Monday Morning Musings

Posted on January 22, 2018 under Monday Morning Musings with no comments yet

Just another day in paradise shoveling snow

 

Is it possible to bottle affection?  In the span of two days last week, I attended the biggest wake and funeral in my lifetime. Was it for someone rich and famous? A politician? A rock star? A professional athlete earning gazillion dollars?

No. It was for one of the meekest and kindest human beings ever put on this planet. Make no doubt about it. There was an outpouring of grief for the loss of Bernie Vosman. But there was such joy and celebration of a life well lived. Everyone had a Bernie story… and a few “Bernieisms!”  For someone who couldn’t read or write, he certainly wrote a masterpiece in his 58 years on this earth.

Not surprisingly, the response I got to my tribute to Bernie received the biggest response… ever. I have posted 844 stories on my website over the past five years.  Bernie was a genuine superstar in the eyes of those who knew him. The only difference, is that Bernie didn’t have the inflated ego of people we consider superstars.

From Bernie’s obituary…. We know that Bernie would be pleased if, in his memory, people would follow his example of unbiased judgement and be good to one another.

St. Andrew’s rocks. So does Pomquet, Tracadie, Havre Boucher, Heatherton, Lochaber and several other small communities here and everywhere else in rural Canada. These places know how to host a crowd and treat people properly. With military precision, the women of the C.W.L. in St. Andrew’s hosted a lunch after Bernie’s funeral for a huge throng. It was amazing to see how they were able to feed so many, so quickly. So impressive.

RANT ALERT.

The people who should read this, won’t. So right off the bat, I’m preaching to the converted. And, at the same time, wasting my breath. A carefully chosen rant is therapeutic wouldn’t you say?  I went for my morning walk last week after a snowfall… not a major storm but enough that the crew at our apartment complex ( average age just north of 70 ) were out shoveling sidewalks and cleaning off cars in anticipation of the plow coming later to clean the parking lot.

And school was cancelled.

I was passing a house and the 80 something owner was out labouring with shovel in hand. I happen to know that his wife has been in poor health and there is a good chance that he was taking her for a medical appointment. I asked him how he was. “Terrible” was his response. I passed many other driveways and everyone who was shovelling was old.

And where were the young people who could make a buck and perhaps do something for senior citizens? Probably in bed, “with visions of computer games dancing in their heads. “ I don’t want to tarnish all young people with the same brush but I hear this lament repeatedly. Yeah, yeah, I know. Kids are different today but not going out and helping other people (especially old people) after a storm is indefensible. ( With apologies to the handful that do help out ).

There. I feel much better and will now dismount from my high horse.

I have been to a lot of cafés in my lifetime but not a “death café.” My curiosity was piqued when I saw a promo for a death café to be held at the library this past Saturday. I decided to attend. From what I could gather, it was an opportunity for people to come and discuss death openly, a subject that has been taboo in many cultures since time immemorial. And that’s precisely what it was. There was no formal agenda and certainly no hidden agenda by the organizers. It was simply an opportunity for people from many walks of life to discuss the many aspects of death and dying.

“Faces in the Crowd” will resume this Thursday.

I also have a great story coming up. Betty and I stopped by the Tall and Small for coffee on Saturday morning. We had coffee with two other women, one a retired nurse from St. Martha’s. She told us about something that happened in the old St. Martha’s a long time ago. It was hilarious. Keep your eye out for this one called “The Milk of Human Kindness.”

Have a great week.