Dick Bernard: Two encounters with the Chicago Cubs

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This morning we were in Rochester MN, across the street from St. Mary’s Hospital. We were having breakfast and struck up a conversation with a couple whose daughter was having surgery across the street. They were from Austin TX, and they were giddy about the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series a few hours earlier in Cleveland. Others around were giddy as well. Apparently the game was watched by tens of millions last night.
We hadn’t watched the game. Indeed we hadn’t followed the series. The last time I’d heard, the Cubs were down three games to one, almost an insurmountable obstacle. But they had come back, and in the 7th game prevailed.
Nonetheless, diehard fan or not, the Cubs first championship in 108 years was uplifting, and not just to fans in Chicago. And it caused me to think back to two personal encounters with the Cubs back in the 1950s when I was a teenager.
Those days we lived in the country near the tiny village of Mooreton ND (west of Wahpeton). Long trips were perhaps 100 miles and those were very few and far between. Our media was radio, and at the time my baseball hero was Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees. (North Dakota hero Roger Maris was to come later.)
I can fix the dates we went to Chicago quite easily: in 1955 my Uncle Art married Aunt Eileen and they moved to Chicago, where Art was a sales engineer for General Electric. In the summer, we drove over 600 miles to Chicago to meet the new bride.
(click to enlarge)

Dick, at right, and Frank, summer, 1955.

Dick, at right, and Frank, summer, 1955.


Then, in the summer of 1956 Art and Eileen had their first child, John, and I have a family photo of us visiting the family in suburban Chicago.
It was an adventure taking long trips in those days before the Interstate. You went through cities, not around them; four lanes were rare and not limited access, and usually just wider highways. There were 7 of us in our 1951 Plymouth Suburban on both trips. Air conditioning? You opened the car windows…. The second trip I had a drivers license and could help drive – an adventure in itself. It was a very long trip compared with today.
At Anoka MN, summer 1956, from left: Henry, Frank, John, Esther, Mary Ann and Florence Bernard. Richard was apparently the photographer.

At Anoka MN, summer 1956, from left: Henry, Frank, John, Esther, Mary Ann and Florence Bernard. Richard was apparently the photographer.


The highlight of both trips to Chicago were, for me, a game at Wrigley Field, the first professional baseball games I had ever seen.
Likely my Uncle had access to tickets through General Electric, and both times, I remember, we sat in the stands above the first base line, looking towards the deep outfield in left.
Of course, the games were day games as Wrigley did not have lights. Both times, the weather was beautiful. On neither visit were the White Sox in town, so our only experience was to see the Cubs, twice. No photographic evidence exists that we were there, which is disappointing. We were.
I don’t remember much of the detail except for one single fact for each year: those years, the League was eight teams; and both years, the Cubs and their opponent, one the New York Giants, the other the Pittsburgh Pirates, were 7th and 8th in the standings. Why do I remember that? I don’t know.
It made little difference. The games were great to watch and a cut above the town team contests we were used to back home.
I’ve always wondered if we saw legendary Ernie Banks in those games. My guess is that we did, since he began his career with the Cubs in the early 1950s. But at that time, he was just a player, not yet a legend!
All I have of those couple of afternoons is pleasant memories of major league baseball in a unique baseball park, named for a chewing gum that was popular at the time!
Congratulations, Cubs.
The wait was worth it, and the ending last night was spectacular. If only the game had been in daylight at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
Thanks for the memories.

#1159 – Dick Bernard: Ruby Fitzgerald. Farewell to a gentle lady.

