There is a new family next door to us. Robert, Heather and Caleb Donahue are here for a year with eMi EA. The parents are architects and 5 year old Caleb is full of energy, ideas and creativity, with a passion for the Dukes of Hazard, especially the car known as the General Lee.
It is great fun seeing this family with a heart for service come here, learn about this Ugandan culture, food, and people, while they sort out how to make the house into their home. Heather was born in France to American missionaries who brought their baby to Zaire, now DR Congo, for 2 years. Her mom and sister are coming this summer for a visit and to celebrate Caleb turning 6.
Robert has been to Africa several times on eMi project trips and has seen more countries here than I will likely ever see. His interest in the people and being culturally sensitive are an inspiration to me to keep learning. Heather, who loves to cook, is finding that many of their favorite foods are here, either at local markets, at the supermarkets or perhaps even downtown. She has already had company for dinner....and here less than 30 days. (I think I was here several months before I invited anyone to come and eat with me.)
This family of 3 came with 6 tubs and 3 carry-on bags to begin a life here. What do you bring to a country to make a home? One tub was full of toys, books and schooling supplies for Caleb. That left all the rest for clothes, books, work tools, personal care items, computers, camera, batteries, favorite snack foods, holiday decorations, future gifts, presents, etc. It doesn't take long to reach weight and volume limits for the air travel.
Unpacking and finding a place to store things when the house has very limited closet and cupboard space is a huge challenge. The master bedroom (about 12x14 ft) has one small, shallow closet, with a cupboard over that requires a step stool to reach and one drawer. The only other storage in the house are the 8 running feet of cupboards in the kitchen under the counter/sink. That's it. Well, the garage has some shelves in place, but not a lot and no doors, just open shelves. So the creativity begins.
They have great patience with the changes they are experiencing, including all the different night noises. Their compound wall fronts on two busy streets. The nights are full of the barking of dogs, my 3 inside their compound and others outside. All this in addition to some election campaign trucks passing with music at full volume at any hour of the day and even as late at midnight. Thank goodness the election is almost finished. That part of the noise over-load with go away.
They are adjusting well and seem to be loving most of the experiences. Please add them to your prayers so that they settle in well and that their supporters continue with both spiritual and financial supports.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Eulogy
The sun rises and the sun sets....another new day comes. Yet it is not the same as the one before.
This miracle of new beginnings is hidden behind the newspaper headlines of the day and the ads seen in all the media around. How can such important changes not catch everyone up in at least one moment of wonder and thankfulness.
In the last 30 days both my mother, who was almost 89, and my sister, soon to turn 59, passed away...at home and in their sleep. Both were women of strength, courage in the facing of daily pain and discomfort and a focus on making life better for those around them. This mother-daughter team worked and lived well throughout their lives, related by more than blood and world views.
Terry had many medical treatments, and traumas because of them, by the time she was 12. Betty had good health until an injury when she was 38 set a new course for her life. These two were friends, companions, care-givers for each other over 55 years.
God is so good to us. Terry came as an unexpected pregnancy after all thoughts of having any other children had passed. Yet this youngest child helped the parents learn more medical information, processes and persistence than they ever thought possible. As life turned out, Terry followed closely in her parents footsteps, becoming a Psychiatric Technician and working at Sonoma Developmental Center. While her parents were in one of the first of the classes for this position, Terry was in one of the last ones.
All of her nursing training was put to excellent use in the work she did and at home looking after parents with complex medical ailments, multiple medications and numerous doctor visits. Terry provided all the supports they needed, while juggling her own chronic health needs.
Terry, and thousands of others like her, are the truly un-sung heroes of our day. They do what needs to be done, each day, every day, and sacrifice the "good life" to care for others. This is the miracle of love, with all its ripple effects, that is new each morning. A chosen path of service not self-centeredness.
This woman, Terry Ruth McNeill Ryan, daughter of Betty, mother of Elizabeth, served with all her heart and made the lives of many others better than it would have been without her. May God reward her mightily for all that she has done.
This miracle of new beginnings is hidden behind the newspaper headlines of the day and the ads seen in all the media around. How can such important changes not catch everyone up in at least one moment of wonder and thankfulness.
In the last 30 days both my mother, who was almost 89, and my sister, soon to turn 59, passed away...at home and in their sleep. Both were women of strength, courage in the facing of daily pain and discomfort and a focus on making life better for those around them. This mother-daughter team worked and lived well throughout their lives, related by more than blood and world views.
Terry had many medical treatments, and traumas because of them, by the time she was 12. Betty had good health until an injury when she was 38 set a new course for her life. These two were friends, companions, care-givers for each other over 55 years.
