This was a facebook entry that I decided to cut and paste into my blog:
1. The winter is past and we can see spring emerging in fits and starts! We had several days of no- coat weather, and things are getting greener and greener!
2. Meetings at Newry were indeed special. The hymns we sang were especially rich to me.
3. I was happy to see and hear Judy O'Connell last Sunday after nearly losing her to liver disease last year.
4. I was happy Ken's trip to the ER on Sunday afternoon showed nothing wrong except low potassium. I was doubly glad he did not get hurt worse when he passed out. It makes me realize how precious he is to me!
5. I was glad for friends who helped last Sunday--Neila Gray, Dave and Mary Bolt, Rochelle Herr, Bob Burk, and Glenn and Anna.
6. We were happy to have a visit with Dave Thayer and his sister Lois on Monday.
7. I was happy to be at Dorothy Jane's funeral and think of her hanging up her shield of faith in victory.
8. I was happy to celebrate the anniversary of Ken's safe return from VN on Thursday. Once again I felt deep appreciation for my husband!
9. I was happy to get called to go for an interview next Thursday for a receptionist job at an engineering firm in DuBois. What are my chances? Who knows, but at least I got called!!
10. I am happy to be looking forward to a visit from Jill and the grandchildren, and hopefully Leigh, this weekend.
11. I am happy because Saturday is Heidi's 10 birthday, and I have been enjoying the blessed state of grandmotherhood for nearly 10 years!
12. I am happy that today's gentle rain is soaking into my freshly tilled garden. It will soften it nicely for the next tilling!
13. I was happy to take my 94-year-old mother-in-law to her hearing aid dr. and had fun doing it! She is such a character!
14. Today is Ross' last day of classes for his third semester, and I am happy that he has done so well with his college studies.
15. I am happy to be at 15! I knew I would have more than 5 for this week, but it was hard to come up with 15 important ones!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
A Soldier's Return--1970
My senior year of high school was 1969-1970. I turned 17 in December of 1969 and began the most eventful year of my life up to that point and maybe since!
Ken had gone to Viet Nam in June of 1969, so there was always the concern for his safety. We wrote nearly every day. In the fall of that year, Nora Colby and Naomi Nichlson had Gospel Meetings in Johnsonburg in the old post office building. Ruby Westbrook and Bessie Black came to those meetings and made a start. My dad's old friend Claude Zimmerman came to lots of them, too, but he was in a drunken stupor a good bit of the time.
Then in January, we experienced my father's sudden death and all the aftermath of that. It was a cold, dark winter. My mother, in the interest of saving money, even cancelled our outside dusk to dawn light, which made the winter evenings at home even more gloomy. (We got the light going again after a few months when she felt more assured of her finances). It seemed like the sun never shone.
Sometime in March, I was hired to work at a bank in St. Marys. I was to begin after I graduated from high school in June.
The grandest thing to look forward to, though, was Ken's expected return from Viet Nam in June. He would be discharged from his two years of army obligation when he returned. President Richard Nixon had begun pulling out troops a few months prior. Unbeknownst to us back home, Ken was to be a part of that early withdrawal, and was discharged about a month early!
Ken kept writing letters to all of us and never breathed a word of his earlier return. He arrived in the country a day or two before he arrived at home on April 30, 1970. He processed out in California, and arrived at the DuBois Airport (about 2 miles from where we live now!) in the afternoon sometime. He called his brother Don and asked him to come pick him up without telling anybody. They walked in the door at their parent's house, completely surprising them! I don't know any details of that situation, but I remember my own reaction a few hours later!
We so much looked forward to the time when Ken would be back from VN and we could be together again! We had secret plans to work and save money for a year and then get married in the spring of 1971.
April 30 fell on a Thursday that year, same as this year of 2009. There was a concert at the school on Wednesday (I wasn't in it) and we had decided to have our Bible study that week on Thursday night instead of Wednesday. I went to the concert with my cousin Gertie. I remember a girl singing a solo of "I'll Never Find Another You" and that song was to become the theme song of the next few years in our courtship and marriage.
