Lola

What can you do when you have a wedding coming up in Minnesota, and a gramma living in Bryant, South Dakota who isn't feeling well?
Take a day and go out and see her!
So that is what we did, left on a Friday night after work and went to see my 97 year old grandma...
Lola Bernice LaBore Fisher.
She didn't have a whole lot to say...
but sometimes
a picture paints a 1,000 words
and there is no need for speech -
and sometimes
all you can do is touch in silence
and LOVE.

The God Parents

I remember living with Doug and Linda and babysitting for Brenda when I was 19. My mom and dad had went to Lavern for a little visit. I was sitting with Brenda and I went into the bathroom. When I came out there was water all over...
and more water...
and it didn't quit?
I had no idea what was happening so I called Linda at work. Thank you Lord that Linda had two children and knew exactly what was wrong... my water had broke - it was time for birth even though it wasn't time.
We went to the Arlington Hospital and there they decided to transfer me to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. This baby wasn't due until October 8th and it was August 7th, 1980. Linda rode with me in the ambulance and got a hold of my mom and dad. I don't remember one bit being afraid - well, why would I be? I had Linda with me!
My water had indeed broke and then you have to give birth within 24 hours in order to not risk infection to mother and baby. I don't remember a lot of details but I do remember that when we had Emily Jo baptized, Linda and Doug were the God parents. They had been there for me at a time when no one else really could. Through the years Linda and Doug gave such loving care to my family and always treated Emily Jo as if she were a princess...
and indeed she was a princess...
a princess of the most High King!
Thank you to Linda and Doug for always being there with such love and care, for always being a part of our lives! I love you more than you will ever know.
And now - 30 years later, here is Linda...
holding the princess's princess -
and the circle of life continues.

Lord, please bless these special people and their family.
They have been our friends sense I was a young girl.
They have stood beside our family as if they were our own...
laughed with us, shared much joy...
and helped us to carry our burdens.
They say a grateful thought towards Heaven is the most complete prayer.
Lord, I send you a grateful thought...
I am so -thankful for Linda and Doug and their family!
Amen!

Can you give me a C?

I remember this day exactly... although I don't exactly remember the date. I know that Carol took off from her work to come to our "CLOWNING AROUND" day at my work. She came into my office and handed me a blown up rubber glove and said "here, let me give you a hand with that!". Well, we hadn't even began and I was laughing so hard I needed a bathroom, stat! We each had our costumes ready to go and thank-goodness we thought we were funny as you never know how these things will go over!
Down the hall through the chapel and into the atrium we came on our bicycle built for two. (We borrowed this from Carol's sister Jeannie - and it was a perfect old bike with a rubber horn and a wicker basket!) What more could two clowns ask for?
As we were driving our bike with me in the front, we stopped on center stage and sang a few bars...

DAISY DAISY GIVE ME YOUR ANSWER DO...
I'M HALF CRAZY EVER SENSE I MET YOU...
THIS MIGHT NOT BE A STYLISH CARRIAGE...
I FOUND IT OUT IN THE GERAGE...
BUT WITH YOUR BIG FEET, YOU'LL LOOK SWEET ON THIS BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO!!

SUNFLOWER, SUNFLOWER, THIS IS YOUR ANSWER TRUE...
I'M ONLY CRAZY WHEN EVER I'M WITH YOU...
IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD A CARRIAGE...
THEN THERE WILL NOT BE A MARRIAGE...
AS WITH YOUR BIG SEAT, IT'S NOT A TREAT, TO SHARE YOUR BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO!!

After our song we told a few jokes, watched Gramps the clown blow up a few balloons, and then tried to play our instruments. This pictures shows us tuning up our guitars and kazoo's - I was asking Daisy to give me a C...
she had no idea what I was talking about so it was even more funny!
Well, she gave me a C
and as you can see
we truly think we are funny...
and it makes me think of our toast to the yellow boots... "May everyone think we are as funny as we think we are!"
Thank-you for this memory my friend!

