Sharing Horizons

We recently had a rainy Sunday morning at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Really rainy. It was raining so hard that the motion sensor doors to the Visitors Center wouldn’t close. They would start to close, then there would be extra large drips in front of the motion sensors and they would pop back open again. We had so few visitors that several of us were standing at the desk making fake bets on whether or not the doors would close all the way.

Tom and I are back at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. We drove down on June 17 and started working June 19. Our dates were about a month later than we had planned on arriving, but being in Ohio was more important. Fortunately the staff here is very family-oriented and they completely understood. They were also really glad to see us when we arrived. Our first week was settling in to the routine of working. We unloaded our living history stuff and got our clothes.

Before Mom’s birthday bash, Tom and I took her out for an adventure day exploring Medina. Mom grew up near Wooster and went to Medina a few times as a teenager. But she said she had not been there since. I think it has changed a little. We had an absolutely gorgeous day for our adventure. Mom really enjoys riding in the car and basking in the ever-changing view. As we came into Medina, Mom talked about her memories of the place when she was young.

Last week Tom and I tried to get from our house to the grocery store. It turns out, you can’t get there from here. Or, at least, not on the day we were trying. Or the way we were trying. They shut down the road we live off of several weeks ago. We knew it was coming, but we live on a cul-de-sac with 11 other houses. No matter what they did for road construction, they had to leave a way for us to get in and out of our street. And they have – mostly.

My mom celebrated her 90th birthday on Monday, June 15. The day before that, June 14, the family got together to celebrate her 90th birthday with her. It was the first celebration without my dad and we missed him. But we also enjoyed celebrating all of Mom’s years with her. Birthday reception at church We started with meeting at Mom’s church for worship. This was the biggest part of her 90th birthday celebration and a gift to her.

Our adventure day with Mom and her friends was a Morrow County Scavenger Hunt. Tom and I made a list of the five Morrow County Ohio Historical Markers. Those were our main objective. But inviting Bonnie along was a genius idea, because Bonnie has lived in Morrow County since she got married in 1973. She is also a very curious person and loves history. So she enhanced our outing considerably. Victory Shaft We started with lunch in Mt. Gilead, the county seat of Morrow County.

Tom and I resumed adventure days with Mom with lunch at Sames and Cook in Mt. Gilead. We picked up two friends of Mom’s, Bonnie and Beverly, and had a wonderful afternoon out exploring. Although we have looked at places to eat in Mt. Gilead several times, we had overlooked Sames and Cook. Bonnie, who attends church in Mt. Gilead, suggested it as our lunch spot. Sames and Cook doesn’t look like much from the outside. It is in an old storefront on the historic Main Street, just south of the square.

When Dad died, I knew Mom and I needed to work the Survivors Checklist. This is the list of all the things you have to do when someone dies. Some of them are related to legal matters. Others are practical. But they all need to be done. Mom and Dad did everything they could before Dad died to make the process as easy as possible. They prepaid their funeral arrangements, bought gravesites and a headstone. They set up a trust for financial matters.

A recent visit to Round Hill Dairy in Mount Vernon, Ohio, had me diving into the history of Mount Vernon and the Curtis Family. A woman that I walk with sometimes in the morning, Jessie, considers herself to be an ice cream aficionado. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that Round Hill Dairy was THE best ice cream in Ohio. If you have read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I love to try new ice cream places. I was intrigued and marked it down as a place to try.

On Sunday, Pastor Phil was preaching and he said, “Love is not vague.”  It was a really good line. I don’t know if he meant it to be the most memorable thing about his sermon, but it has stayed with me all week. The last month has been full and difficult with my dad’s death, his visiting hours, funeral, interment, and helping Mom with all the paperwork involved in death. But I have seen that sentence by Pastor Phil demonstrated in my life every day. Love is not vague.