Cerwin’s sister Doris emailed us on September 15 (which would have been Mother High’s 104^th birthday) to ask if we would consider calling her brother John, in Mother’s honor. Mother and John were only 18 months apart in age and have always been good friends – especially in Mother’s later years when they both lived at Landis Homes Retirement Community and their spouses were gone to Heaven.

We called Landis Homes to see if it was possible to visit him, which we thought might be easier than calling him, plus, we owed him a visit. ? COVID has limited visits in the past year and a half. We learned that we needed an appointment, so made it for 1:00 PM on the 16th.

We were told which door to enter and then to check in with the person at the desk. She found our name in her appointment list and directed us to a room where there is a kiosk for registering and answering COVID questions. After the questions, the machine printed a name tag sticker which we were to place somewhere on our upper body clothing. It was quite easy.

John has aged since we saw him – before COVID.

He is 105 and 9 months and is hard-of-hearing and cannot see well.

He couldn’t make out who we were by sight, nor after we rather loudly said our names a few times. I reverted to, “You remember your sister Ella?” He said, “Yes.” Cerwin said, “I am Ella’s son, Cerwin.” John, smiled and said, “Yes. Yes. I know you, Cerwin. Then looking at me, he said, “and your name is Doris, correct.”

Cerwin reminded him of some of his trucking experiences. He said, “That was a long time ago.” He had a coal business.

I asked if he could recite any Bible verses.

He repeated: Romans 8:1 word-for-word. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

When I told him about a 92 year old preacher who was interviewed and asked, “What was the most important subject on which you ever preached?” He walked up to the pulpit and sang “Jesus Loves Me.” When I finished the story, Uncle John sang:

Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so; little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.

He used to be a really good singer and still can carry a tune quite well.

He was fun to visit, but we had to repeat ourselves many times when asking questions.

He also repeated himself many times, saying:

“I can barely see and I don’t hear very well, but it could be worse. I don’t have any pain.”

One time he said, “It could be worse.” In Pennsylvania Dutch. 🙂

We are grateful to Cerwin’s sister Doris for giving us the “push” we needed to visit him.