To get ready for his return, I had sewn some new clothes. I decided I would wear them once, wash them, and then keep them in readiness for our first few dates after his return. On that Thursday, April 30th, I had worn one of my dresses to school and since we were planning to have Bible study that night, I just left it on. I was in the kitchen when Ken came. I think we must have been around the table, eating supper, when he knocked on the door. I turned around to see who was there and nearly fainted with surprise! Talk about a wonderful hug and kiss! I didn't even care that my mother was watching!!!!
Ken did not know that we were to have Bible study that night up at my Aunt Bertha's. I said to my mom, "Ah, Mom, do I have to go to meeting?" And she said, no, she guessed it would be all right if I didn't! I think that may be the only time in my life that I have deliberately skipped meeting. Ken and I went out for a ride in his navy blue Mustang (he was glad to be reunited with it, too!). I think we went up to Elk State Park, and place where there was a nice lake that we had been to before and taken pictures. Then we came back to the house for a while. Oh, the joy of being together and having him safely home from the war!
Nowadays, I say that I really don't like surprises. Somehow I have managed to find out about some surprises and wondered what was going on, and why I wasn't in on it, etc., etc. But that surprise of Ken coming home like that was probably the grandest surprise of my life!! I have been glad for the years that we have had together and the life that we enjoy.
Maybe I can remember some of that song that I mentioned:
There's a new world somewhere
They call the promised land.
And I'll be there someday
If you will hold my hand.
I still need you here beside me
No matter what I do
For I know I'll never find
Another you.
There is always someone
For each of us, they say,
And you'll be my someone
Forever and a day.
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
And I know I'll never find
Another you.
Chorus:
It's a long, long journey
So stay by my side
When I walk through the storm
You'll be my guide.
They could give me a fortune
My pleasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all.
But if I should lose your love, dear,
I don't know what I'd do.
For I know I'd never find
Another you.
So, now if I have managed to make all the romantics who read this tear up a bit, I will have achieved my goal of sharing the feeling of one of the grandest days of our courtship!
Ken had gone to Viet Nam in June of 1969, so there was always the concern for his safety. We wrote nearly every day. In the fall of that year, Nora Colby and Naomi Nichlson had Gospel Meetings in Johnsonburg in the old post office building. Ruby Westbrook and Bessie Black came to those meetings and made a start. My dad's old friend Claude Zimmerman came to lots of them, too, but he was in a drunken stupor a good bit of the time.
Then in January, we experienced my father's sudden death and all the aftermath of that. It was a cold, dark winter. My mother, in the interest of saving money, even cancelled our outside dusk to dawn light, which made the winter evenings at home even more gloomy. (We got the light going again after a few months when she felt more assured of her finances). It seemed like the sun never shone.
Sometime in March, I was hired to work at a bank in St. Marys. I was to begin after I graduated from high school in June.
The grandest thing to look forward to, though, was Ken's expected return from Viet Nam in June. He would be discharged from his two years of army obligation when he returned. President Richard Nixon had begun pulling out troops a few months prior. Unbeknownst to us back home, Ken was to be a part of that early withdrawal, and was discharged about a month early!
Ken kept writing letters to all of us and never breathed a word of his earlier return. He arrived in the country a day or two before he arrived at home on April 30, 1970. He processed out in California, and arrived at the DuBois Airport (about 2 miles from where we live now!) in the afternoon sometime. He called his brother Don and asked him to come pick him up without telling anybody. They walked in the door at their parent's house, completely surprising them! I don't know any details of that situation, but I remember my own reaction a few hours later!
We so much looked forward to the time when Ken would be back from VN and we could be together again! We had secret plans to work and save money for a year and then get married in the spring of 1971.
April 30 fell on a Thursday that year, same as this year of 2009. There was a concert at the school on Wednesday (I wasn't in it) and we had decided to have our Bible study that week on Thursday night instead of Wednesday. I went to the concert with my cousin Gertie. I remember a girl singing a solo of "I'll Never Find Another You" and that song was to become the theme song of the next few years in our courtship and marriage.
