Last Saturday was a celebratory kind of day. In the early afternoon, we headed over to “The Barn,” which is a barn owned by a church that is in the middle of a large and pretty field, ringed with trees and lots of bedrock. It is a very pretty place. One of my graduated Fools, AJ, was having his all-day graduation party there.

We were among the first people there. We were greeted enthusiastically by AJ and his family, and shown to the food table, inside the barn (it is a clean barn!). There was a lot of food, and it was excellent. I limited myself to some pulled pork and some other little things, and Mer and I headed out to a picnic table in the shade, where we were joined by AJ and several other current and former students. We had a fun time, mostly talking about movies. More people started showing up, and things started to get a festive feel.

Mer and I went back inside the barn for dessert (cupcakes and brownies), and we sat with the parents of one of Meredith’s CVCA classmates. The knew AJ’s family from church, and we spent about 30 minutes talking with them. The father is especially funny, so it was an amusing way to spend some time.

We did have to leave, though, so we said goodbye to AJ and his family, and we drove home to get ready for the next social event, a wedding. We are pretty good friends with our pastor and his wife, and their middle daughter (in her late 20s) was getting married, and we were invited. It was down in Amish country, about an hour and twenty minutes away. We got dressed, and headed down the road.

Things were smooth sailing until we had to get off the highway. We were then on secondary roads, and following Mapquest directions, which did turn out to be accurate. Just as we were beginning to doubt that we were on the right trail, we saw a sign for the wedding. We turned down a back road. Then we turned down a smaller back road that became a one-lane road. Then the one-lane road became a dirt road. Then the dirt road became rough gravel road. It was quite an adventure. We got to the bed and breakfast at the end of the road and parked. Incongruously, the B and B (in Amish country), was called Yeowza! I had great fun (to Mer’s rolled eyes) shouting, “Yeowza!” every time I saw a sign. It just never got old for me.

The B and B was very pretty. It was located on the side of a hill that went down to a pond that the B and B owned. There was a trail around the pond that had lights at intervals that were very pretty once it got dark. The wedding itself was set up to take place on a small dock overlooking the pond, and there were chairs set up on the slope. The wedding was small, with maybe about 75 people total. There was pre-wedding music provided by various family members playing two guitars and the occasional keyboard, along with some vocal selections. It was very well done.

An outdoor wedding always has some risk, but it was a very pretty day. It was fairly hot in the sun, but the chairs had been set up in the shade, so that was well. For the ceremony itself, there were four attendants each for the bride and groom. The bride’s attendants had been allowed to get any dress they liked, as long as it was black and sleeveless.

Ken presided over the wedding, which must be pretty cool – to marry one of your own daughters. Ken is very personable, and he likes telling personal stories about the bride and groom. It made it feel more intimate. There were a few light-hearted moments. Ken had some feedback on his microphone, so he turned it off. When he got that straightened out, he could not remember where he was in the ceremony, so he was reminded by the best man, whom Ken commended for being a good best man. Christa (the bride) and Jeremy (the groom) did something I had never seen before – they had a “sand ceremony.” Each mother had a jar of colored sand, and then Christa and Jeremy mixed the sands together. I liked it. Then, at the end of the ceremony, they were told to kiss, so Christa turned to Jeremy, only to find he held up his hand. He turned to a part of the dock that was tucked away and pulled out a step stool, which he placed in front of him. Jeremy is over a foot taller than Christa. It was a fun touch.

The reception was in a large room of the B and B, and was a buffet. Since the buffet room was strangely hot (there was no air conditioning going), Mer and I wandered around the grounds and talked to people we knew, which was a good number of folks. We got to spend a pretty good amount of time with our former neighbors and our good friends, Ray and Sara. It was nice to be able to talk with them in a leisurely manner.

Once the wedding pictures were done, we were summoned to eat, which was interesting in that Mer and I were half-way around the pond. We did make it back before the bridal party’s grand entrance. It was now even hotter in the room, so I grabbed my food and went outside where there was a breeze, and it was easier to hear and to talk. Ray and Sara came out with us, so that was companionable.

