Today is Thursday, January 17, 2013. My stats today: 10 minuted of yoga, 10 minutes on the exercise ball and 47 minutes of walking = 2.6 miles for a January total of 35.6 miles. My weight was 164.4 pounds.
QUOTE from Joseph Jefferson: "We are but tenants and shortly the great Landlord will give us notice that our lease has expired."
My THOUGHTS today. My brother Paul's lease expired. Paul passed away on Tuesday, January 15, at 6:50 PM in a Modesto, California hospital. He was 85 (would have been 86 on March 20). He leaves behind wife Nellie. daughter Kim, grandsons Matthew and Javon, sister Jan and brothers Don, Jim, John, Mark and me Pete. And of course all the in-laws: Joan (Don), Don Blattie (Jan), Verleen (Jim), Marlys (Chuck), Ruth Ann (Pete), Lorna (John), and Marge (Mark). Plus many nieces and nephews. to numerous to name.
Paul is the fourth sibling to pass. Sister Karen died of heart trouble in her first day of life in May of 1944, sister Betty died in November of 2007 from ovarian cancer, brother Chuck died of a stroke in June, 2012. I'm not sure what the doctors will say was the cause of Paul's death. I do know he had been going down hill for several years and was getting weaker and weaker.
Losing two brothers is seven months is hard to take. At Chuck's funeral in June I remember talking to brother-in-law Don and he said, "There are going to be a lot more of these in the years coming up." How true. The six of us left are ages 82, 79, 78, 72, 70 and 66. And the in-laws are similar ages.
Paul had a good life. He truly enjoyed being a Lutheran minister. He had about 80 good years, the last five were a downhill slide. At Paul's retirement party at our house in Anamosa in 1992 all eight of us kids roasted Paul real good. Tons of stories were brought up about our memories of Paul. One of the things I said that night was: "Paul, I remember when I was at ages 7-8 and you were around 21-22 and we would sit on the front porch of our house in Mantorville and you would always ask me this question: 'Pete, do you think you will ever amount to anything?'" I told Paul I hope I get a passing grade. We had so many laughs that night - it was one of the most happy and memorable family nights the nine of us kids ever had.
Paul was special to Ruth Ann and me. He married us at Root Prairie Lutheran Church in Foutain, Minnesota on June 18, 1960. He married Brad and Inge on October 18, 1986 and he married Carron and Dean on May 2, 1987. Both Brad and Carron were married at St. Paul Lutheran Curch in Anamosa, Iowa. Ruth Ann and I were also sponsors for grandson Matthew in 1991. And Ruth Ann and Paul were very close. They had this running discussion every Christmas when they would ask each other if they had gotten their Christmas present. Of course, neither one ever sent a gift - they always blamed it on the Pony Express being too slow. If was funny to hear those two go at it.
Paul is being cremated and there will be a special memorial service this summer for him at West St. Olaf Lutheran Church near Oslo, Minnesota - less than a mile from the farm where he was born. It was his boyhood church where he was baptized in 1927 and confirmed in 1941. His daughter Kim told us last night that she will scatter some of his ashes around West St. Olaf after the service.
Paul, you will be missed. God Bless and Rest in Peace.
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