To get ready for his return, I had sewn some new clothes. I decided I would wear them once, wash them, and then keep them in readiness for our first few dates after his return. On that Thursday, April 30th, I had worn one of my dresses to school and since we were planning to have Bible study that night, I just left it on. I was in the kitchen when Ken came. I think we must have been around the table, eating supper, when he knocked on the door. I turned around to see who was there and nearly fainted with surprise! Talk about a wonderful hug and kiss! I didn't even care that my mother was watching!!!!
Ken did not know that we were to have Bible study that night up at my Aunt Bertha's. I said to my mom, "Ah, Mom, do I have to go to meeting?" And she said, no, she guessed it would be all right if I didn't! I think that may be the only time in my life that I have deliberately skipped meeting. Ken and I went out for a ride in his navy blue Mustang (he was glad to be reunited with it, too!). I think we went up to Elk State Park, and place where there was a nice lake that we had been to before and taken pictures. Then we came back to the house for a while. Oh, the joy of being together and having him safely home from the war!
Nowadays, I say that I really don't like surprises. Somehow I have managed to find out about some surprises and wondered what was going on, and why I wasn't in on it, etc., etc. But that surprise of Ken coming home like that was probably the grandest surprise of my life!! I have been glad for the years that we have had together and the life that we enjoy.
Maybe I can remember some of that song that I mentioned:
There's a new world somewhere
They call the promised land.
And I'll be there someday
If you will hold my hand.
I still need you here beside me
No matter what I do
For I know I'll never find
Another you.
There is always someone
For each of us, they say,
And you'll be my someone
Forever and a day.
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
And I know I'll never find
Another you.
Chorus:
It's a long, long journey
So stay by my side
When I walk through the storm
You'll be my guide.
They could give me a fortune
My pleasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all.
But if I should lose your love, dear,
I don't know what I'd do.
For I know I'd never find
Another you.
So, now if I have managed to make all the romantics who read this tear up a bit, I will have achieved my goal of sharing the feeling of one of the grandest days of our courtship!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Viet Nam Veteran's Ceremony
These pictures are actually in the wrong order, and try as I might, I don't know how to change them! The lower one was taken prior to the ceremony, the second one is Ken getting his award, and the upper one is him outside afterwards showing his awards.
Saturday, April 18, Ken and about 175 other Viet Nam veterans from our Jefferson county were honored at a ceremony arranged by our local state representative, Sam Smith. Ken and I have seen the Viet Nam wall in Washington, DC, another one in Altoona, PA, and numerous times we have gone to see a moving wall that travels around the country, but this was the first time in 39 years that we have been to an honors ceremony.
Some things I learned: The Viet Nam war was called the "living room war" because it was the first war to come into the living room of US on television. While we did not have television, I could read the daily reports of the war in the newspaper. One day I actually read about a helicopter accident in the paper that Ken witnessed. Fortunately he was not a part of it! He rode in lots of helicopters over there.
Another interesting point that a speaker brought out: He talked about soldiers being drafted, and receiving a notice that "you will report to such-and-such a place on such-and-such a date." And the speaker said there was no "please" on the notice, but he and others were at the ceremony to say "Thank you". A speaker also re-echoed something I had heard Ken say often about his military service--"I was just doing my duty."
The veterans sat in the center of the auditorium in alphabetical order, and they filled about the front 2/3 of that section. Family had to sit elsewhere. I was kinda disappointed to not be sitting with my dear husband, but after all, that aisle between us was not nearly as big as the Pacific Ocean when we were boyfriend and girlfriend!
I expected to see some gray-haired pony-tails on the men, since that seems to be a common thing amongst VN vets that we have seen at the walls. But there were only one of two! The rest of the guys just looked like 60-year old guys! Lots of them had a bubble in their middle!!
Ken spent June 1968 to April 1970 in the US army. He was in Texas for 5 months, then at Fort Campbell, KY another 5 months, and then about 11 months in Viet Nam, with leaves at home in between. He was trained as a medic, and often did the work of a doctor in treating people both in the military hospital in Kentucky and Viet Nam. In Viet Nam he worked in a forward aid station, which was where they brought wounded for first aid, and Ken and others would patch them up and send them on to a hospital. Most of it was by helicopter.
