Obituaries

As we move into late summer, the profuse color and interest of perennial gardens may be fading a bit. Some of the best bloomers of midsummer, such as day lilies, are past their peaks and roses are recovering from the assaults of Japanese beetles.The bloom period for some perennials can be prolonged by monitoring the plants as petals start to drop. For bee balm and phlox, simply cutting each stem back to the ...

Ginnie and I are on a genuine, live, for-real vacation. And it feels like one. My mother's side of the family, whom I don't really know that well, has a reunion every other year. One of my cousins (a retired Army Colonel) and his wife, are the organizers. They travel around the country in a motor home and check out locations ? perform ?reconnaissance.? They look for sites that have a variety of accommodations ...

Our days are filled with their own twists and turns. Grandma (Mommy) has outlived all the guesses made by the doctors and nurses. Hospice is in and out each day since Mommy was brought home from the hospital. Over a week ago, they told us that it'd only be hours, but still she is hanging on.Late one night after we were all in bed and sound asleep, I was summoned to her bedside because it looked like it could be ...

Six years ago I was sitting on my couch in my tiny Wisconsin apartment Facebook stalking a guy I liked when I stumbled upon a picture of him and his friends red faced, mud spackled and grinning from ear to ear. I zoomed in on the orange headband they were wearing to get a better look at the logo ? the silhouette of a man running out of a fire ? they had run a Tough Mudder.I immediately opened up a new tab and ...

I told Ginnie that our life here on the Empty Nest Farm was all part of our art: the garden, the animals and even the aronia bushes. She agreed. Our life is like a poem, flowing smoothly, everything in harmony, rhyming, a syncopated life.?Who could have imagined,? she said, ?at our age, finding a life like this.?I'll be 70 this month and Ginnie will be 67 in August, both of us on the same day, the 28th, making ...

Another Fourth of July has come and ?almost? gone. I am voicing my opposition to allowing people to have ?the right? to shoot off the noise for an entire week. I am opposed to Mt. Pleasant allowing this ?disturbance of the peace.? Other towns have ordinances opposing this, why not Mt. Pleasant?My reasons are simple. First, we had to say goodbye, twice, to our local National Guard troops, sent to faraway places ...

I would like to share with you a passage from a book that is shaping my life personally. The name of the book is ?My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging.? The author, Rachel Naomi Remen, is a medical doctor specializing in oncology, a professor and an author of another best-selling book called ?Kitchen Table Wisdom.? One quote about the author says, ?Where most doctors treat ...

Because it's Friday the 13th, I'm going to tell you a scary story. It's a true story, but maybe a little more unnerving than scary. Nonetheless, this is the story of the time my safety went missing.When your safety goes missing, your life begins to turn into the book, ?If you give a Mouse a Cookie.? Everything becomes cause and effect. When you have a big dog like I do, you have to take her for works. But when ...

To the editor: Last week's feature on Mt. Pleasant in the New York Times caught my eye. Although living in coastal Massachusetts, I consider myself a grandson of Mt. Pleasant. My mother Gladys (daughter of O.J. and Ozora Hoffman), grew up in a house facing the campus on the site of today's Iowa Wesleyan library. My father, Paul, worked at the Fankhauser Dairy. While both moved on to careers in this country and ...

Have you felt overwhelmed? Stressed? Or like your shoulders are weighed down by the busyness of life?This morning after having a successfully busy week, I felt it. I have been so busy this week, I haven't spent the time I need to with my boys or wife because, ?Daddy is working.? I have heard of individuals who put their careers, ministry or even hobbies above their family. They are so concerned with climbing the ...