I hate to start out with another driving-in-the-driving rain story, but unfortunately, that's how my weekend started. I left Anthony and Lori's place around 4:00 on Friday afternoon and everything was fine for about the first hour and a half. Then, just as I got down to the area above Harrisburg where I cross over the Susquehanna River, it started raining HARD. I thought, "You have got to be kidding. Why do I always hit bad weather in this area??" I pulled over for a while, because I was afraid there might even be tornado warnings that I was unaware of, and I did not want to be on the bridge and get picked up and tossed into the river. I can't swim!! (Yes, that's what I was thinking!) It did not slow down, and no tornado came, so I pulled out and continued on my way. That crazy storm followed me almost the whole way to my brother's house in Lancaster County! I am not kidding! The worst was when I got into the heavy, Friday evening traffic around Harrisburg, which I hate anyway, only now made worse by driving rain. At one point I was in the far left lane because I would need to bear left after a while. The water must have been rather deep on the other side of the barrier, and every truck that approached threw water smack onto my windshield. It scared me every time, even though I knew it would happen. It was exhausting. I drove for over an hour like that. I was SO THANKFUL to finally arrive at Dick and Nancy's house!
Would you believe, after it rained for a while at their place, we looked outside and saw this! That was a nice omen for our weekend!
We were all there but Betty, who was driving from New Hampshire and did not arrive until nearly midnight. Barb was there from Idaho, Rose was there from Atlanta, and Mary Ellen, Doris, and I from PA. Dick and Nancy served us a meal of potatoes that had still been growing in their garden two hours prior (!!), corn that had come from their garden last summer, and ham and ham loaf, a very Lancaster County favorite. Everything was scrumptious.
We spent the evening sitting around looking at old pictures Mary Ellen had brought and catching up on things that had never made it to blogs or Facebook. Some things made us laugh, other things made us sad.
Of course we all kept our phones nearby too, but we're good at multitasking, LOL!
All the food we brought had to find a home in Nancy's kitchen or their shop fridge.
After Betty arrived (she had driven in a lot of stop-and-go traffic, sitting STILL for 30 minutes one time!) we slept in their lovely, spacious basement apartment. I cannot believe I never took one picture down there! We had a combination of bed, couch, and air mattresses.
Saturday morning was beautiful right from the start.
You can see my brother's shop, Witmer Automotive Service, on the left. I liked Nancy's flowerbed under the tree, as well as that school bus over there - Manheim Christian Day School, where I taught for so many years.
After Mary Ellen's egg casserole breakfast we got ourselves ready, and we loaded up Doris's 8-passenger van for our day trip.
Our destination was about one hour west to the lovely lake house where our sister Janet used to live. We had spent several fun sister weekends there before she suddenly passed away in 2004. Our brother-in-law Elvin later married Janet's good friend Pauline, and they still live in the lake house. We could hardly wait to be there again!
This is the view from their house!
When I went outside I turned around to get pictures of the house. I just LOVE it!
We had a lovely lunch on the deck. Elvin and Pauline served their grilled chicken and freshly made bread. We added broccoli salad, chips, cake, fresh tomatoes, water melon and cantaloupe. I can't remember everything. The catching up was as good as the food.
Of course we had to get a sibling pic - standing in age order, left to right. Dick, Mary Ellen, Jean, Doris, Barb, Betty, Rose. Janet would have been on the other side of Dick.
Here's a sister picture taken the last time we were there for a weekend in 2004. Unfortunately, Barb was not able to come from Idaho that time. (Please notice that I still wear the same Birkies on my feet! I'm on my 3rd pair now since 1999, haha!)
That's the weekend that Janet's daughter Lori joined us from Michigan. Such sweet and funny memories, and now they're both gone.
Pauline had pulled out a whole raft of Janet's photo albums for us to peruse. What fun!! Amazing conversation starters! (Not that we ever need that!)
I had to take a picture of this cute one and send it to Jeremy!
Then it was time for the pontoon boat ride. What total pleasure!!!! Elvin has been thrilling our family with boat rides ever since 1966 when we took a family trip to Lakeland, Florida where he and Janet lived with a Mennonite Voluntary Service unit!
He's progressed a bit since that one! So has photography!
Captain Elvin and co-captain Pauline.