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The note announcing the death of Ruby Fitzgerald, age 95, began with a photo (below) and ended with a brief note “The tiny plaque pictured on the front of this card graced Ruby’s kitchen wall for most of her life.”
(click on picture to enlarge)
Ruby Fitzgerald
Saturday, I was fortunate to be in a room filled with people who all were privileged to know Ruby over the years. I think Ruby would have been very pleased. Here is the written story of Ruby Fitzgerald as presented by her family: Ruby Fitzgerald002.
My mother and Ruby were first cousins; actually double cousins: their respective Mom and Dads were brother and sister, and they grew up on adjoining farms in rural Berlin, North Dakota.
As happens, family life paths diverged, and because of geography, they only rarely saw each other, and we didn’t get to know Ruby.
Ruby and my Aunt Edithe, born two months apart, graduated from the same high school in the Berlin High School class of 1938. Their families and many others had weathered the very worst of the Great Depression together. Probably from that experience came the significance of Ruby’s plaque pictured in the death announcement.
Ruby was an honor student, and had a scholarship to Jamestown College, but there was no money to go to college. That is how the Great Depression was.
In 1993, for a Busch-Berning family history, Ruby wrote a very vivid descriptive story of her years on the North Dakota farm . You can read it here: Ruby Fitzgerald 1993001. Anyone of a certain age, who grew up in rural North Dakota, will quickly identify with her description of rural life.
I only saw the Fitzgeralds a few times, but the visits are remembered fondly. For some reason, way back, I drove the then-country Jamaca Avenue west of Stillwater to visit them at their small farm. Most likely, then, I was starting my search for the family history of the Busch and Berning families. Their’s was a warm, hospitable place.
By good fortune, in going through my Busch family pictures this summer, I came across a photo of Ruby and her twin sister Ruth taken about 1921.

Ruby and Ruth Berning ca 1921 at home.

Ruby and Ruth Berning ca 1921 at home.


I took the photo to Ruby at the Ramsey County Nursing Home on Father’s day weekend, and she filled in the details of a fact I had known for years, without knowing the details. She was obviously moved by the photo.
She said that Ruth, her sister, had died at age 2 1/2 of whooping cough, most likely at the rural Cuba City WI farm home of her mother, Christina’s, parents, Wilhelm and Christina Busch. (After 13 years in North Dakota, the family went back home for the birth of the twins; thence they stayed in Wisconsin or Dubuque for another thirteen years before returning to the North Dakota farm, which they had rented out. The plant in which Ruth’s Dad worked had closed, and as I heard another family member say, at least on the farm they could have a garden, and eat. That is how it was.)
Three weeks after she saw the photo, Ruby died.
We all have our stories.
Ruby lives on through a wonderful family, and great memories.
I’m honored I could be present on Saturday. Ruby is at peace, and our world is the better for her having been with us.
Chritina Berning 1939

Chritina Berning 1939


August Berning 1941

August Berning 1941


The Berning girls 1977. (There were two boys, August and Melvin, plus two young children, a boy and girl, who died very young.)

The Berning girls 1977. (There were two boys, August and Melvin, plus two young children, a boy and girl, who died very young.)


Ruby is 4th from left in the photo.

#1156 – Changing the Political Conversation: Two Remarkable Events.

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Voter Registration Rules by State: here. Very useful handy guide. Share.
An appeal for a more civil political conversation from the Benedictines in Duluth MN: here. Special thanks to Molly.

Three generations at a political picnic, August 15, 2016

Three generations at a political picnic, August 15, 2016


Monday’s celebration of Minnesota former Gov. Wendy Anderson‘s life was both uplifting and emotional – I attended…and I’m a person who met him only twice, and then briefly, well into the late autumn of his life. (My personal comments on the Memorial are here.)
His greatest days in the Minnesota legislature were in the early 1970s, when “people disagreed and worked together anyway” in the words of one of the speakers. This was a time when the adversaries staked out their positions, but often actually liked and respected each other, and figured out a way to negotiate to resolution of issues, even if, as Governor Mark Dayton marvelled, it took a near half year Special Session, back then, to get to “yes”.
Todays epidemic of the politics of personal destruction of the enemy other existed, I’m sure, but the combat then was child’s play compared to now.
*
But I noticed something else, Monday, since immediately after the Memorial Service, I left to go to a DFL Senate District 53 event (my home District).
By and large the crowd in the Church was of my demographic, “old white guys”, who had been through the political wars together. You probably couldn’t tell friend from adversary there: lots of handshaking, reminiscing…. Most well-dressed for the occasion, some UofM or Hillcrest neighborhood hockey alums, wearing the jersey for one of their own.
The pews were filled with the face of 1970s Minnesota, when politics was largely for successful white men who had the time and the resources to do public service. One of these, long deceased, was my best political friend: Gov. Elmer L. Andersen, a lifelong conservative, a wealthy businessman, but one who was an amazingly progressive man, largely due to having been orphaned at an early age.
He understood hardship from the ground up, and the need for civilly working together.
But my guess is that it was the rare female or ethnic minority face making government policy those long ago years. As Governor Dayton said in his remarks, among his other assets, Wendell Anderson, very proud of his Swedish ancestry, had “son” as the last three letters of his name – very, very helpful in a state like ours.
*
Back in Woodbury, there was a new “face” I saw at the DFL Senate District 53 picnic.
I took snapshots as I usually do, and two of these catch the general lay of the land better than the others (below, and leading this post).
(click to enlarge)
August 15, 2016 Mn Senate District 53 picnic.