Back in those days, the 60's, every young man had a military obligation because of the draft. That's just the way it was, and boys grew up with that as being a part of their future. At times they increased the draft, and that was true at the time of the VN war. Many young men joined the other armed forces because they figured they would be drafted into the army if they did not. Joining up gave them greater options. Ken was a C.O. and he was drafted into the army. The other armed forces were not an option for him.
One thing that they did not talk much about in the ceremony, and it's okay that they didn't, was the people who waited back home. Unless you have been through it, you cannot understand the feeling of having someone you love "in harm's way" a term our former President Bush has used in regard to the Irag war. I was a senior in high school when Ken was over there, and we wrote nearly daily. On his envelopes he wrote the word FREE in the place where a stamp goes, since he did not have to pay for postal service. I think the letters came in about 5 or 6 days. Somedays I would get two! There were no phone calls, and of course, no email or webcams! Such a highlight to my day to come home from school and read letters from my beloved! We had already talked about marriage, so I guess I could say that we were secretly engaged at that time (we married in 1971, a year after his safe return).
The then-president Richard Nixon had begun to pull out troops from Viet Nam in the beginning of 1970 (thanks, Richard Nixon!) and Ken was part of an early withdrawal. They began sending guys home early, and he got to come home a month earlier than his ETS of early June. He didn't tell any of us, but kept writing letters just as if he were staying the whole time. It was the grandest surprise of my life, and probably his parents and family to have him show up on our doorsteps! Next week, on April 30, I will try to write the story of the day he came back.
I don't feel that Ken has any negative aspects in his personality because of being in the war. He was not injured in any way, although he got rather thin. As a medic, he was there to help people, and worked to save lives. He remembers the good times--going to convention there in February, 1970, and spending weekends with Fred Allen in Saigon in Fred's bach, and being with other professing service guys.
To be continued--
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I have been tagged!
Well, this was a rather fun exercise. My instructions were to go to where I keep my picture files on my computer, find the fourth folder, find the fourth picture, and put it on my blog and explain it!
Since I have a new computer (December 08), I do not as yet have a lot of pictures on it, so my picture is a recent one. It was a rather pleasant day a couple of weeks ago and I enjoyed hanging a load of wash, including sheets, on the line for the first time. I decided to take a picture of it and a few other things around the homeplace in celebration of the hope of spring!
To the left in the picture you can see the edge of my garden which Ken had plowed a couple days before. Garden pictures just get better and better until September. But the plowing is the necessary beginning. Next I need to get out the Troy-Bilt rototiller and go over it all about three times before I dare plant anything in the ground. Both the clothesline and the garden are what I see when I look out my kitchen window over the sink. I certainly do love watching my garden grow!
In the right foreground is our dog, Shelby, aged 1 1/2. He has lots of love to give, and enjoys showing me by jumping all over me, licking my hand, and being a nuisance some of the time! We got him last May. He did a great job last summer of preventing the deer from coming in to eat the fresh young greenery in my garden. It was a major problem the previous year and we ended up putting a barbed wire fence around the garden. I HATED that view from my kitchen window, but I hated the deer damamge worse.
In the distant background you can see part of our neighbor's house and their trees. They have been very good neighbors to us for all the 38 years we have lived here. They are about 20 years older than us and spend part of the winter in Florida now. The two houses (theirs and ours) were once part of a dairy farm, and Smiths lived in both houses and ran the farm together. We share the same well and gas meter. Our house is 150 some years old, and is said to be the oldest occupied house in this country community. Our neighbors house is newer, probably about 120 years old or so, and they are relatives of the original Smiths who built these house.
So, that's my picture! I don't know if it is worth 1000 words, but that's what this lady gave it!
Monday, April 13, 2009
April's Musings
I decided it's time to write a little bit about life, even though I really don't have a theme for this posting So it will just be chit-chat, this-n-that.
First news is my job at H&R Block. When I was hired, I was supposed to work full-time from Jan. 20 something to Feb. 20. Since then I have worked part-time, 2 or 3 days a week. Today I was scheduled to work, and when I got there, the boss figured they needed me at the front desk tomorrow and part of Wednesday, which is the famous April 15th around the tax office! I am happy that they have kept me on the payroll for a few days a week because I enjoy the job. Full-time was a bit much, but I am proud of myself for having done it for a few weeks. Son Ross is still working there as a tax preparer, too.
