Wednesday, January 29

Our day started by taking a large TFC mailing to the Lititz Post Office.

I was delighted to see the mules (Amish farm) as we traveled from the post office to where Cerwin’s mother lives.

I haven’t seen them since last fall.

Arriving at the retirement community.

My view of a sitting area window as I waited for Cerwin and Mother.

Our destination was Oregon Dairy Restaurant for the quarterly Sauder family luncheon.

Mother would be disappointed if none of us were available to take her out for this meal.

The Sauders are Mother’s siblings and their children.

It was a small group on this day – too many relatives are in Florida.

Mother was the only one of her siblings to be there. She has a sister and three brothers still living. John, Amos, and Naomi rarely leave the senior communities where they live due to health and advanced age, and I expect Luke and Willamae are in Florida.

There were three of Uncle Aaron and Aunt Edna’s daughters (Reba, Anna, Velma) and a son-in-law (Marvin), one of Uncle Roy and Aunt Alice’s daughters (Blanche), Mother, and Cerwin and me.

Sisters: Reba, Anna, and Velma

We had a delightful lunch and visit.

Afterward we took mother next door for groceries, and after taking her home, helped her put groceries away and read a few letters to her. (At 96 she no longer sees well enough to read letters.)

I needed to get my photo taken for my driver’s license, so this was our next stop.

No we did not have an accident and end up here!

Our friend and TFC chaplain’s wife, Nan, had fallen and broken a leg – requiring surgery – so we stopped in to visit.

(My cell phone photo)

Only if you know Bunny O’Hare (right), TFC’s Director of Pastoral Care for Chaplains, can you imagine the fun we had. (He and Peg were in the room when we arrived.)

While Nan was on the phone, Bunny put on a pair of latex gloves, then when she was finished with the conversation, he walked toward her and said, “I am Dr. O’Hare and am here to give you an enema!” 🙂

If laughter does good like a medicine, Nan’s bone healed a bit that afternoon.

Cerwin needed three socket adapters, so this is where we went after leaving the hospital.

I went to the store next door – because I didn’t need any tools.

I didn’t realize that they had a kitchen department, and was delighted to find a new jelly roll pan. My old jelly roll pan needed to go in the trash.

Cerwin made his tool purchase, then came here and found a pair of slippers. He had mentioned a few days earlier that his slippers needed to be replaced.

It was nice to have enough time to wander through the store, and then not feel rushed as we traveled through the busy, touristy area of Route 30 East – between Lancaster and Christiana, where we wanted to be by 6:00 p.m.

We stopped here – Shivery Funeral Home (internet photo – because I forgot to take a picture) – for the visitation/viewing of our trucker friend Harry Sensenig.

These moments in time are certainly not fun, but the family seemed to feel blessed that we took time to come.

Then it was time for supper.

After enjoying a delicious chicken sandwich, we worked our way back toward Lancaster and home – again through the busy Route 30 East area.

It was a very good day.