My cousin Ted turned 76 today. No, that's not Ted in the picture. It looks more like me, except that I can still stand up straight and I'm not nearly that skinny — yet. I'm working on it, but it's coming pretty slow. There was a day when I believed that anyone past thirty was over … Continue reading How did I get so old, so fast?
elderly
Old age is not a disease
I had a birthday a couple of years ago. They come every year, for me as for most people, but this was the one that marked me definitively as being an old man. I told my family and friends that I did not want anyone telling me that I was 70 years young. I was … Continue reading Old age is not a disease
Doctrines of the humanist religion
1. Nothing is real that cannot be understood by the human mind. People choose to believe in spirits, magic, witchcraft, astrology, scientific theories or various "holy books." These are merely attempts to fit all things seen and experienced into a framework that appears to give a logical explanation for every detail and event. I may … Continue reading Doctrines of the humanist religion
Precious memories
My mother died seven years ago today, December 31, 2006 at 9:00 p.m. If she had lived another 18 days, she would have been 99. Not that I would have wished another 18 days for her just so she could reach that landmark. She began to show signs of dementia in her early nineties and … Continue reading Precious memories
God’s way is still best
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). Progress and family have never been very compatible. The economic development of the U.S. south depended on capturing large numbers of African people, who knew more about raising cotton than the plantation owners, bringing them to America and treating them as … Continue reading God’s way is still best
Three old men and a teenaged girl
We moved into the Ontario village of Fullarton when our daughter was ten years old. The village was located at the crossroads of two county roads and contained twenty-seven houses. There were a few families with children, but many of those houses were occupied by old people who lived alone, widows, widowers and bachelors. In … Continue reading Three old men and a teenaged girl
Dementia
There are things that I wish that I would have understood better when my parents were suffering with dementia. Above all, I wish I could have understood that even though their personalities had changed and their memories seemed to be gone, the father and mother that I had once known were still there, though unable … Continue reading Dementia
Courtesy
Courtesy and courtship are derived from the same root word and both convey the idea of trying to please someone else. All other things being equal, the business that will thrive is the one that greets and serves its customers with genuine warmhearted courtesy. On a trip some years ago, we stopped for gas around … Continue reading Courtesy
Here and there
Tomorrow is our anniversary and I am taking my wife out to dinner in a restaurant that opened just one week ago. The restaurant is in Moose Jaw, the city where our married life began 43 years ago. One of my cousins and his wife will meet us for dinner, we plan to visit two … Continue reading Here and there
In memory of Mauvereen
Uncle Gary is my mother’s second youngest brother, the last one still living of a family of fourteen. He will be 90 in August. My grandparents were members of a small congregation of Sommerfelder Mennonites in southwestern Saskatchewan that was somewhat isolated from other Mennonite communities. They spoke Plautdietsch and English at home; the church … Continue reading In memory of Mauvereen
Flatlander Faith 