heritage...

I went to the double furenral of my Grandpa's brothers. Roy H was 89 and passed 11ish PM on Monday. Elmer H was 92 and passed 10ish PM on Tuesday. Yes, they were close in there quiet way all their lives. Roy was a 'blue baby' and his heart was damaged. Roy never married and lived close or with Elmer all his life. They were the middle brothers.

I wanted to go to collect in my visual library and in my thoughts my history and my heritage. It is kind of like collecting the dots. There were black and white pictures of my Great Grandparents, Anna and Amos (I never met). Dad pointed out the fancy attire in there wedding picture and compared it to the plain attire at their 50th Anniversary photo. We wondered when this might have happened. They were of Mennonite faith and the clothes are plain. Their wedding picture reminded me of days depicted in Laura Ingals Wilder books. She wore the long skirt and the nice frilly white long sleeved top. He wore a dark suit with a tie. The Anniversary photo had him in a plain suit and her in a plain dress typical of what the Mennonites use to wear. In another picture I could pick out Great Grandpa Amos because he looked exactly like my Grandpa but with white hair. In another photo there is this big white house with some people that look like the time era of the civil war. Dad has another photo of that house but he isn't sure who the people are or the time era. He thinks the woman sitting is his Great Grandma. Then there is another photo of with the Silver Beach lighthouse in the background. Why do I tell you this? Just interesting because in my Grandmother H's photos there is one with the backdrop of the Silver Beach lighthouse. I find it cool to think that a place I visited was visited by my past family. Makes me wonder what they were feeling and thinking.

I also got to collect some memories of Elmer and especially of Roy from their families and friends. My Grandpa was a verrrrrrry quiet man and so where his brothers. Walter, the youngest, probably was the vocal out of all of them. Roy intrigued me today because he was a loner and never married. His friend would get calls from nursing home saying that Roy isn't coming the game night. His friend would say 'that isn't his thing. He has his own projects and is busy. He is a loner and that is alright.' (Hmmm! You know what? That is encouraging. I know that I need people and I have finally learned how to engage them but so often I still end up feeling alone. Often, I find that I don't want to follow the crowd. I would rather enjoy someone without the chaos of the group.) In the final years both Elmer and Roy where in the same nursing homes. Elmer would visit Roy when Roy couldn't get around and Roy would visit Elmer when Elmer couldn't get around. If you would see them visit you woud find them just there. Very little words spoken if any. Roy was hard of hearing and Elmer could hardly speak. It was just PRESENCE! Isn't that something? Just enjoying each other's presence. Elmer had already thought Roy had died when they took him to the hospital. Elmer had looked out for his brother all his life. They were the last two of the family. Elmer knew it was time. He was going HOME right behind his brother Roy.

One other thing about Roy... his way of Bible Study was like mining words. He would go through the Bible and count up how many times a word was repeated. He did it on scraps of paper but oh, if you could have bound that up in a notebook! I would have loved to have gone through it! Maybe along my journey I can try that...

There was one thing that I thought was interesting and I want to do for my own funeral. There was a reading of the obituaries. Dad said that the Mennonite faith does not believe in eulogies so they do obits instead. I like the reading of the obits because if you are not close to the family you can get a bigger picture of their history. Plus, each person is a book or a story and this fills in the blanks so to speak. I want to write one for myself to remind myself Who my Author is and the dream seeds He placed in my heart. It would be a way to give back to God and for me to keep growing in His plan for me...