LEMONADE STANDS!

She was probably about 9 when she first took her sisters to the corner of Hiway 5 and Baker Street. She set up the table and so artistically made the sign..

I know she is hoping people will see the three of them sitting there in front of "This Old House, Garden and Gifts"... she is hoping they will really want that lemonade that her and her sisters have made.
It is orange, the color of the pitcher they will make it in.

The three of them in the kitchen on Baker Street, mixing it up with just the right amount of sugar and love, adding ice cubes when they are done with the wooden spoon. It is pink, the color of little girls.

The three of them walking the short distance to the corner, Emily in the front, adding just the right amount of leadership to the mix as the neighbors join in.
It is red, the color of love.

The five of them setting up shop in front of this old house, Emily still leading the group and the rest of them watching her so closely - learning the tricks of the trade, learning how to be a leader, to mix, to bring people together.
It is purple, the color of friendship.

And now, many years later - my memories continue to blend together and yet there are so many vivid reminders of the days gone by. And I see my little girls, little girl making her way in the world...
It is green, the color of my mind.

Coloring...
Mixing lemonade...
Building friendships...

She is the color of the rainbow
She is my precious girl.

The three bears, another chapter.

There is a new thrift store in Foley! Emily has found quite a few great things already... it has been open three weeks, all those goods housed in the huge shed that had been called the "Cracker Barrell".
Tonight she calls me. She found Conner a dinosaur, it is about a foot high and it has blinking eyes and makes sounds when the batteries aren't dead. It has kept him busy for about 2 hours now and the stories that Emily has from those hours are hilarious. My favorite:
The dinosaur is at Conners feet, he is using his hands to regulate the body around the room. The dinosaur stops at the first little people and takes a bite...
"Oh this person is way to hot" - so he moves on to the next and takes a bite...
"Oh this person is way to cold" - so he moves on to the next and takes a bite...
"Oh this person is just right, I think I will eat the whole thing!"
and so
he eats the whole thing and runs off into the woods to find his family...
I wonder if Brokery is still living out there?

Sadness under the Oak Tree

When I would drive "airport road" I would always have a memory of a story that someone once told me. As the years had gone by I could not remember if it was true or if in my childish mind that is what I thought to be true. We lived on this road when I was about 10 years old and stayed there until I was 16. The farm site was owned by Floyd Boerner, and people in town called it "Boerners Hills". The drive way was a mile long with a curve to the North as you got up by the house. It was a beautiful place with the creek running along the whole piece of land and many hills for sledding. It had a huge red barn (which was taken out in the tornado of 1984), a corn crib, chicken coop, and a white shed with a large retail sign on it. At one time this had been a working farm with many buildings that housed alot of machinery that worked the land. When we moved out there it came with a St. Bernard dog! It wasn't real long that we had him and then Floyd Boerner came to claim him. There was a huge windmill with a water pump under it. The farm was only about 2 miles from town, 3 if you counted the drive way! If you would turn right out of the drive and go towards Glencoe, you would first pass the creek going over a small bridge. As you kept traveling you would go past the Catholic Cemetery, a farm place owned by Kickers and then on the East side of the road... there was this memory that I would think about through the years. It was a small, very old Cemetery. I have never stopped there but it is close to the road. A large old Oak Tree with many arms reaches out in all directions. Under this spreading Oak tree just to the left is a large head stone, with 2 smaller stones to the left, and 2 on the right.

In my mind this is what I remember... someone told me that the big stone was a mother and that the 4 small stones were her kids. I hear in my mind that they were all killed by the father and that one boy lived, that is who puts the flowers by the stone every year... he lives somewhere by Stillwater. The family lived on a farm just 3 miles west of Arlington, just past a house that my mind tells me was the "old one room school house". The house they say it happened is the same house my fourth grade love lived, Nickey Flemming.

