Losing people

It sounds really maudlin but we lost another one Tuesday.
Doug Hunt, who was a reporter for Crawfordsville's Journal Review passed away Tuesday afternoon.
It wasn't unexpected. Doug had been in poor health since before I met him in 1994. But Doug's health issues didn't make his passing any easier.
Writing the story of his passing fell to me and I'm afraid I may have botched it, despite my best effort.
My editor called to say I forgot to mention Doug had died in the story. I guess I was still hoping to find out reports of his death were premature.
I also wrote a column about the Doug I knew and I'm afraid it was too sentimental. I trust Jay Heater's managing editor magic to save both pieces.
Like Yogi Berra, I am feeling deja vu all over again.
When we moved to Elkhart many years ago, my wife said, "Now I can get to know your family." Within a few years my aunt and a cousin (who had been like a brother to me) had died.
I looked forward to returning to Montgomery County, Indiana, last year for many reasons, primarily family and friends but also to work with people like Doug.
I knew Joe Jarvis was too ill to work but Joe and I stayed in touch through e-mail and an occasional visit in his home. Then he called me to his bedside when he was a patient at St. Clare Medical Center before he passed away. I knew Harvey Keller was ill but we had opportunity to laugh together a few times before he passed away.
I admire Doug, Joe and Harvey for their contributions to the community and to my life in their various ways. Doug was a newspaperman. Joe and Harvey were radio guys.
When we moved back to Montgomery County in 1994, I was leaving the full time ministry and I remember someone asking, "What will you do now?"
I knew it would "work out" by God's grace.
It's been a wonderful and at times a bumpy ride in the past 15 years. I am privileged to have been an observer, reporter and for six years an editor, watching the passing parade.
I hope I can leave something in my wake when I am gone. Those three gentlemen certainly left me an example to follow.

Time to celebrate the Fourth and friends again

We spent a pleasant evening at Forest Park in Brazil, Ind., tonight.
Wednesdays are some of my days off currently. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The other days are spent in Montgomery County, working for the Journal Review. I love my job but we put our house on the market more than a year ago and it hasn't sold (yes it is priced right, compared to nearby homes), I really appreciate not having to make that Wednesday round trip of 100 miles to the office.
What do I do? Well, the plan is to spend Wednesdays working on my free-lance writing that made it possible for usto be in the ministry when the kids were young.
I'm working on a novel that is shaping up to be Mayberry meets Petticoat Junction meets Lum 'n Abner. A quick Google search will fill you in if those names aren't familiar.
That is the plan. Today did not go according to plan.
A week or so agao I tangled with (and got tangled up in) some poison ivy while picking up broken pieces of brick to fill in a hole behind our big garage.
A day or so later I started itching. By Tuesday night I was a mess and Linda insisted I go to the doctor. She even called in for the appointment.
The doctor recoiled when she saw my red blotchy arms.
I was given a shot containing steroids.
I thought steroids were for building muscle.
She warned me my appetite would increase, but I certainly didn't plan to go out and lift weights.
I did stop itching and I became pretty sleepy. I think that may have been caused by lack of sleep for the past several nights.
So I took it easy today. Joe (our yellow Lab) and I napped in the morning.
In the afternoon I tried to write but was too spacy.
In the evening we drove the few blocks over to Forest Park to eat supper.
We ran into so many friends we've made in the past eight years we have lived here.
We saw Virgil and Mary Jo Butts.
There was a lady Linda works with at the bank and another lady who retired from the bank.
I talked to Mr. Schopmeyer who is active in politics through Indiana Farm Bureau at the Statehouse. We chatted about the recent Indiana budget impasse.
We visited with a new Rotary member as we bought our tickets for the big $10,000 giveaway after the fireworks Saturday.
We visited with Lynsey Lunsford, one of the two Edward Jones financial advisors in town I used to work with. We visited with the Browns who helped start the annual Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Festival, honoring on e of Clay County's native sons.
We visited with Todd Brackman who rns the local cable system and with Jesse Walker who does the weather on WTWO-TV 2 in Terre Haute. Jesse wrote a daily column for The Brazil Times for a number of years when I was the editor there.
We visited with Sheriff Mike Heaton, who is running for re-election next year and who then wants to become a teacher and coach after retiring from the sheriff's department.
We met a couple from Greencastle who are spending their retirment years selling ice cream from a trailer at various events like the Brazil Rotary 4th of July Celebration.
Darrell Taylor, if you ever read this, she said she practically raised you when you were growing up.
When I was very small, Mom always took me to the county fair in Winamac each year.
I tried to be patient while Mom and Grandpa Zellers walked through the barns, admiring the entries and visited with their old friends.
I loved the midway and the rides.
Now I am beginning to understand how important old friends are.
Whenever I cover a big event like a county fair or the Shelley Drain meeting in Crawfordsville, I always see old friends like Rita Hamm and Dick Munro -- people I met through work or through volunteer organizations.
People are the best part of summer or any of the other seasons.