Auld Lang Syne

The title means "old long since" or "days gone by" from a poem penned by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, in 1788. 

To transition from Christmas to New Year, I decided to share a long ago holiday memory my father wrote years ago remembering college days and his first Christmas break. 

In 1939, my brother Lowell and I decided to attend Bryan College, he as a sophomore and I as a freshman. Bob Culver, a brother-in-law, took us from Winona Lake to the center of Warsaw to board the bus for that 500 mile trip to Dayton, TN. When Mother kissed us goodbye she placed an envelope into our hands. When we opened it, we found 12 dollars she had managed to save for us. That was all we had for starting our college experience. The months flew by and soon came the time for Christmas vacation. With no money to purchase tickets to return to Winona Lake, we resigned ourselves to staying on campus and firing furnaces to earn our board and room.

A day or two before Christmas, to our great amazement, a car from California with an older brother, Rex, and his wife, Laura, appeared on Bryan Hill. They had moved to California just a few months before. Now they decided to return East for Christmas and pick us up also, but with no previous word. We were soon on our way and arrived in Winona Lake very early Christmas morning then decided to announce our arrival by playing a Christmas carol on our horns outside Herman's large rented house on Chestnut St. 

To be sure, we were all happy to see each other, but this sure complicated things for Herman. He was already taking care of Mother, two brothers and a sister who had not yet found a place to rent. I can still see Herman doing his best to help with household chores including the wash with the old wringer-type washing machine of those days. Since there was not sufficient room in his house, my brother-in-law prevailed upon his landlord to let us sleep in one room in the same house where he was renting an apartment. What an ice box!! Rex and Laura who had continued their journey to Ohio to visit her parents picked us up on their return trip and took us back to Bryan College.

Lowell and I heard later that when Bob Culver took us to the bus in Warsaw for Bryan, he was thinking: These boys are either big fools or they are boys with extraordinary faith. Well, we didn't have extraordinary faith, but neither were we fools--just look at the wife the Lord had prepared for me there!

Interestingly, both siblings Lowell and Solon (my father), met their future wives at Bryan. In fact, the brothers and the two young ladies from the same church in Evans City, PA, were part of a sought-after vocal and instrumental quartet!

This memory seemed appropriate as we prepare to welcome students back from Christmas break. This time, not one, but two young women returning for their last semester. 

Kendra, who grew up in a missionary family in Cambodia, joins Moriah who has been with us since her freshman year.

My greatest accomplishment of the week was to clear out the craft/junk room in preparation for its new occupant. I accomplished this great feat while listening to three good books.

What has God prepared for these young ladies and us in this new year?

Presents and Presentations

Baby shower decor

For Memory Monday, I chose to remember a former professor and family friend who passed away this month--Dr. John C. Whitcomb. 

How I remember him

This week also marks the seventh anniversary of Daddy's passing. How sweet to imagine them sharing stories together in heaven.

Monday was also the day Kristie received her board certification, even completing the challenging exams a week early. Congratulations! (Effects added for emphasis.)

Tuesday, my new sister-in-law, Raquel, and I had a sweet visit with Mother. We also had an appointment with the same Elara Caring Hospice representative I'd met with some months earlier. Mother's decline is noticeable and this time around they had sufficient documentation to prove eligibility.

Raquel showing Mother photos on her cell phone; Mother re-reading Dr. Whitcomb's obituary

Every time I visit there is some significant change. The surprise this week was that Mother is now eating in a different dining room with aids that help the residents by feeding or cuing. Mother has lost interest in food and/or her brain/swallowing muscle connection is failing.

I greatly missed sharing the mealtime with her former table mates: Margaret, fellow-missionary in Argentina; Bev, long time missionary in Africa; and Vi. The last time I was there we had so much language fun--Bev teaching me phrases in Sango, Margaret saying things in Spanish. The papers that wrap napkin and cutlery are useful for little notes. "Aunt Margaret" has always amazed us with her prolific correspondence. And lately as her friend Kathryn could no longer use her voice, she'd write notes and shove them across the table.

Margaret's note; Bev's Sango lesson

January Taylor University Lighthouse mission trips gave their reports this week in Chapel and individual presentations in the evening. I was able to attend Thursday when Moriah and her team shared about their time in Central Asia.

 The culminating event of the week was to host a baby shower here Saturday for our second great grandchild--Kalani, Skye and Destiny's baby boy due in a couple of weeks.

 

Little shoes, booties, and a beanie

 For weeks now I've been having fun combining yarn scraps with interesting results. This creative outlet all began trying to knit items for the baby. This activity keeps my hands occupied late evenings when we finally sit down together to unwind and watch something before bedtime.