Years later when I was 37 years old I worked for an older couple who lived in Arlington. George and Eva where a fountain of knowledge of things that happened in Arlington over the years. George was born, raised, and raised his family all in the same town. He was about 90 years old when I was sitting at their Island in the kitchen, talking about memories. I searched in to the webs of my memory and told him about this story that I am not sure if I made up or if someone had told me. I told him about the headstones under the spreading oak - just North of the Catholic cemetery...
and I'll be...
if George didn't tell me the whole story, filling in all the spaces of a memory that I wasn't sure was real - making it seem as though it had just happened...
you see,
there was this farm just west of Arlington, it was the place right after the old one room school house that has been changed into a home. The family who lived there were all killed by the father except for one child. They say he had married the woman, she was a widow with 1 child and they had four together. She carried on and carried on to that man until he just couldn't take it anymore. One morning he made breakfast and called them all downstairs to come and eat it... as each one came down he shot them - only one escaped the bullets and that was her son by another man. He took off through the fields heading towards Glencoe, running north west through the plowed land. People soon found out what happened as the oldest son went to the neighbors to get help. The law found him just this side of the Brewery Road. He was taken to Henderson and that is were they hanged him for his crime... admitting his guilt, wanting to die for his sin, there was no trial... just a large spreading oak in the heart of Henderson, with a rope.

These kind of things didn't happen in Arlington. I remember the cop as I was growing up being one of my best friends grandpa. He was kind to everyone and there was never much reason for him to get his arms about him, people were good. I think of this family often... wondering if that boy is still living. Is he in Stillwater? As I look at the flowers that I know weren't there last spring.

Forever changed - another moment

He was going to be leaving LTC (Loving Tender Cares) and going home after 3 months of rehabilitation. I had seen him on and off... tall, slim, nice looking 97 year old. I never really knew quite what it was, but this man had a definite presence about him, something that made you stop and look at how you were living your life.
Isn't it funny, today, the day he is leaving for home - I happen to have a little extra time, he happens to be awake and in his room when I stop by.

"It looks like you have everything ready to go, I am happy for you, all has gone well here with your recovery from your fall... you get to go home!"
"I am looking forward to going home. This has been a wonderful place for me, but it is time, time for me to move on. The girls are taking my drivers license away from me... I am not sure that I like that... we will have to see how things go when I get home, I know I am 97 - but, I am still alive and well."
(he says this with an assurance that tells me that if he thinks he can drive he will be!)
There is time, the right words just seem to come to me at this moment.
"So, tell me Delbert, in your 97 years, what do you think is the most important moment in your life... the one you remember the most, the one that changed you?"

From this one question I get the most beautiful story I have ever heard.

It was when I was 23 years old. I was in the war and I was a bomber pilot. (He tells me a few stories and talks about General Patten and what a brilliant man he was.) One day I was in a city that had been bombed, we were looking it over to see what needed to be done - there was a smell in the air I couldn't quite describe. I asked the man who was with me what the smell was and he appeared to not hear me, or not to want to answer. We talked some more and walked, the smell becoming more intense. Again I asked "what is that smell?" What he answered with would change the course of my life forever. My friend told me it was the smell of the women and children who had been left in the city to hide before the bombing.
I stopped right where we were - standing in one place. I don't know how long it was maybe around 15 minuets or more - I was alone in this place and my life went before me - I believe God was there with me as I went through exactly what part I had played in this tragedy. When I came back to life, back to the town with the smell, I said "There must be another way". In that spot I dedicated my life to that other way. When I came back to the states I went to school and studied and became a minister. Dedicating my life and basing my ministry on that moment.

He gave me many details, telling the story in such a way that when he was done the tears forming in my eyes spilled onto my cheeks. I couldn't believe I was so blessed again, and got to be here, got to be a part of this story. I knew I needed to end our conversation, people would be wondering where I was. I ended by saying "Thank-you, I love that story, and yes, there must be another way..."

He looked at me with those beautiful 97 years, touched my hand and said "There IS another way."

I left that room, left that moment...
forever changed.

(Names and locations have been changed - these stories are true only in my mind)