August 15, 2016 Mn Senate District 53 picnic.


At left is U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, (squinting into a very bright sun); next to her, State Rep. JoAnn Ward, completing her second term, with a passion for returning civil discourse to the practice of politics; talking to her, State Senator Susan Kent, completing her first four year term, taking a leadership role on some tough issues at the legislature. Finally, walking in from the right, U.S. Congressperson Betty McCollum, in her 8th term in Congress representing the St. Paul and east suburban area.
At the same event, but not in the photo, was Alberder Gillespie, long time resident and an impressive leader who’s far more than paid her dues, now running for her first time State Representative in the east side of the Senate District.
Some of these candidates have women opponents; some men.
*
There is a very different look to politics these days, in my suburban district, and I’m very glad for that.
There are the young people who attended; and those representing other ethnic groups and religions, leaders among them, who were there. All of these are welcome players in our political conversation.
*
One might understand that some of my cohort (older white men) take exception to the change we are seeing; some struggle against it. Commanders like to stay in command.
But this is a new reality. We won’t be going back to how it was in the “good old days”, where “good old boys” ran the club. Those days have ended. We’re all more and more equally part of the group.
Personally, I am delighted at the true benefit/gift/grace of a more diverse representation in our government at all levels.
We are far from perfection, granted, but as dysfunctional as the process of seeking leaders seems to be at this moment in our history, what is happening now is normal when deep change is genuinely occurring.
We are making significant progress, which I will do everything I can to help continue.
We all need to get deeply involved.
Now. (Early voting begins in some places within the next month.)

#1147 – Wendell R. Anderson, Minnesota Governor, World Citizen, Feb. 1, 1933 – July 17, 2016

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Today’s local news will be full of news about Wendell R. Anderson, Governor of Minnesota, 1971-78; Minnesota legislator from 1959 forward.
I will be hoping for mention of the Governors key role in Minnesota’s Declaration of World Citizenship, signed March 26, 1971, by Governor Anderson and the entire range of Minnesota’s political and civil leadership; followed in early 1972 by a 30 minute film, Man’s Next Giant Leap, which featured a great many prominent political and civic leaders of the day, including Governor Anderson, speaking publicly of achieving World Peace through World Law and Justice to the citizens of the state of Minnesota.
The film and Declaration feature a literal “Who’s Who” of Republican and DFL (Democrat) leaders of the time, as well as civic, education and religion leadership. Gov. Anderson was doubtless a key person in moving the bi-partisan initiative. Singer John Denver, who donated his time, is prominently featured in the film.
You can view the Minnesota Declaration of World Citizenship, and the 1972 film, Man’s Next Giant Leap, here.
If you’ve not heard of the film or the Declaration, you will be amazed at how a state’s political and civil celebrities could publicly come together around a common theme of World Peace through World Law during the most heated and polarized national time of the Vietnam War.
Gov. Anderson is at peace.
He made a big and very positive difference.
My thanks to him for his service to the people of Minnesota, particularly to the children, and to our future.

