AN ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN

His background was chemistry and he held patents on processes he developed that were used all over the world. The reason he lived in our town was because a local manufacturing company was using some of his patents. He was hired as president so he could train the employees to use his techniques. He hadn’t really wanted the position, but they made it worth his while and gave him great freedom to travel all over the world on business.

He and his wife had already planned for retirement having bought property on an island in the Caribbean, which would be the home base for their large sailboat. That’s where they spent their vacation time. Before they could move there, I saw in the news that in a local uprising many of the island residents were murdered.  I sincerely hope they found a safer place to retire.

His big love besides his wife and daughter was bowling, which is how we made his acquaintance. We were invited to join a rather elite bowling league consisting of sixteen residents whom he chose. The biggest thing in his life was having his own team come in first. When his team came in second, their trophies were larger than the winners because he had bought and paid for them himself.

Winning was so important that when he was in Africa, he met a young bush pilot. He offered the man a job piloting the company plane as well as a position on his bowling team. He really was a nice young man and everyone like him but he wasn’t a great bowler. We moved shortly after the bowling banquet.

He was a brilliant man with many accomplishments who also had an enormous collection of heavy silver.

DEAD WEIGHT

Yesterday after a luncheon I was in a car with three other women. We stopped to let out the one who is 97 years old. At her front door, she lost her balance, hit into her door and slid to the concrete. The nurse driver ran to help her. The other passenger in the backseat who has severe arthritis said she would go help because it would take two people to help her up. I said I would do it although I thought the nurse knew how to help her.

We each took an arm to help lift her and she was a total dead weight. As I helped, I realized that this was something I wasn’t strong enough to handle. The nurse told her to hang onto our arms which she did and with massive effort we got her to stand up. She didn’t seem shaken and said she was OK. We carried her purse and mail into her home and she really seemed all right.

When I got home I realized she may seem all right but I was really shaken. Trying to lift a dead weight is almost impossible which I had known but never experienced. In the midst of all of this, I thought I’m 80 years old and this is really hurting all through my body. We managed with a valiant effort and I was totally glad because I wasn’t sure that I could continue.

Every day I’m reminded there are some things I really don’t want to deal with.

A DEAD DREAM

At a recent meeting a friend arrived wearing a belt. In the past months she had lost a great deal of weight due to illness. I realized I hadn’t seen anyone wearing a belt in quite awhile.

Last month in clearing out my winter clothing, I found I had two baskets filled with all kinds of belts I had collected through the years. Some of them were expensive and too good to throw away and I always felt that when I lost a few, actually a lot of pounds, I could wear them again.

I now realize my dream is dead and I’m donating the belts to charity.

The Intellectuals

The Jesuit Priests are known as the Intellectuals of the Catholic Church. We had a friend’s son who wanted to become a Jesuit but was told he should become a Secular Priest instead. It was their way of telling him he wasn’t smart enough.

When we lived in South Carolina, our pastor was a Jesuit and he was totally ineffectual as a pastor. On Sunday, he sermonized for thirty to forty minutes every week to the chagrin of the parishioners. After meeting with members who complained about his long sermons, he promised to shorten them.  However, the next week he went on again too long but apologized by saying he felt what he had to say was important. (It wasn’t the least bit important and once again I was almost compelled to throw things at him) We did get an assistant pastor which excited everyone, but he disappeared within a month with no explanation to the congregation.

Our parish was made up of some very wealthy and influential people who decided to speak directly with the Bishop in Charleston with our complaints.  The Bishop’s reply was “Is he still there?”

Within a short time the announcement was made by our pastor that he was leaving for further studies within the church. He seemed happy with his big promotion and the membership was ecstatic because we would no longer be compelled to listen to his unending and senseless sermons.

A PROUD FAMILY

Several days ago we received a speakerphone call from our son, daughter-in-law and their three children. The first to speak was our eighteen year old granddaughter who informed us she had graduated from high school that evening. Then with great pride her parents informed us she had graduated summa cum laude.  They were so proud of her accomplishments and so are we.

FRIENDS FOR LIFE  (I Hope)

When on my birthday trip, our 18 year old granddaughter shared a bedroom with her 13 year old cousin. For the first time I noticed they spent a great deal of time talking. The two 11 year olds ran everywhere together which is their usual pattern. Our teen-ager grandson spent time playing basketball with his uncle and in the boat with the adult men as the women did the things women do. But the two older girls were bonding and seemed to have a lot to talk about.

With all this going on, I realized that as they all become adults they’ll probably look forward getting together to enjoy each other’s company.  At the wedding of our youngest daughter, her friends told her they couldn’t believe how well we all got along. For them dysfunctional families seemed to be the norm.

All this reminded me of a conversation I had with my brand new sister-in-law at her wedding some forty-odd years ago. The bride, who was 19 years old, told me to remember that my 14 year old daughter belonged to her generation and I definitely did not. This proved to be true and I’m always reminded of that fact when we get together. We still laugh about it.

HOME INVASION

I had just left the kitchen when our front door was kicked in by a man who said he needed help. His hand was wrapped in a towel. It was our next door neighbor and in his very British accent said that he had very stupidly lifted up his lawnmower by his hands while it was still running and cut off his finger.

I told him to sit down while I called a doctor/neighbor who owned several walk-in clinics hoping he would take care of him. Alas, no one was home, so I had to put him in my car to get help. Driving down the long access road that ran by our golf course community there was very little traffic. Peter was in much pain and writhing in the front seat, moving his head up then down.

Miraculously a sheriff car was passing by going in the other direction. I honked my horn loudly and he stopped. I had to back up to speak to him. By law he couldn’t put the man in his patrol car but said he’d drive ahead of me with his lights on so I could go quickly. At a major intersection, he stopped traffic so I could go a short distance to the walk-in clinic owned by our neighbor. It would have taken another fifteen minutes to go to our hospital emergency room. I ran inside to alert the staff, they brought him inside. I then sat in the waiting room relieved that he was no longer my problem. I was informed that when they removed the towel covering his hand that my neighbor very fortunately had only cut off the tip of his finger.

HOME INVASION (PART 2)

For your information:

In hot weather our front door usually swelled, so we didn’t push it all the way closed because it was so hard to open. When Peter kicked the door open, he could see it wouldn’t cause much harm, just leave a dirty foot print.

Before all this happened, my son had stopped to visit after class before heading to the house he shared with several other college students. My high school daughter was on her way home from her part-time job. I had informed my husband of all of this when he called to say he was on his way.

On the access road he passed me driving behind the policeman, but at that time Peter had his head down in pain, so my husband thought I was alone. He went home and called our son’s house to find out if he was OK. Our daughter came home a little later, while my husband was on the phone. At that time I called from the doctor’s office to say where I was. Not being able to get thru, I called a neighbor who lived on the other side of the golf course to inform him where I was. She said she could see him leaving our driveway so he must know where I was. He didn’t.

Panicking, he drove past the doctor’s parking lot where I was and drove to the hotel where my son had a part-time job. He wasn’t scheduled to work that day, so he then drove to the hospital emergency room. Returning home, our daughter told him the neighbor had called to say where I was.

In the meantime, the same neighbor called the vice president of the company of which Peter was president. There were several of his employees living in our community.

The word went out, so three or four people came to the doctor’s office where I was waiting for the medical staff to be through so I could take him home. He was shocked upon seeing all these people waiting for him.