 

As competition season draws near, Michael spends more and more time at the shop. Saturdays are always very long work days. 

After the baby shower and everyone had left, Moriah helped get the house back in order. I think she took pity on me knowing I still had many alone hours ahead. We went for a walk together in the woods, and later she even took me to a very popular concert at Taylor--Nostalgia Night. Thank you, Moriah!

This was the exciting day when all the robot parts came together and they were able to produce a video for Robot Reveal. Teams all over send in 90"clips of their progress in anticipation of the competitions. 

Can you detect any resemblance to an animal?

Sunday afternoon we went to another presentation. Hannah, a Ball State student and PhyXTGears alum, needed an audience to witness her talk "Antibiotic Resistance"in order to pass a class. So, her good friend Moriah, arranged for that to happen in the Euler Science building (Moriah's second home!).

We had to show Hannah the unique features of Euler--the huge rotating mirror that lights up the mosaic four floors below.

And, of course, we had to take our visitor to Ivanhoes!

A Memorable Mix

Memories surfaced throughout the week. Our Bible Study Home Group hostess brought out a smoked pot Michael had made years ago, a reminder of the many Klaytivity uniquely thrown pieces he's made. In fact that same afternoon I gave away one of the remaining beauties at a bridal shower.

Good friend Gina was visiting from Mississippi! She used to be a regular at Stephan's Monday dinner before she moved far away. So many good memories and a lot of catching up.

That same day, June 10, marked eight years from the day our house burnt down. Gina was among the first friends who came to our rescue.

Our daughter took this photo the days following as we trudged through the muck salvaging whatever we could. It spoke of hope in the midst of chaos and destruction.

We felt truly blessed to watch how God cared for us through the recovery and rebuilding process. Exactly a year later we had an open house to share what He had done and dedicate our new house to God.
Son Stephan catered the event and made an amazing and meaningful ice sculpture--a phoenix rising out of the flames!

A mostly forgotten event surfaced as I was reading my parents' 1996 journal: "It will be 2 years in June that he [Dad] had his heart attack." He would have been 73 at the time. Perhaps that is why it was important for me to have a stress test. Thankfully all is well.

It was also in June, a year ago, that Mother lost the use of her voice due to a paralyzed vocal cord.

Thursday at 2:40 AM my phone rang and the screen showed caller Kathryn Hoyt. I could not make out any of what she was trying to tell me, but, of course, I understood that she was distressed. In the morning the night nurse, who had been by her side for a couple hours (ah, that's why she didn't answer my phone calls!), said Mother was hallucinating.
I canceled art club and drove up to see her. She was able to share the scary scenarios either in writing or mouthing. The images and voices were so real to her. By the end of the visit she was calmer and tired and understood that what she was experiencing was not real. She slept well that night. Her lingering fear that she was going "crazy" was dispelled with the lab results which revealed very elevated thyroid levels which can cause paranoia and hallucinations. When Rachel, the nurses' manager, explained this to her, Mother was visibly pleased and relieved! Hopefully the new dosage of thyroid meds will help. There have been no further incidents.

Rachel doing a blood draw

That very day was Writers' Day in Argentina. I read a few notes posted by a successful author I met long ago, "I celebrate the birds in my head. HAPPY WRITERS' DAY!" Another author's note referred to her calling as the profession of a lier. 

My fiction-writer friends amaze me with their prolific imaginations. I, however, lacking that gift, am bound to the facts as I reconstruct my early childhood. The letters my parents wrote in 1946 lay open on my desk for weeks, even months, as I pull out nuggets and paragraphs to include in my story. The photo albums are also readily available to illustrate the events I write about. 

I wrapped up another chapter this week about all the celebrations and festivities of that first year in Argentina, ending with a simple and lonely Christmas. I awoke that day to find a small tree, a doll Daddy had been saving for me, and a wicker rocking chair. I was very pleased.

We were so happy this week to get our reupholstered sectional back! Quite a contrast! Does it take so much more to make us comfortable in our old age?

I found an old photo with Daddy for my Father's Day profile pic. If we didn't know any better, it sure appears like I am looking at a cell phone!  Michael's response, "Some things never change."

Rebecca had a lovely Father's Day surprise--she got her Daddy back for the weekend! Matt has been on a job in New Jersey for over a month now. His birthday was June 10th. Over the years we've missed celebrating together--once it coincided with our house fire, a few other times we were traveling in the Basque Country. This time he was gone.