There was a small dance floor, so the newly-wedded couple was able to get a first dance together, and then the father-daughter dance and the mother-son dance. There was some dancing the rest of the evening as well, but most people just went outside to enjoy the pretty night air and the fireflies.

It was a fun wedding. Mer and I love weddings, and this was a good one. As an added bonus, on the way home we saw lots of fireworks going off, since it was Saturday, July 3rd. It seemed like a fitting way to end a day of celebration.

As I stated earlier, June was a busy little month, with only one day that we did not do something social. July started off much the same. Last week, in summary:

Monday: Mark died in the morning, which put an understandable pall on the day. I worked a half day, then went home and slept for over two hours. Jason and I went running about 4 miles, which was very helpful. Then, Mer’s folks and Aunt Mary came over and had dinner. We talked a lot, spent a large but ultimately successful time at guessing Carlene’s three television “boyfriends” (men she likes on TV – Shelby Foote, Father George, and someone else whose name I can’t remember). We then played American Authors, which is just like Go Fish, except you have to get all four cards together that have the same author on all four. Instead of saying “go fish,” Mer’s house rules have you say “go read.” I love my nerdy wife. I won fairly handily, with six sets of authors. I think the nearest other set was three. The game is largely luck at the start, but does come down to keeping straight who has what, which can be confusing with four other players when you are looking for ten or twelve cards.

Tuesday: Tuesday night, Mer and I headed down to Canton to go to a restaurant/vineyard we had never heard of, called Gervasi’s. It was magnificent (and also fairly new, which is why we had not heard of it). The grounds were very beautiful, with large trees, a small lake, and wide lawns. We sat outside on the patio, where casual food is served (pizza and burgers and such). It was a nice evening out, and the company was very good – Dale and Carlene, Aunt Mary, and the long-time family friend “Aunt” Zovie. In addition to the grounds, Gervasi’s had several very fancy sets of cornhole set up, and two real clay bocce courts. It was pretty amazing. The food was good, and the only downside for me was comfort – the iron patio chairs began to hurt my back after 45 minutes or so, and I (independently) began to get a migraine. So, Mer and I were the first to leave (after the table split a pint of excellent gelato).

Wednesday: Wednesday was the calling hours for Mark, which we went to. It was not as sad as I thought it would be. We knew many people there, there was a slide show of Mark in various stages of his life, and we got to talk with Kaity (Mark’s sister), who seemed to be doing okay. Mark’s parents also shared with us stories of how much Mark liked Fools and Ceili Club, as well as some other things from Mark’s life. It was comforting. It is too much to say it was a happy time, but it was not so sad as I had thought it would be because of the people who knew Mark. The entire experience reminded Mer of a graduation party (because we had been to so many), and it inspired her to write a very nice letter drawing parallels between a grad party and Mark’s experience – basically, that he had really graduated to a very real world.

Thursday: I took a half day off on Thursday so that I could go to Mark’s funeral. Sadly, Google maps steered us badly wrong, and we got to the church almost 30 minutes late. We did get there in time to hear Mark’s dad, grandmother, great-aunt, and sister all give tributes to Mark. Mark’s dad’s tribute was especially touching – it was very specific, and covered many phases of Mark’s life and how Mark kept being positive throughout his life. There were a ton of people there, and we knew most of them. We got to visit with a lot of students who had graduated over the last three years, which helped us a lot. We did not go to the graveside service, but stayed and continued to visit with people. On the way out, we got to help a young woman whose battery had conked out (we keep jumper cables in the trunk), so that was also helpful.

After the funeral, I got busy cooking. My friend Kevin Gaul was coming over to continue his education in “modern myths” – my category for fantastic stories that are presented as if they could be (but you are not sure if they are) real. That night, we were watching The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which was the first movie of the type I can remember ever seeing (I saw it back in high school or early college, back around 1990). Kevin came over, and we ate pizza and brownies and watched the film (which is still excellent). We then talked for about two hours, and found out more about Kevin’s plans to go to Japan in September (to help out a Christian group that produces and shows short films), and that he has a girlfriend (I am always interested in the love-lives of my younger friends). It was a good evening after a somber (but still good) morning.

