Memories

 "If you're going to the Post Office, check to see if my Past Book came in!" I called after Julie and Steve as they drove away. I had been looking for it any day, and wondered if it were lost or something. Waiting  patiently, I couldn't wait until they got home.

Then after a while suddenly at the door in the rain was granddaughter Sarah, carrying a puffy water-proof bag tied with a knot slipped over her arm.

"It's your book!" she exclaimed.  "It was hanging on the mail box in the bag because it was too big to fit inside!"

I had surmised that, the reason I had worried about the mail delivery.  I couldn't wait to remove the cardboard packaging to look inside.  I knew by the thin book it would not be thick like my other Past Books, but I couldn't wait to see the pictures!

There they were, with kids eating at the picnic table on the porch and flashing mug shots at the camera.  It was a few days after Howard's surprise birthday party, and he sat amiably at the kitchen table, smiling at the kids and their antics.  All the Happy Birthday cards were still taped to the door where I had put them.

A few days later, granddaughter Bethany appeared, manipulating Howard's wheel chair and getting him into the car.  "We're going to Troyers!" she exclaimed.  It is a huge, rustic store specializing in great lunches wrapped in butcher paper, not to mention their famous meat market and unusual products not found any where else.

Howard and I sat at an outside table where we ate our lunch.  I even had Bethany take a picture of us. Not a great shot of me, although I smiled cheek to cheek with him. The photo shows he was really not into it, and probably a little uncomfortable. Howard only ate part of his sandwich. 

I still pore over the book, even though he is gone now. I treasure a remarkable portrait on  the first page  of Howard behind the pulpit at our church, his arm lifted high in preaching and an open Bible in his other hand, the leaves fluttering open from where he would take his text, not long before he would take his heavenly flight.