Carla and I made a day trip to Marshall MO - we lived there for 13 years, both girls went all through school there and graduated from Marshall High (Carla just returned from her 25th reunion - how could that possibly be?) Some special friends joined us at the country club for lunch and lots of visiting - all of these have very special connections to us and the friendships have been ongoing for many many years. The group included Sally & Scotty Campbell, Virgil & Nancy Rabe, Larry & Anita Wright, and Don & Norma Rutter. Wasn't that fun? The passing years have made the friendships stronger, and the stories seem to get bigger and better with each passing day. Thanks to all of you for all those memories!
There is a downside to all those passing years, and one of them is our former home on Brunswick St. in Marshall. This was a house where Jerry hung out often when he was a college student at Missouri Valley College and the house belonged to his buddy's grandparents during college days. We had some of the most fabulous times in that home - we put our heart, soul, sweat and blood into redoing the inside of the house. It was the setting of many many gatherings of these friends, our church family folk, the college youth (called Rap 'n Sing) which met every Sunday evening in our living room, the porch swing on the front porch where we spent every available moment, and on and on the list goes. Well, it is pitiful today...and nearly broke my heart.
The walls of that house are filled with lots and lots of love and laughter as well as tears and aches...and its falling apart.
But here is the only upside....when we lived here, the lot was pretty barren..and Jerry planted anything he could get his hands on. One of our college students came by one day with a tiny little sapling in a paper cup...it was growing up between the cracks in the sidewalk in front of Black Hall (then a men's dorm) and would be pulled out and destroyed, so he thought Jerry might like it. WOW!
Or the memories of this tree--Grandma Lucy, a precious dear oldster in our church family, wanted us to have a sycamore tree, so one day it was delivered to us and planted in this spot. Later, when we built the family room on the back of our house and opened up the kitchen, the room size was determined by what would fit without disturbing this tree or its root system! Just look at it now!
And then our favorite time at Carla's home - morning coffee (or it could be evening - we don't care when it is!) around her firepit on her back deck. Thank goodness for cooler weather so we can do this now. Its a joy to be this close to Kansas City and the opportunity for more time spent with Carla. In September I join her to host our PEO chapter at her house. Carla is the president of our chapter this year, so thats a special joy for her mama!
No comments:
Post a Comment