Friday: I was going stir-crazy at work, so I left at 11:00 (after 4 hours – another half day off). I went home, and Mer and I walked the Kendall Lake Trail near our home. It is only a mile long or so, but it is pretty. We then headed home so we could get ready for our big social event – we were having people over to do a reading of King Lear, an idea that our friend Lesa had come up with about a month ago, and which we had decided to host. We had me and Mer, Dubbs, Dale, Carlene, Lesa and her husband Jay, and a friend of Mer’s and Dubbs’ going back years, Steve. We ordered pizza and Lesa brought some very good cold steak, and we ate and talked for about an hour or so. Then, we jumped into Lear, which took about three hours. Meredith assigned the parts. Dale was Lear, Carlene was the to-be-blinded Gloucester and other roles, Mer was the evil daughter Goneril, Dubbs was the evil daughter Regan, Lesa was the good daughter Cordelia and also played the Fool, Steve was the evil bastard Edmund, I was the good son of Gloucester Edgar, and Jay was the ultra-loyal-to-Lear Kent. It was a really great time. I think we did very well, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Yes, it was very nerdy, but we are all okay with that.

Last Monday, at about 5:15 am, my former student and friend Mark Hartburg died after a 15-month battle with leukemia. He was 20 years old.

Mark was a two-year member of both Ceili Club and Royal Fools. In addition to these ties, Mark was also a self-proclaimed computer geek who liked to build his own computers, so we talked shop pretty often. Mark invited me over for his graduation party and his birthday party, and I visited him several times in the hospital over the last two years.

Mark was remarkable in that he was always cheerful, at least in front of me and anyone else I have ever talked to. Mark was born with a spinal cord issue, spina bifida, which required him to have surgery on his spinal cord when he was two days old. That was supposed to clear it up, but the issue kept coming back, leading to several surgeries over the years, sores on his foot, a walking boot for a few months, confinement to a wheelchair for several months, and amputated toes, and finally, his leg was amputated just below the knee. Once his leg had been amputated, he had months of rehabilitation. A few months after his amputation surgery was healed, he started having chest pain, and so he went to the hospital, where they discovered a mass of very aggressive leukemia surrounding his heart.

Thus started 15 months of chemotherapy. After aggressive treatment, Mark was declared cancer-free last January. There was much joy all around, as it had been a long road. Mark started back at college, and started making plans for his future. Then, in late spring, the doctors discovered the cancer had come back in the brain and in the spinal column. Mark again faced aggressive chemotherapy, and continued to be upbeat. I received an e-mail in May that the doctors had nothing else they could do, and that Mark only had a few days to live. So, Mer and I went up to the Cleveland Clinic to see him, and we had a good visit for over an hour. Mark was tired, but very much himself, and we left being confused since he seemed in such good shape and spirits. It turned out that the doctors and family had not told Mark that he was going to die, and so he did not know. He also refused to die. He kept insisting on treatment, and he started getting better to the point where the doctors got him on a bone marrow transplant list. Then, the Monday before he died, Mark was told the cancer in his brain and spinal column were gone, and the bone marrow transplant was scheduled. All looked well. On the following Friday, some fluid started collecting on Mark’s lungs. The doctors were not too worried – they thought it was a fungal infection that could be taken care of. Saturday was his sister Kaity’s graduation party, although Mark could not  attend since he was in the hospital. Sunday, the results came back that the fluid in Mark’s lungs was full of leukemia, and there was nothing left that could be done except to try to help Mark have some decent comfort. Monday morning, Mark died. His parents told us that he opened his eyes and fixed them on his mother, who told him that it was okay to go. He looked around the room, and then looked out the window at the sunrise, and he died.

Mark will always be a model for me of patience and perseverance and real joy. If anyone had a “right” to be bitter, it was Mark. Mark’s dad told us that he asked Mark one day recently if Mark would change anything about his life. He expected Mark to talk about the wheelchair. Mark got fairly angry and said he would not change anything. He said his wheelchair had helped him meet people that he would not normally have met, and some of them were now his best friends.

