My brother-in-law passed away from a huge heart attack. He was younger than I am. His mother has now survived two of her children's and her husband's passing.
He lived a hard life for most of his years but was both gentle and quite competent. He was soft spoken and quite willing to speak. Thank goodness he was also eclectically knowledgeable. Perhaps the reason he was is that he interspersed his conversations with lots of questions, inviting the people he was conversing with to share their knowledge.
Due to the circumstances of his life, he was living with his mother. Just before his passing he had come home from a job and told her he loved her. (This is a lesson for us all and reminds me to let my family and friends know how much I care for them every chance I get just in the off chance that I won't get another one.)
I was not at the memorial service his close family had for him but his sister shared this eulogy with me:
"We thought we'd share with you what Tom read to us on his last Friday at lunch. I had no idea that he'd just read his eulogy to Mom and me. He said, 'I really like this and it's me. I have the right ticket.' Life has been hard for Tom because of the choices he made in his life, but we're thankful he listened and soaked in salvation from preachers setting in his chair with Mom listening to TV with her in the evenings and from going to church at St. Mathias. Just reading this piece from the Daily Bread on 2/24 that he thought fit him, les us know he's home safe with the Lord."
"Read: Matthew 16:21-28"
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? -Matthew 16:26"
"[At an exhibit of artifacts from the] infamous Titanic voyage, exhibit visitors were given a replica ticket with the name of an actual passenger or crew member who, decades earlier, had embarked on the trip of a lifetime. After the tour group walked through the exhibit viewing pieces of silver dinnerwar and other artifacts, the tour ended with an unforgettable twist."
"A large board listed the names of all the passengers, including their status--first class, second class, crew. As my friend looked for the name of the person whose ticket he was holding, he noticed a line across the board dividing the names. Above the line were the names of those who were 'saved' and below the line all those who were 'lost.'
"The parallel to our life on earth is profound. It really doesn't make any difference how the workld ranks your status. The only thing that ultimately matters is whether you are 'saved' or 'lost.' As Jesus said, 'What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?' (Matt. 16:26)."
"Perhaps you've already trusted in Christ for your salvation. But what about your fellow passengers? Instead of sizing them up by the externals, talk to them about their ultimate destination."
"It's not what I achieve that qualifies,
It matters not if I gain wealth or fame;
The only thing I must be certain of
Is 'Have I put my trust in Jesus' name?' -Hess"
"In light of eternity, what one believes is far more important than what one achieves." [-Daily Bread]
"Tom knew this was for him. God is faithful...all the time."
"Blessings to you all - Tom's Family
March 12, 2011"
I'm sure my in-laws would have chosen a longer life for Tom had they a choice but they have a measure of peace because of Tom's recent choices, including what they used in his eulogy above.
Rest in peace, Tom.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Why is it?
With still more to write in the "Living Memories Tour," I stopped writing anything else and wasn't writing that either. Sometimes that just happens when life starts truly happening again.
There is a lot to the saying "Those who can't do, teach," but the cause effect is twisted. I've been teaching the last few months and what with preparing for classes, participating in "other duties as assigned," and particularly the endless grading, I haven't had time to "do" much else.
What else I have been doing, if I ever get around to writing about it, could be the theme of yet another blog but for this one, let me just say that it has taken me to Ohio, particularly Gahanna, Ohio, repeatedly over the same period of time that I've been teaching.
In fact, it is the most recent drive back from Gahanna that inspired this blog entry.
I don't know whether it is just Ohio drivers or the fact that cars just move faster on relatively straight dual lane highways but I never seem to have problems with slow drivers until I get to WV 47. Now most non-expressway roads in WV follow the curves of the hills, or worse the waterways and sometimes both. In fact, the straightest sections of most of these roads are generally the ones that go straight up or down one of those hills but on the other side, it's usually back to the curves.