God is so good to us. Terry came as an unexpected pregnancy after all thoughts of having any other children had passed. Yet this youngest child helped the parents learn more medical information, processes and persistence than they ever thought possible. As life turned out, Terry followed closely in her parents footsteps, becoming a Psychiatric Technician and working at Sonoma Developmental Center. While her parents were in one of the first of the classes for this position, Terry was in one of the last ones.
All of her nursing training was put to excellent use in the work she did and at home looking after parents with complex medical ailments, multiple medications and numerous doctor visits. Terry provided all the supports they needed, while juggling her own chronic health needs.
Terry, and thousands of others like her, are the truly un-sung heroes of our day. They do what needs to be done, each day, every day, and sacrifice the "good life" to care for others. This is the miracle of love, with all its ripple effects, that is new each morning. A chosen path of service not self-centeredness.
This woman, Terry Ruth McNeill Ryan, daughter of Betty, mother of Elizabeth, served with all her heart and made the lives of many others better than it would have been without her. May God reward her mightily for all that she has done.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Life Changes
Betty Jane Mustard McNeill, born Apri 13, 1922, died January 2011, beloved wife of William E. McNeill, 2nd daughter of Laurence T. Mustard and Evangeline Ruth Wattenburg, mother of Terry, Michael and Margaret, bringer of laughter and games and decor into dreary places and hearts.......you will be a light to loved ones gone on before. I have no doubt that she has joined in the eternal pinochle game with dad and Thelma and others.
Mom lived a life of serving others, at work and within the family. She would forego things for herself in order to take care of her kids, her husband and others whom she loved. After working 9 hours a day, from 6 to 3 at the local mental hospital she'd come home and fix dinner, nudge us about our homework, help with projects like science fair, encourage growth of new skills or what ever was the passion of the moment.
Mom had studied nursing during World War 2 but then had to earn money to support herself as dad was in the merchant marine, which didn't pay much at all. Seems like she was always working, whether we lived in town or on a farm somewhere.
When she was injured at work in 1959 or so, she finally went off on disability. Her treatment was to sit for hours each day in a traction devise that held her straight in a chair. With forced inactivity she began to sketch and then to paint again, a skill she'd begun in high school. She watched the art classes on TV that showed early in the mornings. She borrowed and later bought books to learn techniques of painting, mostly landscapes. She attempted portraits and still lifes as well, but enjoyed painting the world around her, whether at the cabin in the hills west of Ukiah, on the Trinity River or in the deserts of Arizona.
She lost her mother when she was 42 years old and lived longer than her older sister.
Her love of people, willingness to serve others live on in each of her 3 children. The youngest, Terry, has been in the nursing field her entire life, in spite of chronic pain and disability; working first at Sonoma Developmental Center and then taking care of our aging parents full time. The second born, a son, trained, worked and taught in law enforcement until his medical retirement, when he discovered the joy of cooking for the Elks and entered community service in a very different way from catching criminals. The oldest was a social worker for over 30 years, then retired to Africa.
Mom lived a life of serving others, at work and within the family. She would forego things for herself in order to take care of her kids, her husband and others whom she loved. After working 9 hours a day, from 6 to 3 at the local mental hospital she'd come home and fix dinner, nudge us about our homework, help with projects like science fair, encourage growth of new skills or what ever was the passion of the moment.
Mom had studied nursing during World War 2 but then had to earn money to support herself as dad was in the merchant marine, which didn't pay much at all. Seems like she was always working, whether we lived in town or on a farm somewhere.
When she was injured at work in 1959 or so, she finally went off on disability. Her treatment was to sit for hours each day in a traction devise that held her straight in a chair. With forced inactivity she began to sketch and then to paint again, a skill she'd begun in high school. She watched the art classes on TV that showed early in the mornings. She borrowed and later bought books to learn techniques of painting, mostly landscapes. She attempted portraits and still lifes as well, but enjoyed painting the world around her, whether at the cabin in the hills west of Ukiah, on the Trinity River or in the deserts of Arizona.
She lost her mother when she was 42 years old and lived longer than her older sister.
Her love of people, willingness to serve others live on in each of her 3 children. The youngest, Terry, has been in the nursing field her entire life, in spite of chronic pain and disability; working first at Sonoma Developmental Center and then taking care of our aging parents full time. The second born, a son, trained, worked and taught in law enforcement until his medical retirement, when he discovered the joy of cooking for the Elks and entered community service in a very different way from catching criminals. The oldest was a social worker for over 30 years, then retired to Africa.
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