I have been looking for another job, but nothing has shown up for me yet. With spring coming on I am less eager to be working because there will be interesting things to do around here.
We had a nice weekend over Easter. Delmar S. came on Friday in time for supper. Roy and DeAnn came that evening. Saturday for noon we had eight workers with us for lunch and we had a very nice time around the table with them. Then we went to Franklin Sunday for the special meetings there. Here is the picture I took of the workers:
Well, I thought I was putting the picture in, but I seem to be having a hard time getting it to upload.
Ken has plowed my garden for me, and I am getting anxious for nicer weather! I have some seeds started in my kitchen, although I will be buying some plants, too. I used to raise lots of plants, but now I try not to get that involved!
A few weeks ago I finally sold the two looms that I wanted rid of, so officially now I am no longer in the weaving business. I enjoyed weaving and selling the rugs, but in the last several years, my sales had dropped a lot in this rural community. No doubt I could have sold if I had gone to the cities, but I wasn't too much interested in higher priced shows and motel rooms. It took me a few years to be willing to part with the looms. I am keeping two, my Gilmore rug loom and my Harrisville placemat loom. The couple who bought my looms even took a truckload of fabric from our barn loft! Yay! I was afraid we would have to dumpster it!
Now that the looms are sold we are moving ahead with our plans to put our bedroom in the studio. We have picked out the furniture from Lindberg Furniture and hope to order it in the next few days. Then we are also going to change around the furniture in three of our upstairs rooms. Our largest bedroom will become a combination sewing/loom room, and the other two will be bedrooms. Ross will be going to State College in August, and will leave most of his furniture behind in the bedroom he occupies, so it will stay the same. The other two rooms will have furniture switched around. Ken and I drew the rooms and furniture on graph paper, and moved it around there till we got what we wanted!
Another change in our life was that in February we were combined with the little meeting in Luthersburg at Dorothy Jane Thomas' house. It was so nice to meet with a few more people, even though it was a lonely feeling not to have the Sunday morning meeting here. It had been here for 27 1/2 years, nearly half my life! However, the change was short-lived because Dorothy Jane was hospitalized almost two weeks ago with strokes, and she has been nearly unresponsive since. Now she is in a nursing home. She is able to breathe on her own, and doesn't even need oxygen, but her condition otherwise is unchanged. We had Union meeting one Sunday, and Franklin special meetings the next, and now this Sunday coming up the meeting will be coming back here, and we will welcome it! It was a grand privilege to be with Dorothy Jane for those few weeks.
Ken has started to sing with a barbershop chorus, and practices on Monday nights. That is where he is tonight, so I decided to give an update on our lives. I really would like to have put pictures on, but it was taken too long to upload them. I will need to get some suggestions from somebody....
First news is my job at H&R Block. When I was hired, I was supposed to work full-time from Jan. 20 something to Feb. 20. Since then I have worked part-time, 2 or 3 days a week. Today I was scheduled to work, and when I got there, the boss figured they needed me at the front desk tomorrow and part of Wednesday, which is the famous April 15th around the tax office! I am happy that they have kept me on the payroll for a few days a week because I enjoy the job. Full-time was a bit much, but I am proud of myself for having done it for a few weeks. Son Ross is still working there as a tax preparer, too.
I have been looking for another job, but nothing has shown up for me yet. With spring coming on I am less eager to be working because there will be interesting things to do around here.
We had a nice weekend over Easter. Delmar S. came on Friday in time for supper. Roy and DeAnn came that evening. Saturday for noon we had eight workers with us for lunch and we had a very nice time around the table with them. Then we went to Franklin Sunday for the special meetings there. Here is the picture I took of the workers:
Well, I thought I was putting the picture in, but I seem to be having a hard time getting it to upload.
Ken has plowed my garden for me, and I am getting anxious for nicer weather! I have some seeds started in my kitchen, although I will be buying some plants, too. I used to raise lots of plants, but now I try not to get that involved!
