Sunday, January 18, 2004
THOUGHTS ON SUNDAY
I fully intended to begin writing of my dad today but something came up to change my mind. Most of you have read Becky’s blogs in which she has mentioned the family of Bob Crudgington. They lived on this road before my mother and dad did. At the time my parents moved across the road from them in a mobile home, the Crudgington family had a mobile home on the other side. They took my parents in and loved them as their own. Their three young children thought of my folks as their grand-parents since their real ones lived over on the East side of the State.
My folks were renting space for their mobile home but wanted to buy property. Dad was almost ready to retire and he wanted a yard and garden to tend; and he wanted to live on the end of town they now called home. Bob came up with a solution he thought would sound good to my dad. He had an acreage which he used for pasturing a few cows every year. He suggested that dad buy a corner of his property and move the trailer there. Dad thought about it but he wanted more land than Bob wanted to sell. In the end, dad decided that 90X100’ was probably enough. So move they did and spent some good years as neighbors. My folks eventually met all of Bob’s extended families and enjoyed visiting with them.
When we moved on the same road in our retirement years Bob and his family still lived there in a house they built some years earlier. Much time has gone by since then. My dad passed away, my only brother and my mother. Bob’s family all married and lived reasonably close, grand-children came along. I was widowed four years and then married again. My present husband drove for a company that transported patients to medical appointments and Bob’s mother was one of his passengers. He took her for dialysis treatments for a time, of course growing quite fond of her and being concerned for her.
Last evening a friend called to tell us Madge (Bob’s mother) had passed away about 6:30 pm. I was sitting in church this morning thinking of Madge and the Crudgingtons, of my folks, and all of us collectively. The minister was talking about how we all effect each other’s lives and how that impact continues long after we are gone. Who do you want to personally touch with your life? Who have you touched with your life? Life happens and we either make it good or a regret. While we are here there is still time to remember good folks like Madge and her family and there is also time to make our own legacy better.
Tomorrow I begin writing about a man that put my back-bone in place. He taught me to be tough when I needed to be and gentle when it was called for. Life and love are circles to which there is no beginning and no end.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
My folks were renting space for their mobile home but wanted to buy property. Dad was almost ready to retire and he wanted a yard and garden to tend; and he wanted to live on the end of town they now called home. Bob came up with a solution he thought would sound good to my dad. He had an acreage which he used for pasturing a few cows every year. He suggested that dad buy a corner of his property and move the trailer there. Dad thought about it but he wanted more land than Bob wanted to sell. In the end, dad decided that 90X100’ was probably enough. So move they did and spent some good years as neighbors. My folks eventually met all of Bob’s extended families and enjoyed visiting with them.
When we moved on the same road in our retirement years Bob and his family still lived there in a house they built some years earlier. Much time has gone by since then. My dad passed away, my only brother and my mother. Bob’s family all married and lived reasonably close, grand-children came along. I was widowed four years and then married again. My present husband drove for a company that transported patients to medical appointments and Bob’s mother was one of his passengers. He took her for dialysis treatments for a time, of course growing quite fond of her and being concerned for her.
Last evening a friend called to tell us Madge (Bob’s mother) had passed away about 6:30 pm. I was sitting in church this morning thinking of Madge and the Crudgingtons, of my folks, and all of us collectively. The minister was talking about how we all effect each other’s lives and how that impact continues long after we are gone. Who do you want to personally touch with your life? Who have you touched with your life? Life happens and we either make it good or a regret. While we are here there is still time to remember good folks like Madge and her family and there is also time to make our own legacy better.
Tomorrow I begin writing about a man that put my back-bone in place. He taught me to be tough when I needed to be and gentle when it was called for. Life and love are circles to which there is no beginning and no end.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