There were so many lovely homes all around the lake. I could have been taking pictures the entire time!
Back in the day, water skiing was a really important part of a day with Elvin, but this time Rose was the only one who was gutsy enough to try it. I went along out to watch and take pictures. She had to try probably about ten times to stay up, but she kept trying, and then she was up for a really LONG time until her arms just got too tired to hold on any longer.
All too soon it was time to say our goodbyes.
I cannot express what a joy it was to spend the day with these two. Pauline, not only a good friend of Janet's for many years, but an amazing woman just like Janet was. And Elvin was so fun and informative as always. He's been in our family since most of us were little girls. I know we all left feeling like our cups were full and overflowing.
From there we drove back to Dick and Nancy's house to freshen up, then we went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. I had my camera, but somehow never managed to get a picture. When we left there we drove next door to Chuck E Cheese where Destiny was just getting off work! She came out and said hi to all of us. It was 8 PM and she had been working since 10 AM!! That's a long day! It was so fun to see her and give her a hug.
There was an amazing sunset as we drove back to Dick and Nancy's.
Then we got down to the business of practicing our songs for the next morning. It went quite well. In fact, a whole lot better than some of our family practices used to go when we were kids, teens, and young adults. There was always at least one or two in a very bad mood, LOL!
There was an amazing sunset as we drove back to Dick and Nancy's.
Then we got down to the business of practicing our songs for the next morning. It went quite well. In fact, a whole lot better than some of our family practices used to go when we were kids, teens, and young adults. There was always at least one or two in a very bad mood, LOL!
Sunday morning was amazing. It started out with some time for coffee on their deck and the view of the countryside.
Dick and Nancy went to church a bit ahead of us to do some food prep there, so we sisters decided to take a drive through the church cemetery before going in. It was not hard to find what we were looking for - our parents' gravesite.
Then we went inside the church for what seemed like an other-world experience. Hernley Mennonite Church, as I said at the end of my previous post, is the church we grew up in. Our dad was first a deacon and then the pastor. Dick and Nancy still attend there. Not only were almost all of the regular attenders familiar to us from our past, but so many other people from our past came because they had somehow heard we would be there. It was just surreal. Like a step back in time. First of all there was a breakfast served in the church basement, then the worship service.
I led the congregation in two songs from the piano - 10,000 Reasons and Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), and then a several places throughout the service we provided special music. We sang a cappella just like we did years ago, favorites from family programs and high school at Lancaster Mennonite. I Will Praise Him, While the Ages Roll, the festival version of All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, and what has become known as the Mennonite Anthem or 606. Our trio sang If That Isn't Love and He Giveth More Grace. During the share and prayer part of the service, a very dear old friend of our family, Betty Gerlach, whom we had not seen for years, shared how much our mother had meant to her as a mentor before we even knew the word mentor. She had us all in tears.
This is the trio - Barb, Doris, and I, the middle girls. Janet and Mary Ellen were older than us and Betty and Rose were younger than us. Our brother was older too, second in the family.
Here's a video of our last song. I had put my camera on a stack of hymnals on the front bench before going up to sing.
After the service we stayed and stayed and stayed, catching up with so many people. I can't even explain how amazing it was. Something we will treasure in our hearts forever.
You may notice Grandma Mary on this picture! Our stepbrother Roy and his wife Carolyn so kindly brought her to this church on Sunday and she spent the day with us!
Dick (my brother, not my husband) used his brand new grill to make delicious hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages for our lunch. It was a hot day, so we ate indoors.
Several times we aided our digestion tremendously with some good belly laughs. More often than not, Grandma Mary was the witty one that got us going!
After cleaning up the lunch stuff we relaxed for a while on their front porch and took some sibling shots.
When the sun got too hot on the front porch we went back to the deck for some shade. We settled down to listen to Mary Ellen read letters from our mom. Mary Ellen lived her young adult life in Mobile, AL and then in Harrisonburg, VA. Mother wrote to her every week! Two years ago when we sisters were together here at my house, she had brought some of those letters and read them to us. They were chock full of things we had forgotten about and SO INTERESTING! So we knew that's something we would want to do again. Again there were things that made us laugh and other things that made us sad. All of it precious.
We had a light meal on the deck afterward. Don't worry, we weren't shunning our dear brother! He just preferred not to be crowded!
