Wow. What a week. Early Monday morning I received a call that a sister in our ward, Loretta Scott, had passed away during the night at her home. Over the past several years, I had grown close to Loretta, and to her daughter Karen who lived with her, so I was sad to hear this news. We did her funeral at the church on Wednesday, so it was a busy couple of days getting ready.
On Tuesday, I was at the hospital visiting a member who was in critical care, and it looked like she might not make it. As I was finishing my visit, a nurse came in and asked if I could come help a lady whose husband was also in critical care and would soon pass away. The nurse thought I was the on-call minister at the hospital that night. Of course I wasn't but I offered to help anyway. I went in and had a prayer with the wife of Lowell Clark, a man I never knew but who passed away within minutes while I was still there trying to comfort his companion. In a strange way, I was grateful to have been there to help her. Maybe it was good karma too -- the sister I was actually at the hospital to visit has since enjoyed a miraculous improvement, and may even get to go home soon.
On Friday, I received a call that a very dear brother in the ward, a man who has in the past served as bishop, and as counselor in the Pittsburgh stake presidency, had fallen ill with infection following a surgery. He was in intensive care at a hospital in Pittsburgh. I had planned to try to take a motorcycle ride with a friend from the ward that afternoon, so we rode into the city to give a blessing. Joanne came too and we were grateful for decent weather for the ride. This brother has since recovered and returned home.
Saturday brought a break and finally, some fun. The farm where the girls and I work during the summer had their annual year-end picnic. We always eat good farm food and have a blast. This year we took turns launching green tomatoes into the pond with a giant slingshot. Here's one of Madeline's turns.
Here's Emily with a mega-launch. She was one of only two kids to launch a green tomato all the way over the pond.
After the farm party, we had a ward party. The ward has a tradition that goes back over 40 years. Each fall, at one of the farms owned by a member family, the Washington Ward has had a fall hayride and bonfire. Church regulations have since killed off the hayride part, but we have kind of re-invented the activity as a ward service project and bonfire. For service this year, we had ward members donate toiletries and assembled them into hygiene kits for the womens' and homeless shelters in our area. Here's Emily with her hot dog roasting stick.
A bunch of our ward members around the bonfire. You can see a mix of clothing -- sweatshirts on some, shorts on others. Fall is definitely here.
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