Rebecca had just had her face painted at the first farmer's market of the season. We love our town events. The weather was perfect. We joined Kayla and Rebecca at a picnic table and ate fish and chips from Payne's new truck. Yummmm!

Was your week a mix of memories and memorable events?

More Layers

 Again on my walks I was drawn to the many-layered fungus on the old tree stumps which remind me of my life.

As I work to recover the lost chapter, improve the writing process, rearrange the text, search and research, I continually uncover and discover new or forgotten things from the past.
For example, I learned a lot about snails after reading about them in one of my father's letters.

 Several weeks ago after a rain we noticed that our patio was just covered with snails. We had known that we had snails, but we didn’t realize that they were as the sand of the sea. They are this oblong type of snail. Which one sees in the water, but they have a round shell. I called them wood snails when I saw that at home. We began asking our hired girl if there was some powder or liquid which we could buy to kill them. She didn’t know about that, but she thought she could get someone to gather them. In the afternoon a little boy came to gather them and was he ever tickled. He must have gotten about two or three quarts of them. Those slimy, squashy animals were just wallowing all over each other. I asked him what he was going to do with them. "Voy a comerlos." What? You’re going to eat those things? "Sí, son riquísimos." [they are delicious]. . . He was perfectly welcome to them. They serve them as a delicacy in the better hotels here.  I later learned that the owner of the house had brought those snails here to multiply for himself. [October 19, 1946]

I was as ignorant about the delectable escargot as my parents!

This week I also enjoyed listening to long-forgotten music, events, lectures, stories - all taken from obsolete cassettes and gathered as digitized files on one single DVD. Among the voices that stirred so many memories:

• our young children in a Saturday morning program on the ship Doulos 
• Mike and I mingling our own singing voices with all the others in a musical performed at Easter--Breakfast in Galilee
• the Doulos Singers repertoire
• Marion and Walter, our dear Austrian friends' songs
• the Bus family songs  
• my uncle, Dr. Herman A. Hoyt, giving a lecture--"Daniel and the 70 Weeks"
• cousin, Dr. Fred de Rosset, being interviewed on Moody Radio for their Spanish program--"Imágenes de Cristo en la narrativa"

And there is much more to come.

Another rescued artifact is this 16mm film on a 3 1/2" reel. In one of those early letters my mother  listed the contents in detail. My parents were so eager to share with family all about their new life - the sights, sounds, people and places. And, of course, a large portion was two-year-old me running around, being cute.

February 21, Thursday, marked six years since Daddy's passing. Immersed as I am writing about that first year in Argentina, I chose a few photos from then that show him with me.

Rockefeller Center, New York, September 1945

Rita's conjunctivitis (1946)

On the back of the photograph in my mother's beautiful handwriting:

This is Rita when she had pink eye. We just took it as she was. Didn't even comb her hair. Notice the handful of rosebuds she had. That's her favorite task, picking flowers.

Dad and Mom's 4th anniversary cake (August 1946)

Vacation in Embalse del Río Tercero

Fast forward ninety years, I wrote a poem about those last moments with him:

Dear Daddy, 

You lingered long years and days waiting for the trumpet call.

Months back when I asked how you were, you could barely whisper

"I'm just waiting." Those were the last clear words I remember.

Your tired body did not hold out, your spirit eager to go.

Yesterday, I talked to you and touched your soft shoulder.

You shuttered and sputtered, breathing was not easy.

I started to sing. I needed to reach you somehow.

The 23rd Psalm came to me, oft sung to my children.

When I came to the shadow of death verse,

I sang loudly "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me."

And again at the end, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord,

forever, forever, in the house of the Lord forever. Amen."

"Lord, take him home," I prayed in my heart. And He did!

Your passing was so gentle, almost imperceptible.

Mother said, "You put him to sleep."

We hugged and cried, so grateful to be there, so sad to be left.

¡Hasta pronto, papá! See you soon, Daddy!

Rita

February 22, 2013

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A noteworthy event this week was Bag Day--the deadline for wrapping up the robot. There is a mad push in the last week to make sure every aspect comes together and works, so Michael was gone most days till late.  

Here is a video of the final tests before the bagging--https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=562344657611883&t=5

Son Sam is looking on. He was in attendance as one of the parents. Elijah is on the team this year.

At home, my focus is to write, and a diversion is to do art. I am joined once a week by a couple others and we attempt to follow online tutorials on Let's Make Art Together.

2017 Week 24: Zion's Turn

 Instead of flowers, here's a volunteer leafy veggie growing happily in one of the untended areas on the south side.

