Serve by Design

I stood in the driveway of Dad’s auto repair shop the day he confronted a gentleman representing the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Dad informed the man he was not interested in any such membership even though the fellow said it would only cost around $5.00 for three years. Dad ended the conversation that day by saying, “I’ll give you the five dollars if you’ll get off my driveway. I’ve got work to do!” Floating in the Dead Sea! Image credit: pixabay.com That terse response may have been what further emboldened Dad’s lifetime attitude about aging, “I ain’t old!” And he meant it! He was still showing up at the shop on this ninety-fourth birthday when I pulled up to get him to head out to our favorite restaurant for a barbecue baby back rib dinner! Over the years, we had used his birthday and mine as an annual occasion for such a celebration! I just celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday over a recent weekend that included some of my other favorites that I don’t get too ...

  I learned last week that they are tearing down the old Greer Hospital in Vandalia that was built in 1925. This is where I was born in 1951. For the last years it has served as an annex and professional building adjacent  to the main hospital. This will "pave the way" (literally!) for a parking lot expansion on the property. I first heard of the demolition from my dad and then read around the subject in the local Vandalia paper online. Surprisingly, the news of this change left me feeling a little nostalgic and depressed. Especially when you consider that the house where my ninety-one year-old dad was birthed is still standing! That doesn't seem fair!  Mark Greer Hospital Demolition Photo Credit: Kevin Keppler About three years ago, I remember walking with my grand daughter Chloe from my sister's house near the hospital over to the annex after the Thanksgiving meal that day. I wanted to show her the humble setting of my beginnings and to retell the story passed to me...

During a recent sermon on grief, our pastor mentioned something that I have been thinking about lately. He said, "Many of us grieve over an accumulation of losses in our lives." This past year, Monique and I have lost several of our Texas friends. Another precious one passed a couple of weeks ago. This is number four by my count. Each of these friends has left an indelible influence on our lives. As the pastor observed, I feel like there has been a heavy accumulation of grief and loss in the last couple of years. We knew this was bound to occur. After all, we are getting older, too! But, the frequency of loss over a relatively short duration of time has been surprising.  In my personal reflections, I took to the computer keyboard to make a list of some of the specific losses. At the top, I thought of the loss of my mother who passed two years ago on July 17th. Then, there was the grief over a church conflict in March 2019. Added to this was the diagnosis of prostate cancer in...