A few weeks ago I finally sold the two looms that I wanted rid of, so officially now I am no longer in the weaving business. I enjoyed weaving and selling the rugs, but in the last several years, my sales had dropped a lot in this rural community. No doubt I could have sold if I had gone to the cities, but I wasn't too much interested in higher priced shows and motel rooms. It took me a few years to be willing to part with the looms. I am keeping two, my Gilmore rug loom and my Harrisville placemat loom. The couple who bought my looms even took a truckload of fabric from our barn loft! Yay! I was afraid we would have to dumpster it!
Now that the looms are sold we are moving ahead with our plans to put our bedroom in the studio. We have picked out the furniture from Lindberg Furniture and hope to order it in the next few days. Then we are also going to change around the furniture in three of our upstairs rooms. Our largest bedroom will become a combination sewing/loom room, and the other two will be bedrooms. Ross will be going to State College in August, and will leave most of his furniture behind in the bedroom he occupies, so it will stay the same. The other two rooms will have furniture switched around. Ken and I drew the rooms and furniture on graph paper, and moved it around there till we got what we wanted!
Another change in our life was that in February we were combined with the little meeting in Luthersburg at Dorothy Jane Thomas' house. It was so nice to meet with a few more people, even though it was a lonely feeling not to have the Sunday morning meeting here. It had been here for 27 1/2 years, nearly half my life! However, the change was short-lived because Dorothy Jane was hospitalized almost two weeks ago with strokes, and she has been nearly unresponsive since. Now she is in a nursing home. She is able to breathe on her own, and doesn't even need oxygen, but her condition otherwise is unchanged. We had Union meeting one Sunday, and Franklin special meetings the next, and now this Sunday coming up the meeting will be coming back here, and we will welcome it! It was a grand privilege to be with Dorothy Jane for those few weeks.
Ken has started to sing with a barbershop chorus, and practices on Monday nights. That is where he is tonight, so I decided to give an update on our lives. I really would like to have put pictures on, but it was taken too long to upload them. I will need to get some suggestions from somebody....
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Our first-born son
Roy, our first born, turns 36 tomorrow, March 30. It hardly seems possible that so many years have passed! I took this picture yesterday at the auction that he helped with for his in-laws, Terry and Nancy Boop.
Ken and I had figured we wanted our first child around the time of our second wedding anniversary. By early August, 1972, we had hopes. That was before the days of home pregnancy tests. People used to talk about the rabbit tests, but I think that was even old-fashioned in 1972! We went to see good ole Dr. Devlin on Ken's birthday, September 18, and he confirmed it for us and gave us a due date of April 18. We were very excited, and kept the secret for a little while, probably til I was about 3 months.
I quit my job at the bank in January, and spent the time at home in great expectation! I remember thinking early on that I should pray for my baby, and it came to me that I wanted to pray that our baby would bring joy to our hearts. But, somehow, that seemed to have a bit of selfishness in it, and I finally decided to pray that our baby would bring joy to God's heart, and then I knew that he/she would bring joy to our hearts, too!
We didn't have a lot of money, and didn't have a lot of things for our new baby, but we had some essentials. Ken made a wooden cradle for downstairs use, and we had a bassinet that my mom had bought for Randy, my nephew, 6 months prior, and a crib for upstairs. My coworkers bought me a nice baby gift. In the middle of March, Ken started at new factory job at Rockwell in DuBois. Our life was changing!
If there were sonograms in those days, we did not know about them. We did not find out what any of our babies were ahead of time. My pregnancy was pretty typical. I did not have morning sickness at all (and didn't with any of the next three, either!) I did have some heartburn with Roy that I didn't seem to have with the next three. I gained about 15 to 20 pounds and was generally healthy and felt pretty good.
Right about 10 days before Roy was born, I had a drs. appointment and he told me that my baby had dropped, which meant that its head was engaged. When I told Martha that, she said, "Oh, that means you will go in 10 days!" It turns out that she was pretty close!