Zion (7) had his first experience away from home and siblings for several days. He attended the Art Camp at Taylor University, two hours in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. So, we had many adventures together, including going to Stephan's Monday meal where he enjoyed making an ingenious Lego vehicle. The photo does not do it justice.

Other guests at the dinner were neighbor Jazmine and Karen's parents, Dolores and Red Mounts!

After second day of art camp, Zion could not wait for the promised Ivanhoes' treat! He studied the menu a long time and chose a Crazy the Clown sundae.

Zion was a bit homesick so Daddy picked him up on the way from one of his jobs for a night at home.
He was ready to come back the next day for the last half of Art Camp, this time he brought his bike.

Looks like Rebecca had her own art camp at Nanna's! Kayla was back to work this week.

One other highlight of the week was the wedding of a young woman from our community who travelled with the Circle Tour 13 team to the Basque Country.

Happy and dry on a rainy day in the Basque Country

Ellie and Wynn Coggin

In time for Father's Day, I doscovered some interesting tidbits about my father from his 1944 Huntington College yearbook. I hadn't known that his major was English, and was surprised by the nickname--Sammy! He was so young and hardworking--a first time dad, finishing college in the summers while attending Seminary, had a job on the railroad, and pastored a small church!

Sunday  noon, the younger boys came back for a few hours while big brother Malachi was at work so Mom and Dad could take Elijah to Miracle Camp and then get away to celebrate their anniversary.

We also had special visitors, dear friends from many moons ago, the Babcocks. Our adventures together in several diffent countries go back a few decades.

After they left, the boys and I played LIFE, Zion the banker instructing us on the rules of the game, his latest favorite!

Needless to say, many other pursuits filled up our week to the max. Michael's interests and responsabilities only seem to increase. We are thankful for the health, strength and wisdom to keep up with it all, and especially grateful for the opportunities to do what we enjoy!

2016 Week 8: Endings and Ongoings

Sunday the 21st was the anniversary of Daddy's passing. I went back to the poem I wrote, "Dear Daddy" and later reviewed the photos of the days when we gathered as a family to celebrate his life. 

 This week also marked the end of robot build-season. As always, the team worked extra long hours to meet the deadline.

Tuesday, February 23 midnight, Bag and Tag took place and they celebrated with rootbeer floats.

However, that was not the end. This year they pushed hard to build an additional robot in order to practice the game before competition season. They were also allowed to keep back a limited amount of components to continue perfecting their mechanisms.

Mike told me this morning, almost a week later, that he figured out a problem in his sleep. One of the feats the robot must accomplish to get best points, is to climb the tower at the end. They managed it off and on, and again before the bagging. A certain sound in the process clued him into a recurring problem.
It seems that his brain continues to iterate uninterrupted when he is at rest. He explained the word: an iteration is a repetition which includes a change or additional step, whereas a reiteration is an exact repetition. Anyway, two missing steps came to him as he napped.

The team needs help: this wonderfully built and muti-skilled robot remains nameless!

I learned another word this week Tsundoku--a reading pile, or the tendency to acquire and let books pile up unread. My stacks illustrate this obvious problem: top right--three books that arrived this week; middle right--audio books I have or am enjoying. . .

Wednesday, I planned to help Mother get to her follow-up visit with the surgeon, but winter storm warnings discouraged travel. I was in Marion for a hair cut when I learned that her Dr.s office was closing for the day and we'd have to reschedule her appointment. I was so grateful to make it home safely. However, I found the lane blocked, had to walk the last stretch and wait for Michael to cut and remove the fallen tree.

At that point we were only getting rain and very strong winds. Snow came later.

We woke up Thursday to the birds having a party around the bird feeders.

Friday, February 25th, remembering three years ago when we buried Dad.
Thanks to cousin Stan Hoyt and neice Tina Herschberger we have a wonderful collection of photos.

Five Hoyt siblings with Mother--the day of the viewing and the day of the funeral

Sam's family was only able to come the day of the viewing. How the young ones have changed!

Stephan and Karen came for the viewing and friend Gina. Leah and family came for the memorial service the next day.

Saturday I happened to be at the Red Barn and peeked into the Pottery room at the many pieces accumulating there--a reminder of another of Mike's weekly commitments. Wednesday he had quite a large group of kids during the after-school session.

My Spanish classes were fun, different, interesting this week. The best one was a guest speaker from Chile, who happens to be a tour guide. I asked him to share 15 or 20 minutes and the students would also have prepared questions. He extolled the wonders of his country for two hours and we were enthralled!