave and Marilyn Bauer, Roland and Priscilla Lonser and Judy and (BJ) Christiansen for their love and support for us when we were in our 20's. In the same weekend, we had very successful musical concert fund-raiser for the Eunice Wavomba Foundation. Many people came from all over the country to celebrate a spirit-filled community event. People were touched and blessed.


One of best things we did this year was to travel and visit with some of our dearest friends: Elvin and Alana Gonzalez (AU Alumni) and Sue and Mark-Erik DiBiase (AA ’82). We met up in Banff in Alberta, Canada and then traveled to Idaho where the DiBiases live. It was wonderful to reunite and watch our children play together. (Picture of Lake Louise is courtesy of Mark-Erik-- photographer extraordinaire)

Some of us may not be looking forward to this Class of ’83 Reunion. I, for one, am not too proud of everything I did or pleased with everything while at AA. One verse that helps me is Ps 25: 6.7—“Overlook my youthful sins, Oh Lord! Look at me through eyes of mercy and forgiveness, through eyes of everlasting love and kindness.” Also, these past 25 years may not have been always good to us, and we may be hesitant to share our experiences. We’ve all had some bad years, I’m sure. But reunions can be a time of second changes; a time to laugh and remember; a time to forgive and forget; a time to encourage and edify. So, buy that plane ticket or gas up the car, and join a kinder and wiser circle of folks with forgetfulness, gray hairs, wider middles and aching joints. Relish in the blessing of many-years-received. Let’s spend some time together and in the end I hope we all can say, “Ahhh! The joy of getting older--isn’t it great!”