Ken's brother Don and his wife Jane, had had their 5th child on Mar. 6, and on March 29, I went over to her house so she could show me how to bathe a baby. It was fun. I had read books about pregnancy and babies, but we didn't have things like childbirth classes or Lamaze classes. I needed some hand-on instruction and Jane was quite willing to teach me! It was also Jane's birthday, and a whole bunch of her sisters came and brought food for lunch for everybody. My due date was still about three weeks away.
The next day was Friday. Ken went to work real early in the morning. I can't remember exactly what my plans for the day were, but around 9 AM, I began to notice that I was having strange contractions. I didn't think they were labor contractions, because they didn't hurt, they just felt like a tightening. In novels, when the woman goes into labor, she usually yells with the first "pain" and eveyone comes running. Not so in real life! I was perplexed at what it was all about and decided to begin timing them. I found out they were very regular. Interestingly enough, I was playing the piano, and I remember playing The Burning of Rome, a long complicated song with lots of sections, and seeing if I could get through this section without a contraction coming again! Do you think this helped Roy to be the musical person that he turned out to be??!!??
Around 11 o'clock of so, I called the dr. and talked to his nurse. Their procedure was that we would go into the drs. office to get examined, and the nurse would determine if I was in labor or not. That sounded like good news to me because I sure wasn't sure if this was the real thing or not. She said, "I think you had better call your husband home from work, and have him bring you in." By the time I got Ken home from work, and we went to Brockway, these strange contractions were beginning to hurt! Nurse Josephine confirmed that I was indeed in labor, and she told me I would probably have my baby about suppertime. Off to DuBois the two of us went. Ken called Jane from the hospital to say that we were there, but nobody else in the family knew.
It seemed like a long afternoon, but finally I went to the delivery room. I was happy for the general anesthesia! At 5 p.m., with the help of forceps, Roy Joseph Grady was born into the world (remember Josephine's suppertime prediction?) weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces. By the time I came our of anesthetic, I was back in my room with Ken there beside me, waiting for me to wake up. He told me we had a boy! I said, "We had a boy, kiss me!" And then, "We had a boy, kiss me again!" I remember him telling me that he would get some of that anesthetic in him and maybe get sleepy!
So, we had our first baby. He was born on what would have been my dad'd 66th birhtday. (Daddy had died in 1970, three years prior) And isn't it a little bit crazy that it was an 8 hour, 9-to-5 labor?
One regret that I have is that we have no pictures of us being proud new parents taken at the hospital bed with our new little one. Roy was a tiny little guy, especially compared to his big cousin, Teresa, who was 3 weeks older, but he soon grew and we learned how to be parents. When he was 6 months old, Leona Shadle began sending us her son Charles' outgrown clothes, which she did for years and years! We really appreciated getting them, and Charles and Roy have been good friends.
Motherhood was a very special experience for me, a young 20-year old. I always thought you had children because it was a thing you were supposed to do, and I never had a lot of interest in other people's babies. I was so totally thrilled with how wrapped up I was in this little bundle. Every little thing that he learned was so special to me! When he discovered his hands, when he rolled over, when he got his first two teeth, when he did push-ups when he was learning to crawl, when he took his first few steps--all these things were a tremendous source of pride to me! Even though there were a few tough times, they did not seem very significant compared with my pride in him.
Now, almost 36 years later, I am still enormously proud of him and our other children. Seeing him yesterday selling on the auction block I wanted to yell, "That's my son!", but of course, I didn't! I just smiled and smiled...
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Victor or Victim?
Time for a little philosophy on life and I warned you that I can get very opinionated!
We are the sum total of our live's experiences, right? Or are we the sum total of our attitude towards those experiences?
I had an interesting phone conversation with niece Jean the other night and some of the things we talked about got me to thinking. We were talking about blaming present situations on something that happened in our past--like saying I am the way I am because my mother did not love me, or my father was never home, or the kids at school made fun of me, yadayadayada. You know the scenario. (BTW, these things did not happen to me) So many people play the blame game, blaming everybody from parents to teachers to friends, etc.
Granted, some people are victims. If you are paralyzed because of an accident in which you were hit by a drunk driver, you are a victim. There are lots of other legitimate reasons for being the way you are.