#1136 – Dick Bernard: The Man in the Background: Father's Day 2016

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I continue to go through hundreds of photos left as part of the legacy of the North Dakota farm. Recently I was looking at this one:
(click to enlarge)

Memorial Park Grand Rapids ND ca late 1940s early 1950s

Memorial Park Grand Rapids ND ca late 1940s early 1950s


The initial focus was the women in the group photo. I didn’t know any of them, and I’ve sent them to a ND friend lifelong in that area to perhaps identify one or two or more of them.
But my interest turned to the guy in the background, who seems to be holding a stick, doing something.
On initial glance it looks like a stick, maybe a baseball bat. On the other hand, it may well be a croquet mallet for a lawn game popular back then. The stick may look a little fatter than in should because it is a bit blurred. If you click a second time over the man, you can almost see the croquet ball to the right, to his front….
Almost certainly the camera had caught a Sunday outing at the Memorial Park – the folks were all dressed up, as if after Church. Also, almost certainly, the women and men were farmers or engaged in agriculture in some way. Most were likely Moms or Dads, and Sunday was a day of rest.
If I’m right – that it is croquet I’m seeing. Not far away some more men were throwing “horseshoes” – real ones. And off to the left was the baseball diamond, where the town team was playing some out of town bunch, and there were kids, and people fishing, and visiting, and picnics and this and that.
As was (and is) most often the case, the old photos is not labeled as to year or people. It didn’t occur to anybody that somebody, 60 or more years later, would care who or what….
As I say, this was a farm photo, and there were hundreds of them, and I’m still going through them, and they won’t be thrown away.
Most were taken by a couple of versions of old box cameras, thence as time goes on, assorted new fangled cameras replaced them. Everytime we came to visit, Grandpa would gather us on the lawn for the traditional picture before we left for home. This was a Grandma deal as well, and their children followed suit.
The picture exists because somebody felt it important to not only record the moment, but to keep it for posterity.
The picture itself is just another moment in the life of some people out in North Dakota, among many moments in many days in many lives, filled with good times and not-so-good, crops, relationships, tragedies, children, whatever.
As we all know, some days are better than others….
Today at Basilica of St. Mary, Fr. Bauer asked all the men to stand up, and recognized every male there for whatever role they play in others lives. It was a nice touch, typical.
While this is a specific Father’s Day, yet another tradition in our society, all of us, regardless of gender, play a part in making our world a better place.
We are all fathers and mothers.
Have a great day.

#1134 – Dick Bernard: Grandpa Bernard's Can of Pebbles

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Now and again in our growing up years we made it up to Grafton ND to visit Grandma and Grandpa* Bernard, who lived in a tiny house at 738 Cooper Avenue.
Grandpa, 68 when I was born, and 85 when he died, was a most interesting character, starting life in Quebec on a farm, then an asbestos miner at Thetford Mines QC, thence a lumberjack, a carpenter, and finally chief engineer of the Flour Mill in Grafton (he came from a line of probably hundreds of years of millers in France and thence in Quebec. His brother, Joe, was chief miller in Grafton.)
This particular day, Grandpa was sitting on his accustomed perch on the front stoop, basically exactly as shown in the old photo:
(click to enlarge photos)

Henry and Josephine Bernard, 738 Cooper Ave, Grafton ND, ca early 1950s.

Henry and Josephine Bernard, 738 Cooper Ave, Grafton ND, ca early 1950s.


