Thankful Monday

I am thankful for surprise connections.

I have a Facebook account but I am definitely not a frequent poster--maybe once a year or so. However, that does not stop others from reaching out to become FB friends with me. I made one of these friend connections recently with Sam.

Sam was with me throughout most of our school years. While we were together in many of our elementary school classes, we went different ways as time progressed. If truth be told, I remember more about Sam in fifth grade drawing elaborate pictures of army tanks and airplanes than I do about him in high school. We probably had classes together, but I don't remember them.

Sam recently became a new grandfather to twin girls that he posted about on his FB page. He was quite proud and sent me a picture through Messenger as I'm sure he did many others. I made an appropriate one line comment about the babies and he replied with the standard, "What have you been up to?"

Then we chatted a bit and tried to catch up on the last 40 years. He asked me if  I had ever been to a Grateful Dead concert or to a biker rally. I answered no to both of those.  He said he had led an unfocused life and was now in constant pain from showing off too much in his younger years. We had pretty much led totally opposite lives. But that didn't seem to matter. We were still the friends we had been in fifth grade.

Then Sam said something that took me by surprise. He said that he had been blessed to get to know my father in his later years and he was a fine gentleman. He added, "He was so proud of you." I said that my father had set a good example for me and my sisters. And Sam said, "Obviously." After a few sentimental tears, I spent the rest of the day smiling about the chat I had had with Sam.

Many of the connections I make on Facebook are not much more than a distraction from other things I should be doing. But sometimes, there is a special moment like the one with Sam recently and for that I am thankful.

Connections

I'll written about this before--the many connections that seem to pop up when I visit my mother. She still lives in the small town where I grew up and when I visit, I always see someone or the other that I know. Let me put that differently. I always see several someones or the other that I know. It's all pretty interesting how it works out sometimes.

Ward's new knife is so sharp that it literally split a hair!

Last time I visited, I took my mother's watch to the jewelry store to be fixed. The owner was the cousin of one of my friends from school and as it turns out used to work with my father in the summers when he was in college. During the visit to pick up the watch (which he didn't charge for because he knew my mother), I met Ted who went to school with my sister. He was a master knife maker and had brought one in to show the owner of the store. During the course of the conversation, I told him how Ward would like to see his work. So he said next time we're in town, give him a call.

Well, I called him during this last visit and Ward spent the day with Ted making a knife. (Being the carnivore that he is, he made a meat carving knife.) Ward had a wonderful time and was very excited about the knife and learning about the process. He also related that Ted had had the same cancer that he had and that his mother had also been in the same facility that my mother is in. However, she had recently died at the ripe old age of 95. And for just one more connection, I told him I knew that because Ted's mother's room was the one my mother had just been transferred into. Such is the circle of life. And connections.

Christmas Visit--Part Two

Connections

Have you played the game of  Six Degrees of Separation where everyone can be related to someone else by six or fewer connections? Well, this past week while visiting my mother in her new extended care facility, it took many fewer than six tries to get a connection.  Being in a small town, you would expect some familiarity, but I didn't expect to see so many people that remembered me since I hadn't lived there for over 30 years. Here are some examples of the connections.

--The head nurse was someone I was in band with in high school. Hadn't seen her since then, but hugs were still given all around.

--Two other nurses and the ward clerk worked with my mother when she worked there 20 years ago.

--Next door to my mother was the mother of a friend from high school.

--Every time we were in the dining room, there was another connection from high school. Sometimes it was with me and sometimes with one of my sisters.

--My mother's roommate is the aunt of one of my good friends from high school. Unfortunately, we couldn't coordinate our visits to see each other. However, we had an interesting visit with her sister one day.

A couple tentatively came into the room and said, "You aren't Martha are you." I said no, that was my sister. She said she was Alice and was in school with Martha. We exchanged a couple more pleasantries and then she went on to visit her aunt.

After a few minutes, her husband came up and said that he was Frank, Alice's husband and gave us a big hug and wished us Merry Christmas. Then he said that he wasn't from around there and he was from another town. Well, one thing led to another and that was the town where my parents were born. Turns out that he grew up on a farm near my grandparents, worked 30 years with my uncle, and used to go rabbit hunting with my father. He also knew my mother when she was younger. That whole exchange was very interesting. The connection was supposed to be through his wife, but it turned out that we had more connections to him than anyone around. It was somehow comforting to find someone who knew my father as well as my mother from long ago.

--Another day while talking to another resident, Thelma, we found out that her uncle used to own the house we lived in and she told us a few stories about it. When I got home (my mother's house) later that day, I just happened to come across two utility bills for her uncle from 1946 when he owned the house. I don't ever remember seeing them and no one is quite sure where they came from. The theory is they must have surfaced when some remodeling was done a few years ago. However, it was pretty strange that I should find them in the back of a cabinet just a couple of hours after hearing Thelma's story. We took them to Thelma and she was happy to see this surprise connection to her past.

--Also, a couple of other hospital workers come to see my mother every day on their break. They were present day connections but they had their own set of connections to others just like we did.

While it was very interesting and fun to see all of these people, as an introvert, I found all of this very tiring. But it felt good knowing that there are many eyes keeping watch over my mother.

Unfortunately, out of respect for other's privacy, I can't share any of the pictures I took during my visit.