Some of the girls took Grandma Mary home after that. And I left to go to Sam and Jenn's for the night. I'll post those pictures next time.
Precious family. Precious memories. Precious love.
Dick and Nancy went to church a bit ahead of us to do some food prep there, so we sisters decided to take a drive through the church cemetery before going in. It was not hard to find what we were looking for - our parents' gravesite.
Then we went inside the church for what seemed like an other-world experience. Hernley Mennonite Church, as I said at the end of my previous post, is the church we grew up in. Our dad was first a deacon and then the pastor. Dick and Nancy still attend there. Not only were almost all of the regular attenders familiar to us from our past, but so many other people from our past came because they had somehow heard we would be there. It was just surreal. Like a step back in time. First of all there was a breakfast served in the church basement, then the worship service.
I led the congregation in two songs from the piano - 10,000 Reasons and Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), and then a several places throughout the service we provided special music. We sang a cappella just like we did years ago, favorites from family programs and high school at Lancaster Mennonite. I Will Praise Him, While the Ages Roll, the festival version of All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, and what has become known as the Mennonite Anthem or 606. Our trio sang If That Isn't Love and He Giveth More Grace. During the share and prayer part of the service, a very dear old friend of our family, Betty Gerlach, whom we had not seen for years, shared how much our mother had meant to her as a mentor before we even knew the word mentor. She had us all in tears.
This is the trio - Barb, Doris, and I, the middle girls. Janet and Mary Ellen were older than us and Betty and Rose were younger than us. Our brother was older too, second in the family.
Here's a video of our last song. I had put my camera on a stack of hymnals on the front bench before going up to sing.
You may notice Grandma Mary on this picture! Our stepbrother Roy and his wife Carolyn so kindly brought her to this church on Sunday and she spent the day with us!
Dick (my brother, not my husband) used his brand new grill to make delicious hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausages for our lunch. It was a hot day, so we ate indoors.
Several times we aided our digestion tremendously with some good belly laughs. More often than not, Grandma Mary was the witty one that got us going!
After cleaning up the lunch stuff we relaxed for a while on their front porch and took some sibling shots.
When the sun got too hot on the front porch we went back to the deck for some shade. We settled down to listen to Mary Ellen read letters from our mom. Mary Ellen lived her young adult life in Mobile, AL and then in Harrisonburg, VA. Mother wrote to her every week! Two years ago when we sisters were together here at my house, she had brought some of those letters and read them to us. They were chock full of things we had forgotten about and SO INTERESTING! So we knew that's something we would want to do again. Again there were things that made us laugh and other things that made us sad. All of it precious.
We had a light meal on the deck afterward. Don't worry, we weren't shunning our dear brother! He just preferred not to be crowded!
Some of the girls took Grandma Mary home after that. And I left to go to Sam and Jenn's for the night. I'll post those pictures next time.
Precious family. Precious memories. Precious love.
8 comments:
Sibling weekends are so much fun and even more important as we get older. Ours usually include the spouses too, but it is so much fun sharing memories and stories. It was great to see the picture of all of you. And I loved the pictures of Lake Meade - we used to live close to there!
Been waiting for your post....but I knew you were busy. Such amazing memories made, again!
I can "hear" your laughter when I see these pictures and it makes me miss hearing it! I remember when you and Frank Rittenhouse would be laughing together....always made those of us passing in the hallway at MCDS join in and we didn't even know what was so funny!
Anonymous, I would like to know who you are!
I can only imagine the joy of this time together! I know how I treasure time with my sisters and enjoy the laughter - and there are so many more of you! The rainbow and the sunset are beautiful. I know your heart is full!
What fun times bringing up old memories and making new ones. You are so blessed.
Someone needs to write a song about you driving in driving rain! Maybe someday Sammy will do it since he has been with you driving in it. :) I loved hearing your stories of driving on snow covered roads. I think at one point, you almost stopped driving because it was so scary! That is until Dick bought you those very expensive tires for your car and now you are ready to drive to Alaska! Ha! Ha! You have more nerve than anyone I know!
It was wonderful seeing your siblings and you together and having so much fun. I had forgotten that you were 8 in number. I remember the Lake House and the memories of Janet and her daughter.
I enjoyed the song you all sang together. What a reunion that was!
Blessings. So many wonderful blessings.
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