All of this just means that you expect to go slower on these roads, at least around the many curves. But tonight, in the dark, I got behind a car that appeared to be carrying eggs, loose, not in cartons. I say this because the this car started out very slowly from the last stop light, where I had the misfortune to catch up with it, and never got up to the approved speed limit. (I assume this was because the driver didn't want to slow too abruptly for the next curve because of all those loose eggs.) Unfortunately, this was on the parts of WV 47 in Wood and Wirt County before the curves have suggested speeds of 20 to 35 MPH, the stretch of road that I could make good time, if I weren't behind the egg car.
At the light I wasn't directly behind it. There was another car between us. It took this car all of 500 yards to pass the egg car and it's driver didn't even wait for the dashed lines. I was too far back to take advantage of the next set of dashed center lines and then there just didn't seem to be any--for miles.
While I've driven this road several times since I started teaching and know it well, I generally plug in my Garmin to give me an estimated arrival time. All while I was trapped behind the egg car, I could see my estimated arrival time creep up--by minutes, which made the time I was trapped seem like hours.
To top it off, the car is riding the center line, which makes it even more difficult for me to look ahead and see whether or not there are some dashes in my immediate future. Finally, by creeping even further into the oncoming lane than the driver ahead of me, I saw some dashed lines. What does the egg car do? It speeds up. The only time it approached the speed limit was when I could have passed. My 2001 Ford Ranger XLT on its best day could not build up passing speed and catch up in the time the lines were available so I stayed behind it still longer.
Finally, there were some dashed lines up one of those hills. I floored the accelerator. I passed the egg car! By the time the egg car crested the hill behind me I was already so far in front and around some curves that I wouldn't have been able to see its headlights, which was good. I would have hated to see them turn off behind me.
There is a lot to the saying "Those who can't do, teach," but the cause effect is twisted. I've been teaching the last few months and what with preparing for classes, participating in "other duties as assigned," and particularly the endless grading, I haven't had time to "do" much else.
What else I have been doing, if I ever get around to writing about it, could be the theme of yet another blog but for this one, let me just say that it has taken me to Ohio, particularly Gahanna, Ohio, repeatedly over the same period of time that I've been teaching.
In fact, it is the most recent drive back from Gahanna that inspired this blog entry.
I don't know whether it is just Ohio drivers or the fact that cars just move faster on relatively straight dual lane highways but I never seem to have problems with slow drivers until I get to WV 47. Now most non-expressway roads in WV follow the curves of the hills, or worse the waterways and sometimes both. In fact, the straightest sections of most of these roads are generally the ones that go straight up or down one of those hills but on the other side, it's usually back to the curves.
All of this just means that you expect to go slower on these roads, at least around the many curves. But tonight, in the dark, I got behind a car that appeared to be carrying eggs, loose, not in cartons. I say this because the this car started out very slowly from the last stop light, where I had the misfortune to catch up with it, and never got up to the approved speed limit. (I assume this was because the driver didn't want to slow too abruptly for the next curve because of all those loose eggs.) Unfortunately, this was on the parts of WV 47 in Wood and Wirt County before the curves have suggested speeds of 20 to 35 MPH, the stretch of road that I could make good time, if I weren't behind the egg car.
At the light I wasn't directly behind it. There was another car between us. It took this car all of 500 yards to pass the egg car and it's driver didn't even wait for the dashed lines. I was too far back to take advantage of the next set of dashed center lines and then there just didn't seem to be any--for miles.
While I've driven this road several times since I started teaching and know it well, I generally plug in my Garmin to give me an estimated arrival time. All while I was trapped behind the egg car, I could see my estimated arrival time creep up--by minutes, which made the time I was trapped seem like hours.
To top it off, the car is riding the center line, which makes it even more difficult for me to look ahead and see whether or not there are some dashes in my immediate future. Finally, by creeping even further into the oncoming lane than the driver ahead of me, I saw some dashed lines. What does the egg car do? It speeds up. The only time it approached the speed limit was when I could have passed. My 2001 Ford Ranger XLT on its best day could not build up passing speed and catch up in the time the lines were available so I stayed behind it still longer.
Finally, there were some dashed lines up one of those hills. I floored the accelerator. I passed the egg car! By the time the egg car crested the hill behind me I was already so far in front and around some curves that I wouldn't have been able to see its headlights, which was good. I would have hated to see them turn off behind me.
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