A Life Well Lived, Part B, C, & D - Bible, Chainsaw, & Dunkin' Doughnuts

Reflections through the alphabet in memory of my Dad. [The Introduction and Part A are here.]

B – Bible.  I have a very vivid picture in my mind of my Dad sitting at his desk early in the mornings. When I visited over the last several years, I would come up the steps from the guest bedroom in the basement. In the morning, I always tip-toed because most likely he would be in his office at the top of the stairs reading his Bible (with his back to the open door). After Mom died, he read her Bible instead of his, because she marked it prolifically and that was a tie to her. Thank you Lord that my Dad loved your word and lived it too.

C – Chain Saw. When you live in the country, you grow up with different things than kids do in the city. As a young girl, I thought every home had a chain saw out in the shop, and probably a yellow McCullough one at that. Expeditions to saw wood in our woods included all of us kids to load the logs into the wagon or pick-up and unload it into neat stacks back at the farm house. When I was a nine or ten, I didn’t think that was so fun, or certainly didn’t realize it was a time for the family to bond.

Of course, upon reflecting as an adult, I realize that providing heat for the home was only one benefit of that shared chore. Thank you Lord that Dad knew how to use a chain saw and knew how to teach his children to work together toward a common goal that included caring for hearth and home.  

 

Bringing in a load of wood with the eldest grandson, Jeremiah

D – Dunkin’ Doughnuts. My mother loved Dunkin’s Doughnuts. Two incidents in that regard stand out in my memory. One was when they visited us in Harrisonburg. After I left for work one morning, Mom told Dad they were going to “that restaurant we drove by on the south side of town that has Dunkin’ Doughnuts.”

Dad chuckled telling me that story in the evening, as he said it was a gas station/convenience store. Mom insisted they have the coffee and doughnuts inside, so he took her oxygen tank inside and they sat at the one scrappy little table in the corner. She enjoyed it immensely, saying the doughnuts were “delish!”

Another time, on a Sunday morning after Sunday School, Mom heard the newly formed Praise Band warming up. (My parents were choir and organ people, and this new development was not their cup of tea.) As they left their Sunday School class she whispered to Dad that she was hungry for Dunkin’ Doughnuts and coffee. Maybe they could make a quick dash to the local DD bakery and be back in time for the sermon.

They missed all the service music, but Dad said the doughnuts and coffee were hot and sweet and maybe the Lord understood. Thank you, Lord, that my Dad loved my Mom so much that he went out of his way to bring her enjoyment in her declining years.

MUSIC LINKS

Prelude, Op.18, César Franck – with photos of my parents, and some of my mother’s Bibles.


Here's a link to the next part in this series of essays A LIFE WELL-LIVED