I don’t recall Grandma being there, but we kids were, and at some point Grandpa looked over his shoulder and saw a dog trotting down the sidewalk.
“See that dog?”, he said. Then he picked up his homemade slingshot, and fished a pebble out of the nearby can and made sure the dog saw it.
No word (nor bark) was spoken.
The dog kept coming till some invisible “do not cross” line; at that point, making a hard right, trotting across the street; hard left past Grandpa; and on about whatever business the dog was about that sunny day.
Grandpa loved dogs, best I know, but there was a time and a place for everything, and apparently this neighbor had to be reminded, now and again, of the rules of the road at Grandpa’s house.
The parties understood the rules….
There are endless Grandpa (and Grandma) lessons conveyed to us, as we all know, once past a certain age. Things we just soak up, without realizing it at the time.
Not all the stories were conveyed directly, or even intentionally. For instance, across the alley from the tiny house was the Walsh county yard where things like snowplows and other public machines were kept. And down the street was the Courthouse, and the local Jail….
And there was the annual event at the Courthouse where the last remaining veterans of the Spanish-American War had an annual remembrance of their fallen comrades. It was always impressive and Grandpa was always in it.
There was something else about Grandpa, which you can see in the picture.
He had one leg.
The other he had lost to diabetes in 1946. Since he was a veteran, that leg was amputated at the VA Hospital, in Fargo; as was the second, at the time he died in 1957.
He used to entertain we kids with the stub of the missing leg.
Over time, I’ve come to learn that he lived to entertain us because a government agency, the VA, had saved his life; and Social Security, enacted about the time he turned 65, was what they had for retirement. His source of livelihood, the Flour Mill, had gone out of business on short notice right before the stock market crash in 1929; and at almost exactly the same time, the bank with nearly all their savings, went under due to fraud.
Overnite they went from regular middle class to dependent on others. It was the year Dad graduated from high school, and, of course, his plans on going to the University of North Dakota were dashed.
Of course, if there’s a grandpa, there’s a grandma.
Just yesterday I came across an old photo of my other grandmother, Rosa (Berning) Busch, with the Ladies Aid of Berlin North Dakota in September, 1946 (See below). Grandma is the lady kneeling in the front row at the center of the photo.
There are lots and lots of Grandma stories, as well as Mrs. Busch stories, even to this day.
No extra stories to be conveyed here, but an encouragement to remember your own, about those who came before you.
And to emphasize what is no longer often seen as obvious: we like to think we are, as individuals, in charge of our own universe.
What our ancestors knew, imperfectly, was that we all do better when we all do better.
Berlin ND Ladies Club September 1946. Rosa Berning Busch kneeling, second from right.

Berlin ND Ladies Club September 1946. Rosa Berning Busch kneeling, second from right.


* There exists, to my knowledge, a single film clip recording Grandpa Bernard and others “sidewalk superintending” in Grafton ND in 1949, when a crew was paving the Main Street. His moment of fame come at four minutes 15 second mark. You can view it here.
Of course, we all have two sets of grandparents, whether we got to know them or not. And there are all manner of other relationships which would take a long writing to describe in any detail…for each of us in our own lives.
In my own case, Grandpa Bernard died almost exactly on my 17th birthday, in 1957; Grandma Bernard died near my 23rd birthday, in 1963; Grandpa Busch died in 1967, less than two weeks after their 62nd wedding anniversary, coming up the stairs from the basement with some eggs for breakfast; Grandma Busch died in early August, 1972, at 88. Lore has it that she lingered on long enough so that her youngest son, my uncle Art, could make it from Chicago. He did, and she died very soon thereafter.

#1129 – Dick Bernard: In Praise of Exasperating People. A Thought for Mother's Day.

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Last Sunday I had the honor of saying a few words at the celebration of the life of a friend who I’d known the last seven years of his near 95 years; and later that day more words at a now-annual dinner that wouldn’t exist were it not for him.
(More details on both can be found at A Million Copies, click on Lynn Elling, and, there, click on “celebration” in first paragraph at the top of the page.)
The real problem: how does one condense this guys life as a peacemaker into a few words?
I had four minutes.
At coffee over many days I made a list of experiences I had had with Lynn over the seven years. It became a very long list.
I finally zeroed in on a single vignette from another Memorial service I had attended in Comfrey MN at his request June 23, 2009. And within that visit, a single recollection from the piece of paper he asked me to read at that Memorial about the LST he and his friend, Melvin, had served on for two years in the Pacific in WWII. That summarized Lynn’s life for me.
(LST? Officially, that’s a “Landing Ship Tank”.
In his words, on his piece of paper from which I read, “LST” was a “Large Slow Target”. LST crew would understand…. Somebody in that congregation that day, a man, laughed out loud. He knew….)
As I prepared my list about Lynn, it dawned on me that Lynn was not alone as a positive example in my life.
I began another list, this one of people I’d known at many other points in my life who were in one way or another, like Lynn.
Then I decided to use part of those four minutes to talk about Lynn, the “exasperating” individual. He could be, I said, the kind of individual you saw coming, and ducked across the street to avoid. You knew that he wanted to tell his story, and that the pitch would include something he wanted you to do.
Some folks in the pews chuckled. They understood.
They were there because they knew Lynn.
I mentioned my new list of exasperating people, (the last entry was #27 – there are 14 men, 13 women.) They came from all points in my life. The list could be much longer.
That list is a keeper. You’d be honored if you were on that list!
From that list, last Sunday, I mentioned only Geography Prof. George Kennedy, who, back in about 1960, got very angry at me, calling me “lazy”, and that was for starters.
Well, that is exactly what I was: Lazy.
He knew I had talents I wasn’t using. I never forgot what Prof. Kennedy said, and how he said it. It was very pointed and very personal, and it changed my life.
Too bad I couldn’t tell him that he made a difference for me while he was still alive.
Exasperating people can be very irritating and annoying. That’s what the word means.
But if you take a moment, you can learn something about what you learned from them, about yourself.
Hopefully, I sometimes fill that role, of being “exasperating” to somebody else.
Exasperating. Remember that word…. At times, I fit that word. You?
Happy Mother’s Day May 8, to Mom’s (and all others who in one way or another have filled that oft-times exasperating role).