Mark loved to make people laugh, and was a very game soul in Fools. He created a stir at one show when he was practicing doing wheelies in his wheelchair off stage. He loved to do wheelies and was pretty good at them, but on this occasion, he went over backwards, knocking over a large plant at the same time. He was fine, and the audience loved it. Mark also always seemed to be okay when we made his leg the topic of jokes when on stage. I hope it never came across as cruel, because Mark always laughed, so we brought it up fairly often in the group. Mark just loved to laugh.

It was remarkable that Mark joined Ceili Club with his leg problems, but he did fine. When he had to wear his protective boot, he just danced in that. Once he had to stay in his wheelchair, he wheeled around and sometimes through the dance floor, and often kept time by pounding a baseball bat on the floor of the room. After his amputation and after the fitting of the prosthetic, Marc started dancing with us again (and this was after he had graduated from CVCA).

Mark was very much full of life, and I am glad he was my friend. I am sure that Jesus greeted Mark and told him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Last weekend was a fun and busy time, as most of June has seemed to be. Meredith writes down what we did each day on her calendar, and in June there was only one day out of all 30 where the day was blank (meaning we did not do anything noteworthy, on the 20th). For comparison, March had eight blanks and February, thirteen.  It has been a busy little month, and has been hard to keep up with here in the blog!

Last Saturday, we met up with Meredith’s parents and Aunt Mary and about six other former CVCA teachers for a reunion/lunch at Olive Garden. The food was good and there was a lot of reminiscing going on. The lunch did go a bit long – over two hours, and so I had to get up and walk around a couple of times since the wooden chair was not playing nice with my back.

After Olive Garden, we had one graduation party, in Kent. The party was one of Meredith’s students, Kaity, and the party was much fun. There was a ton of good food (as if we needed yet more food), and Kaity’s friends are a lot of fun. We spent quit a bit of time talking with Sarah, one of Mer’s favorite students who graduated two years ago. Kaity also had an adult-sized bouncy house, which we tried. It turns out that bouncing around in the house was a good time, but requires a lot more effort than I would have thought. Mer and I also played a very pitiful game of cornhole (a bean-bag toss game), that I eventually won, but with no great skill level. It was a great party, and I was glad Kaity was able to have such a good time. Her brother, Mark (one of my students), had been fighting leukemia for over a year, and was in the hospital at the time, and Mark ended up dying early the following Monday morning. It sounds terrible that I would be happy that Kaity would have such a great party at a time like that, but her family had gone through so much grief that I was glad they were able to celebrate something like Kaity’s graduation.

Mer and I then headed over to Porthouse Theater near our house. Porthouse is an open-air theater on the grounds of Blossom, an open air concert space where the Cleveland Orchestra plays during the summer. Porthouse was doing the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Yes, it is a dorky thing to have a musical about, and it was a really good time. The show was mostly fluff, and the music was very modern (only one melody you could leave the show humming), but it was a funny show (on the whole).

The set was a school gym, which was pulled off well. The contestants were all fairly nerdy, and were the source of most of the humor of the play, although much merriment was given from the definitions and/or the “use it in a sentence” for the spelling words (“Although she insisted her casserole did not contain an indigenous South American frog, the casserole still tasted like crapaud” – pronounced “crap-o”). As an added twist, there were five people from the audience who were on stage (their friends or families had made a donation of $100 to get them on stage), and that was very funny as the MC of the evening kept on making up fun-facts about each person as they came up to spell (“She advanced to the bee from Hudson Middle School by spelling her winning word, ‘filthy rich.'”).

Each character had a back-story to add interest to the play: one student was being driven too hard, one was haunted by failure from the previous year, one got there after the two top people from his school could not go, etc.). It was probably a bit saccharine of the play to do it, but I thought it worked, and it made the play be a comedy instead of a farce.

