Good People

Yes. I’m late posting. I’m sorry. Ginny & I watched a movie last night and slept late till 5:30 and have not posted a blog yet. I’ve already had a phone call asking if I’m ok and why I haven’t posted. Here it is; I’m writing quick and won’t even read back over it to edit. Thanks for your patience. I’ll try to have something up before 6:30 tomorrow. There’s no need to call.

—— John

Thursday I enjoyed breakfast at Dave’s Diner with my friend Barbara, the retired newspaper editor who started her first blog just a few weeks ago.

For almost three hours we talked about writing, following Christ, her adventures in the retirement home, and her daughter’s recent brain surgery.

Barbara has taken a really old lady under her wing. The lady may be delusional and has told tales about strange men making improper suggestions to her in the laundry room. Until recently the home staff wondered if she might be making these encounters up; but the other day the old lady called the office to complain and when a staff member checked, there was indeed a non-resident man in the laundry room. He denied making any off color remarks to the lady, but they banded him from the facility.

Just in case.

Barbara, who often uses an aluminum walker to get around, makes sure the old lady gets to meals and various errands. She takes some of the lady’s tales and complaints with a grain of salt, but cares for her as best she can without being entrapped in the guilt trips the lady tries to lay on her adult children.

Barbara also goes up nearly every evening to the assisted living unit to spoon feed an old man whose stroke prevents him for lifting his hands. And she is committed to driving her daughter five days a week for the next month for radiation therapy.

Barbara’s example of hand’s-on Christian service as well as her spiritual insights interests me.

Not enough to undertake such service myself, you understand, but it interests me.

———

For the past few weeks I’ve heard a sound from inside the walls of our home. It sounds like a helicopter was landing in our hall and got trapped between the walls, engine roaring, rotors striking metal, louder and louder each day.

Then it stopped.

So did all heat in our home.

Yes, a fan-thingy inside our central heat and air unit gave up the ghost so we have been without heat for a while. No great hardship here in Florida; Ginny and I just cuddled under a blanket to watch tv in the evenings.

We had to wait for a payday to roll around before I could even think about calling repairman.

But payday approaches so I asked my neighbor, Rex, for the phone number of the guy who worked on our heater/air conditioner a couple of years ago.

Turns out the A/C guy is in jail.

Rex came over himself to look at our helicopter in the wall. He removed panels, unbolted machinery, disconnected electric lines, and removed the massive, heavy blower fan mechanism.

The thing resembles a huge wheel that a hamster might run on, but inside the wheel sits a large electric engine instead of a furry animal. Rex found that vibration had sheared off two of the mounting brackets holding this engine.

He disconnected the brackets to use as templates, ran up to his shop with them, and welded parts to manufacture new brackets. (Have I mentioned that Rex is a skilled craftsman?). In 30 minutes, he returned with the new brackets and reversed the whole process of bolting, reconnecting, rewiring, testing and reinstalling our furnace.

We again have heat!

Silent heat

Rex thinks nothing of accomplishing what appear to me as mechanical wonders.

I admire his skill at such things; leaves me in awe.

But there’s something else I admire about him more.

His hands-on care for his family. When his mother grew so old she needed nursing care, Rex visited her daily in the nursing home to bathe her. And he brought her home to his house practically every weekend.

When his wife’s sister became incapacitated and could not care for her children, Rex adopted her three-year-old son and raises the boy as his own.

When his wife’s mother grew old enough that it was unwise for her to live alone, guess who took her into their home?

Rex and his wife not only do all that for their own people but they watch out for Ginny and me and do us all sorts of service and kindnesses. And they do such things without making me feel like a useless object of charity.

And I’ve seen them do the same sort of thing for other folks in our neighborhood. But you’d never guess that they do such things unless you watch closely because they make no show or display of their kindnesses.

See why I admire Rex and his wife so much?

———

Yesterday’s news brought word of the tragic death here in Florida of Anna Nicole Smith, a young woman who was famous for being famous.

Google News this morning offered 2,079 articles about her life. I read several and I’m impressed by the Washington Post article by Philip Kennicott.

Back in my blog for Feb. 25, 2006, I posted a photo of her without knowing who she was; the photo had run by mistake with a newspaper article about the discovery of a fossil mammal. Alert blog readers quickly told me who the lady in the photo was. I don’t think I’d ever heard of her before.

Oh, my comment on the fossil article’s illustration: “Yep. That’s A Mammal Alright!”

In 1992, Playboy magazine featured a photo of her on the cover. In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J Howard Marshall II, whose wealth was estimated to be 550 million dollars.

In every article I’ve read on the matter, Mr. Marshall appears to have been very happy with the marriage.

Marshall died in 1995 and people related to a former marriage of his disputed the widow’s right to inherit his estate. Some claimants claimed that the old man could not have an erection so the marriage was never consummated (I wonder how they know that?). The photos I’ve seen of her, makes me think the old man may have been highly motivated. She also said their marriage was consummated.

But, who knows? Perhaps the union was like that of King David and Abishag (First Kings 1:1-4) Who knows and whose business is it?

After Marshall’s death, a legal battle ensued although his will specifically named her as beneficiary. A federal court award his widow $474 million in a settlement which was later overturned as many attorneys and claimants scrambled for her money.

Last September she gave birth to a daughter. Her 20-year-old son from a former marriage died in her hospital room while visiting her and the new baby.

Several guys claim to have taken advantage of Anna Nicole Smith so that they can claim to be the baby’s father – and, of course, claim her cash.

The legal maneuvering looks to last for many years.

During her life she was the butt of jokes about golddiggers and dumb blonds and bimbos. Predators of all sorts appear to have victimized the lady. Tragedy dogged her.

Poor child. At least now she’s Home and can expect from the Lord Jesus the same mercy as is available to any of the rest of us.

Her death saddens me.

I think the world has lost more than it realizes.