GOODBYES

Good-bye to summer flowers ( and the Hallowe'en bugs!)

This week we bid good-bye to a long time friend, Robert (Bob) Hurren who passed away on October 21.   Bob and Howard became friends back in Luther League days at Trinity.  That friendship continued as couples with Bob's marriage to Phyllis in 1964 and my marriage to Howard in 1966.  As our families grew we enjoyed times together, often on Sunday afternoons at Mainprize or Oungre park. Their five children and our four became good friends as well.

We also enjoyed singing together in a mixed quartette.  Yesterday I found a VCR tape of the four of us that Adolph and Pearl Grimsrud recorded in 1989.  There were two duets sung by Howard and Bob - "There is a Balm in Gilead" and "He Giveth More Grace".  I will have them copied and put on discs for our families to cherish.

Bob and Howard at Howard's 75th birthday, August 11, 2010

The service for Bob will be at Trinity Lutheran Church in Estevan at 1:00pm on Wednesday, October 28.  Bob would have celebrated his 79th birthday that day.  We will celebrate his life as well as mourn his passing.  I give thanks for all the memories of this special family friend.  Clare and Kirk are honoured to be pallbearers at the service. I am thankful that Alan and I got to visit with Bob and Phyllis a few times before liver failure took him to the hospital in Regina.

Howard and I were godparents to Don Hurren.  The day after Bob's passing, Don's wife Paula got news that her father, Lloyd Hansen, had passed away that morning.  His funeral will be on Friday. Five children lost both of their grandpas just one day apart.  Love and prayers are with the Hurren/Hansen families as they mourn the loss of these loved ones.

On Friday we said good-bye to the Toronto Blue Jays as their season ended when they were defeated by the Kansas City Royals in game six of the playoffs.  They brought us great entertainment this past year, including the three games we got to see in Minneapolis in May when they played the Twins.  Alan has been an avid Blue Jay fan for many years and has their team picture on the wall in our living-room taken after they won the World Series in 1992. They also won in 1993 and we look forward to more wins in the years ahead.  But, win or lose, we are Blue Jay fans!

Blue Jay fans in Minneapolis, May 2015

Temperatures were below freezing last night so we also say good-bye to summer flowers that were still blooming in late October.  We've seen flocks of geese heading south so they know that the warm autumn weather is coming to an end.

We also say good-bye, until spring, to the "snow birds" who head south this time of year to escape the cold SK winters.  Alan and I might join them for a couple weeks come January but no definite plans yet. 

This evening I phoned Myrna (Gilchrist) and Ernie Damm to wish them a happy 52nd wedding anniversary. (People celebrating fiftieth anniversaries used to be old. Now they are my age!) They arrived at their winter home in Yuma on Friday.  I spent two weeks with them in Yuma in 2013.  Alan and I talk about going south for a couple weeks in January so maybe we will make our way to Yuma.  Here's a picture of them with their sons and daughter-in-law last weekend before they left Boise for the sunny south.

Well, it's bedtime.  We have doctor appointments in Weyburn tomorrow at 9:30 so no sleeping in.  On Tuesday we have dental appointments in Estevan so we'll be on the go for a few days.  Have a good last week in October.