#1124 – Dick Bernard: Prince, and Harriet Tubman, Deserving Their Honors.

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First Avenue, downtown Minneapolis MN, 11 a.m. Sunday April 24, 2016. It's been a rainy morning in the Twin Cities.

First Avenue, downtown Minneapolis MN, 11 a.m. Sunday April 24, 2016. It’s been a rainy morning in the Twin Cities.


POSTNOTE: April 24, 8 a.m.: This morning a feed from the Washington Post brought this link, of ZZ Topp’s Billy Gibbons on Prince. I found it fascinating, with links to Prince playing.
Yesterday [April 21] I was in the hallway at an elementary school, and a teacher in the student lunchroom held up his cell phone, pointed our way, and said “Prince died”. My daughter, who was with me at the time, looked at her own cell phone and said that the musician, Prince, had just died.
It was one of those moments one doesn’t soon forget. We all have had them.
Prince’s wasn’t my music, but his was an impressive presence in this, his lifelong home state. This mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune devoted the entire front page, and five additional full pages to his “Purple Majesty”. If there is any major league Prince fan out there, make an offer for the front section (even if the offer is only, “I’d like to have it….”)
My only real memory of Prince is seeing Purple Rain in a Duluth movie theatre in 1984, the year it came out. I remember that I liked it.
Prince apparently was 25 when he made the film. It is probably destined to be a blockbuster this time around. Twin Cities area screenings can be viewed here.
On occasion, I’d be in the neighborhood of First Avenue, the club made famous by Prince, which in my day was a somewhat shabby nondescript building across the street from the Greyhound Bus Depot in downtown Minneapolis. Now it’s an iconic place, and the tourist traffic will increase, for sure.
That’s all I really know about Prince.
Other news outlets can fill in the blanks about Prince, who without doubt was a genius with music. I won’t even try. But he seems to have made his mark in the world of music. And he seems to have been a decent guy to boot. Not bad for a life, even if only 57 when it ended.
Then there’s Harriet Tubman.
The front page of yesterday’s Star Tribune headlined “Tubman to make history again in U.S. currency first.”
Ms Tubman was quite a woman who, thankfully, really never did know her “place” back in the day, and lived to tell about it.
I saw a post about Harriet Tubman yesterday which is perhaps a bit off the beaten path for most folks, which I found most interesting. You can read it here. The headline says it well: “Top Seven Ways Harriet Tubman Is The Most Badass Spy Warrior Ever To Be On U.S. Currency….
Who’d ever thought it possible?
All of us owe a great debt to people like Harriet Tubman who took a stand for justice at great personal risk.
COMMENTS:
from Jeff: On behalf of our daughter, Emily, we went to Paisley Park yesterday. She wasn’t a big fan, but
I think wanted to be part of the larger group honoring him (I would not have gone myself )
I liked Prince’s music. He really was a genius and a musical prodigy. At one time I thought he was full of affectation, that it was a bit of narcissistic celebrity worship that surrounded him and his persona (or various personas).
But in listening to “Purple Rain”… it’s a rock ballad, that blends the soul of R+B with the electric rock and roll of the 1970’s. Much like he was a child of the 70’s and his father a jazz musician and his mother a vocalist in her spare time.
At Paisley park you see Caucasians and African-Americans mingling in respect. His music and his personality actually transcended race, and at this moment in America, we need more of that.
from John (my brother): Interesting personal connection factoid about Prince – a couple of decades ago, he appeared on one of the early MTV Music Video Awards TV shows. Believe it or not, one of his back up dancers at that point was your niece and, our daughter Christi.
Alas, she used up her 15 minutes of fame in about a 10 second segment – which, due to the technological limitations of the time, we recorded on VHS tape, played several times, and then somehow lost it in the dustbin of history.

