I have spent a lot of time visiting people in several area hospitals over the past several weeks. All of them were surrounded by family and close friends. However, I could not help but notice very elderly people in the Intensive Care Unit and in semi-private rooms who appeared to have no one outside of the hospital staff attending to their needs. Some of them appeared so frail and vulnerable. Where are their loved ones? I thought to myself. I…
I find a lot of status updates of facebook mildly amusing. Others cause me to just shake my head. And some are just outright funny. I read one last night that had my full attention. A friend put posted a picture of her father, and below it she commented: Missing You Dad (: You see…her father is deceased. I know, because I officiated at his funeral. Bob was a retired troooper with the Texas Dept. of Public Safety. He was…
I arrived at the my morning hang out, The firehouse Cafe’ a little earlier than usual one day last week. It afforded me some time to catch up with Angela, who owns and manages our favorite little morning eating establishment. As I took my place on a bar stool at the counter and sipped on the first cup of coffee of the day, I could tell she was agitated about something. Do I dare ask? I thought to myself. The…
Several years ago I had a very interesting conversation with my 90 year old aunt, who lives in Florida. Prior to that conversation we spent a couple of days together retracing the early married years of my parents. I actually got to stand in the church sanctuary, where my mother and father exchanged wedding vows in 1950. She showed me the neighborhood where they lived in Jacksonville, FL.As my aunt and I enjoyed fresh seafood, I got to hear the…
I have been interested in dramatic reading, community theatre, and the like for many years. I played the stage manager in the classic Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. The role of the crusty gardener in The Secret Garden fit me a little too well, I am afraid. I even got be the villain in a melodrama put on for a dinner theatre one year. Kids at church camp used to beg me to share my Mitchell Bear stories. Those yarns…
I am very suspicious of simplistic formulas. Take this pill and you will lose 20 pounds in a week. Buy this program and you will be fluent in Spanish in a matter of months. Spread this on your lawn and you will be an instant nominee for yard of the year in your community. And the list goes on… But I heard a simplistic formula a funeral yesterday that actually made sense. The person eulogizing Roy Castles, who died just…
Monday afternoon one of co-workers lost her father. He died very suddenly and unexpectedly. I did not know him well, but I always appreciated the brief interchanges we would have occasionally. And I knew him by reputation as well. He was highly respected in this area. As I sat with the family in the tiny family room adjacent to the ER, an interesting fact about his life was revealed. It was his habit to pray the following prayer everyday: “Lord,…
I have a great hair stylist. And by the way, that is the correct way to address an individual in that particular profession. They are indeed called hair stylists. I used to get Bubba down at the barber shop to cut my hair. I am not sure what I am supposed to call Bubba, but hair stylist for some reason just does not fit. My stylist has other professional talents too. It was in the context of a discussion about…
I have been intrigued by the study of generational differences for a long time. The values and lifestyles of the GI Generation, those who lived through the depression and World War II, are obviously very different from young adults in their 20’s. There is on going dialogue about the generation gulf that separates adults of different ages. I see it in a church setting every week. Young adults in their 20’s and 30’s have a very different set of desires…
A number of years ago my mother gave me the kitchen table that our family ate meals on back in the 1950s’ and 1960’s. I was not around in the ’50’s to enjoy those meals, and for me some of the fellowship around the table was spent in a high chair in the ’60’s. It was a drop leaf table that was actually very nice when it was new. By the time it was passed on to me, there were…