First time I went overseas I was instructed in the use of a journal. Someone told me that if you don’t keep a journal most of the things you remember never happened or at least not The way you think they did, and the things that happened will be distorted. My mother trying to keep her memories alive by keeping a journal was faithful.. Much of it is just commentary on the news, the weather and things going on among her friends and acquaintances. It’s fun to read but the last months were sad. You can see the decline in her memory. You can see the decline in her strength and the last entry before she went into the hospital was just a little scrawl next to the date.
Many of the things she recorded in her memories had to do with the gift of parents. The importance of the teaching the parents gave their children at home was evident and she tried to keep up that value in my brother and my lives. At the same time the importance of the children to parents was stressed as well. It is obvious that we were the center of their lives. My aunts told me that they went without a lot of things so that my brother and I would be dressed perfectly and I believe it. They made the statement that there was nothing they would not do for their kids.
Some thing has happened in the last couple of days and that is incredible damage done in Cedar Rapids Iowa. We don’t hear much about it because all we talk about is masks and the virus and all the news can talk about is the prattling if politicians. It is as if there is no world outside of Portland, Seattle, and New York City. We hear some news about what happens overseas in Hong Kong, or some other place where there was a disaster but we don’t hear about it for long. We pay attention to Cedar Rapids because the president is going there but I honestly don’t know how much more damage was done in the State. I know that LCMS disaster relief will be there and doing good work and I urge you to help as much as possible . But the reason this blog has taken such a strange turn is the fact that last week I had one of those memory jogs that sometimes takes us off into another world. I had left school in Fort Wayne Indiana and was heading back to Colorado and was stopped by a Patrolmen. He told me that I had a rear tail light out which was bad, but worse than that my license had expired and so had my plates. I explained my situation to him and he was very sympathetic but said I cannot allow you to drive that car. Finally after whining on my part he said that he was going to drive away and then he expected me to stay where I was for at least a half an hour. I was at a loss as to what to do until I remembered that one of my mothers sisters lived in Cedar Rapids. I wasn’t that far away and I drove into Cedar Rapids, found a payphone, called my aunt an she reminded me how to get to her house. Once at her place I called my parents. I expected to be chewed out but instead I found a family that very quickly mobilized to come to my aid. Both parents took time out of work, and they took my brother out of school so he could drive my car back for me. Rather than an unhappy frustrating mess in all or lives we had a nice relaxing vacation. My relatives genuinely seemed to enjoy seeing us and my parents were happy to be there. My brother was happy because was able to drive all the way home.
So Cedar Rapids has a place in my heart and wish they would get the disaster attention they need.