#1121 – Dick Bernard: Judy, a Homemaker goes home.

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Monday I was completing a project, and noted to my colleague that I was about to go to a funeral. “I am sorry that you will be at a funeral; my condolences”, came the reply, to which I replied “I’m at the age where these are increasingly common events…life goes on….”
It was not a flip statement, simply a statement of fact. As you get older, you become more aware of death, pending and actual.
Judy had died on April 5, the details unimportant. She was a many years long friend of my wife, and she and Bud had been married for 53 years, best I could tell, a great marriage. They had met when she was a car-hop at the Dariette in east side St. Paul, and he was a young biker (who later in life earned many patents at part of a work team for a large corporation).
I sent Bud the condolence card I always send when someone dies. I took it in November 1999 along I-94 east of Valley City ND. It’s story always, to me, has been the radiance of the life just ended, and the family tree left behind. Nothing fancy.
(click to enlarge)

ND Sunset east of Valley City on I-94 Nov. 99

ND Sunset east of Valley City on I-94 Nov. 99


Every end-of-life commemmoration differs.
Judy’s was marked by simplicity. This mother of four, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of one was recognized this way in the program: “Judy loved music. She could play the accordion, the organ, and all sorts of percussion instruments. She sang in her high school choir and church choirs her entire life. Judy was a drum majorette in high school and also played in the St. Paul Police Band for five years where she played community concerts and marched in parades. She loved to dance and could never resist a Polka!
Judy was full of energy, loved being outside, going on walks, planting vegetables and flowers, weeding the garden, raking, picking up sticks, and even re-stacking the wood pile. If there was something that needed to be done, she would jump up and do it.”
They didn’t mention her homemade pies. Well, there is only so much space in a program. The Priest who presided at the funeral and who had visited her during her final illness, choked up, visibly emotional, during the service. This is something I rarely see. She had that kind of impact on a person.
Bud had been especially thankful for the card and note (photo above) in which I commented on the personal meaning that the sunset and the tree had for me.
Perhaps there was a reason Bud was particularly moved.
At the end of the program were the lyrics of “Beyond the Sunset (A favorite song of Judy’s)”. You can listen to a version of it here.
(Click to enlarge)
Beyond the Sunset002
Farewell, Judy.
Fare thee well, Bud, and family.

#1118 – Dick Bernard: A Thought at Easter. Le Don du Sourire (The Gift of a Smile)

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Recently I have been reviewing the index of 22 years, 1980-2002, of the newsletters Chez Nous and Nouvelles Villes Jumelles. These 145 “kitchen table” publications were for those of French-Canadian and French heritage, and affection, primarily in the upper midwest of the United States.
In the midst of the project, at page 651, I found the below, submitted by Stephanie Wolkin in summer, 1996, and reprinted in the Septembre-Octobre, 1996, issue of Chez Nous:
(click on image to enlarge)

from Chez Nous, Septembre-Octobre, 1996, page two.

from Chez Nous, Septembre-Octobre, 1996, page two.


(Here is the same thought in printable pdf form: The Gift of a Smile002)
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(For those curious about the other near-1000 pages of Chez Nous and Nouvelles Villes Jumelles: go here, click Library tab, click Chez Nous, click second link and note first paragraph.)
These were, remember, “kitchen table” newsletters, put together by a succession of volunteers over 22 years. For the last 16 years, I edited or co-edited Chez Nous.
These modest publication were, in aggregate, a chronicle of hundreds of years of relationships between the French and North America, as conveyed by ordinary people through their own stories….
Have a very good Easter, wherever you may be.