Meredith, being Mer, kept track of how she would have done on the spelling words. She went down on some very long and technical word. I, being me, could not even remember what the spelling word was 30 seconds after it was announced, let alone spell it.

It was a beautiful evening out, so it was a fun time to see a play at Porthouse. It had been a busy Saturday, but a good one.

Sunday, we headed down to Aunt Mary’s, where we had lunch with Aunt Mary and Dale and Carlene. It was a good visit, and Carlene proudly showed us her two new books on decorating cupcakes; Carlene is a pretty incredible baker, and these books had given her some new ideas (in fact, she made cupcakes that looked like fruit pies for a party at out house later in the week).

After lunch, we headed north to a graduation party that was in a pavilion at a park. It was actually a grad party for three CVCA students, but Mer only knew one of the students and I had not had any of them in any of my clubs, so we were there to see Mer’s student, Keanna. The food spread was ridiculously huge, including an enormous spread of desserts. Mer and I ate and chatted, and kept a wary eye on a line of clouds that were bearing down on the park. It did not take long to realize a storm was coming in faster than we were eating, but we figured we would be okay because we were in the pavilion, with ten or twelve feet of roof over us on either side. We were wrong. The storm came flying in with torrential downpours and wave after wave of high winds. The rain was coming at us sideways, and was having very little difficulty in bridging the twelve feet of space under the roof. It was kind of fascinating, and everyone in the pavilion took it in stride. It was kind of like being on a water ride at an amusement park. Although we got wet, we did not get soaked because of the roof, and after about 15 minutes most of the storm had blown over. So, Mer and I were able to laugh about things with Keanna, and we headed home for a change of clothes.

Last week saw us catching up with lots of folks we had not seen in awhile. Having sold the house, Mer and I now feel we can be more social, and not only go out with friends and family from time to time, but even initiate outings. Such was last week:

On Tuesday, Mer and I caught up with our pastor, Ken, and his wife Janet. It was Janet’s birthday, so Mer and I invited Janet and Ken out to eat to celebrate. Janet decided she wanted to go to the Golden Corral in Canton, so off we went. The Golden Corral is a buffet, so rest assured that Mer and I had way way way too much to eat. We had a great time eating and chatting, and then we went back to Ken and Janet’s house, where they demonstrated Tetris Attack (at our request). Tetris Attack is a 1995 Nintendo game that we had heard Ken mention a lot, and it is a head-to-head competition about keeping rows of blocks from getting too high on your side of the screen. It was much fun to watch those two go at it.

On Wednesday, we headed up to Beechwood (a suburb of  Cleveland) with Zach and Londa. For months, Zach has been touting the gastronomic wonders of an ice cream parlor up there called Mitchell’s. The ice cream was quite good, although probably not as good as Handel’s. However, Mitchell’s had great ambiance and outside seating, and had a 30-minute drive each way in which to visit with the Churchills. It was a good time.

Thursday, Mer went down to Aunt Mary’s to welcome her parents, who were arriving in town. They were not  going to get in until 8:00 or later, so I passed on going with Meredith since I had to work on Friday. It turns out that they made very good time and made it to North Canton a little before 8:00, and Meredith was home just as I was going to bed, so I could have gone after all.

Friday, we headed down to the old stomping ground of New Baltimore to party it up with the extended (and I do mean extended) George clan. The Georges used to be our neighbors, and have known Meredith since she was 3 years old, so they are very close and dear to us. All of the out-of-town children and grandchildren were in town, so the Georges threw a get-together. There were the Georges (Ray and Sara), and six children (or spouses of children), twelve grandchildren, Dale, Carlene, Aunt Mary, Meredith, and me. It was a busy household! I had made a pan-full of chocolate-peanut-butter bars, which proved to be a pretty big hit. I ate some amazingly good pulled pork, and chatted with Sara about her dad for over half an hour, which was pretty fascinating. Meredith got to visit with her girlhood friend Melissa, and they got to play Dutch Blitz (a game involving speed and multi-tasking that I will not play with Meredith). Most people spent a lot of time visiting around the Georges’ large dining room table.

Not a bad little week!