I was just too tired to write anything late last night. A two full-day visit to Listowel has a tight schedule. I'm sorry there are some people I haven't been able to see or some places I haven't been able to go to while here. The past 48 hours have featured encounters with family, friends, frailty, and faith.
Saturday featured a garage sale at my parents house. These are always amusing. My sister and I rescued a few items that we thought should not be sold due to their historical and cultural significance. The magazine stand my Mom had accidentally put out for sale which had once belonged to my late, great grandparents, and the first Coleman camp stove my parents used for camping. There are so many fond memories of it wildly flaring up when Dad would light it. There was even a time that it just suddenly was engulfed in flames while he cooked breakfast. It's had at least one coat of green paint added to it resulting from a rehabilitation project over 20 years ago. The stove is even still in the original, and now very battered cardboard box from sometime in the mid 1970's. Garage sales end up being a social gathering. There was a semicircle of lawn chairs occupied by various neighbours and friends throughout the morning. My niece and nephew played in the backyard. A large hole was dug in the sandbox that I was told had become a mine. Two empty drinking boxes next to the whole were water tanks for the mine. I asked what was being mined and the answer was "just dirt."
In the afternoon, I visited some friends just outside of town. I've known these people for over 20 years and they are extremely special to me. Bill showed me the recent additions to his unofficial museum of model military hardware, emergency vehicles, and toy classic cars. He also gave me two additions to my Labatt's 50 Ale bottle opener collection. Bill has a keen eye for anything collectable and is a regular customer at most "junk stores" (that's his name for them) within a 50 mile radius of Listowel. He did say though that his purchases are often restrained by his "cash flow," as set by Emmie, his ever gracious and compassionate wife. Together, they're among the most caring, faithful, and fun people I know.
I spent nearly an hour visiting my grandfather (Papa) at the nursing home where he lives in Mitchell. It was not easy. I hadn't seen him since Christmas and my parents had told me his condition recently declined. I decided I should come to see him this weekend before heading to Toronto on Monday. Papa did not really know who I was on Saturday. The conversation was intermittent, made little sense, or was in a place and time completely different from the present. Objects in the room or outside the window were mistaken for other things and he had no recollection that my grandmother and uncle had been to visit him just an hour before I arrived. For anyone reading this who has met Papa, you will know what a sincere, honest, and funny gentleman he is. These are the exact reasons I love and respect him so much. It is extremely difficult to see someone I love decline mentally and physically. This is a man who in his life has worked as an auto mechanic, served 25 years in the air force as an aircraft mechanic and then flight engineer, farmed for 15 years, and in retirement always had a place in the country where there was brush to be cleared or snow to be plowed using a small Fordson or Massey tractor. All of it was usually done with determination and a few funny remarks, riddles, rhymes, or parodies of songs along the way. I said goodbye to that old man yesterday and told him how much I love him and respect him. The tears stopped by the time I got to the parking lot.
I had a great dinner last evening with four friends at a really good restaurant. If you are ever in Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin, and Halton Counties in Ontario, go to the Chop House (locations in Wellesley, Drayton, Grand Valley and Campbellville). None of us ordered steak or chops and the food was still excellent. The burger that three of us had at the Wellesley location was among the best I've ever had, rivalling what is offered at trendy burger chains like The Works. After, I was visiting with my friend Stephen and his wife Janessa at their house in Kitchener. They have a new puppy, named Derek. I'm not a pet person but I had a lot of fun playing with that puppy. He's at that stage where he wants to bite and chew on everything. Derek has several toys and has fortunately avoided shortening the legs on any of the tables and chairs in Stephen and Janessa's house. He really enjoyed my right arm too it was covered in scrapes and scratches from his needle-like teeth. It was a lot of fun. He's white and fluffy. Linus, the blanket-toting philosopher friend of Charlie Brown was right. "Happiness is a warm puppy."
This morning, I was so happy to worship at Trinity Lutheran Church, my home congregation, just north of Listowel. Trinity has that old-fashioned, country church feel that in many ways mirrors the thoughtful and wholesome side of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon. There are smiling children with friendly parents who do normal jobs. Kind senior citizens say hello and ask how life is going. Pastor Reinhardt serves the congregation and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. There is a sincerity and compassion about him that is exemplary. He's also written a couple of hymns and several religious poems that have been published. The Gospel reading for this morning was from St. John Chapter 15, verse 5. "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." The sermon was based on this verse and it was easily the most affirming and positive I had ever heard preached on this particular verse. I had heard many bad sermons or commentaries on this verse in the past where it was used as a justification for treating others in a way that completely contradicted the character of the man who said it, Jesus Christ. The Pastor said the lives of Christians are like trees, and sometimes branches of our lives need pruning in order to keep us growing properly. Fortunately, church cleanup day at Trinity Lutheran was yesterday so he was able to make multiple references to the large stack of branches and twigs that had been pruned from trees in the churchyard. The comparison certainly made me think of how there have been, and will continue to be experiences in the lives of all of us that often result in an adjustment or loss that end up strengthening us for the future.
This afternoon was one of those warm southern Ontario spring afternoons that felt lazy. My whole family, including my grandmother, had lunch in the backyard. My niece and nephew played and entertained us constantly. My nephew drew me a picture that will soon be on my refrigerator in Gatineau. Ken the next door neighbour dropped over later. It was a great afternoon to lay on the garden swing and stare up into the trees. The whole day has had that wholesome feeling of home.
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