But, as Jean pointed out to me, I have had some trauma in my life's experiences that I could use to blame things on. To my surprise, I began to think about those things and realize that my attitude toward them is not a victim attitude.
I have written that I found my father dead when I was 17 years old. Very, very traumatic. But somewhere along the line I got to the point that I realize that that experience is part of what makes me who I am, and I don't mean in a negative sense. Having had that experience makes me have a greater compassion for someone else who goes through the experience of losing a loved one from their daily life.
I also was the one who went into the nursing home and found my mother in a coma from which she never awoke. She died 3 1/2 days later. I spent time with my brother Ben in his last week of life and was there when he breathed his last. When our beloved Aunt Bertha died so tragically in Mississippi, it was Glenn and me who arranged for her second funeral here in Pennsylvania. In the few days between her death and funeral, Ken lost his job of 25 years.
Trauma? Yes. I know others have faced much worse in their lives. But we all have had experiences that have been rough and we got through them with God's help and other's help. We learned a lot, and carry that knowledge with us wherever we go. We are victors because we have been able to move forward. Victims just stay in a rut and commiserate.
I have a favorite poem about weaving. Roger Smith quoted this at Quakertown convention a long time ago, and ended up posting a copy of it on a tree there! I have also seen the poem on a brochure for a weaving place that I used to go to for some supplies in Smicksburg, PA. I am typing it from memory, and hopefully have it close.
My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me.
I cannot tell the colors
That He worketh steadily.
Sometimes He worketh sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper,
And I, the under side.
Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will the Lord unroll the pattern
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads were as needful
In the weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
This poem helps me to understand that all these things are just part of our life's experineces, and work beautiful things into the pattern of our lives.
So, what is your philosophy on your life's experiences?
We are the sum total of our live's experiences, right? Or are we the sum total of our attitude towards those experiences?
I had an interesting phone conversation with niece Jean the other night and some of the things we talked about got me to thinking. We were talking about blaming present situations on something that happened in our past--like saying I am the way I am because my mother did not love me, or my father was never home, or the kids at school made fun of me, yadayadayada. You know the scenario. (BTW, these things did not happen to me) So many people play the blame game, blaming everybody from parents to teachers to friends, etc.
Granted, some people are victims. If you are paralyzed because of an accident in which you were hit by a drunk driver, you are a victim. There are lots of other legitimate reasons for being the way you are.
But, as Jean pointed out to me, I have had some trauma in my life's experiences that I could use to blame things on. To my surprise, I began to think about those things and realize that my attitude toward them is not a victim attitude.
I have written that I found my father dead when I was 17 years old. Very, very traumatic. But somewhere along the line I got to the point that I realize that that experience is part of what makes me who I am, and I don't mean in a negative sense. Having had that experience makes me have a greater compassion for someone else who goes through the experience of losing a loved one from their daily life.
I also was the one who went into the nursing home and found my mother in a coma from which she never awoke. She died 3 1/2 days later. I spent time with my brother Ben in his last week of life and was there when he breathed his last. When our beloved Aunt Bertha died so tragically in Mississippi, it was Glenn and me who arranged for her second funeral here in Pennsylvania. In the few days between her death and funeral, Ken lost his job of 25 years.
Trauma? Yes. I know others have faced much worse in their lives. But we all have had experiences that have been rough and we got through them with God's help and other's help. We learned a lot, and carry that knowledge with us wherever we go. We are victors because we have been able to move forward. Victims just stay in a rut and commiserate.
I have a favorite poem about weaving. Roger Smith quoted this at Quakertown convention a long time ago, and ended up posting a copy of it on a tree there! I have also seen the poem on a brochure for a weaving place that I used to go to for some supplies in Smicksburg, PA. I am typing it from memory, and hopefully have it close.
My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me.
I cannot tell the colors
That He worketh steadily.
Sometimes He worketh sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper,
And I, the under side.
Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will the Lord unroll the pattern
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads were as needful
In the weaver's skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
This poem helps me to understand that all these things are just part of our life's experineces, and work beautiful things into the pattern of our lives.
So, what is your philosophy on your life's experiences?
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