In the month of March a good friend of ours went to the Lord. He was Lewis Hagerman. He and his wife Joanne have been friends since we moved here. Early in those years we also met their son Lewis under rather unusual circumstances. We had him as a helper in our yard work. The way it happened is that the Youth Leader at church in order to raise money for activities, auctioned off the young men’s time, a day, to help wherever they could. We were the highest bidder for Lew. He was I’d guess 14-15 years old at the time when he came to help us. It just happened that the day he came was the same day we were having delivered a pygmy Palm tree. We had been assured when we purchased it that they would not only deliver it but also plant it. The delivery came with a driver and no helper. The driver then asked for help. Fortunately Lew was there and so we had the tree planted.
Lew senior comes to mind because in the program presented at his memorial service there appeared this quote:
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well-preserved body, but to skid in broadsides, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming WOW—what a ride!” (Anon.)
Lew suffered from cancer the last years of his life. It ate away his body. The quote is very applicable to the way Lew lived. He had no doubts that he would meet the Lord upon his journey’s end. So that that was more important than the body being well preserved. We visited him about a week before his death while he was under hospice care. He was admittedly looking very worn but his spirit was still there and we enjoyed his company and that of his children and his wife, Joanne.
The description of life’s journey in the quote is very applicable to me these days. That once ‘well preserved body’ is slowly being used up. This body that ran a number of marathons and even a couple 50 K’s (31+ miles) is finding it tough now to even bend over and clip his toenails! But then being eighty years old should explain some of the loss. When I see others ten or more years younger struggling with their health I know I really have been blessed.
In the month of May just passed I reached that 80th birthday. When June reached her 70th we hosted a dinner to celebrate at a local restaurant. We had up to 30 or more friends attend. So we decided to do the same for my 80th. I prepared the invitation and we created a list of some thirty plus friends whom we would invite. Then June told me it would need to be on the 9th of May not the actually birthday the 16th. I assumed that the date change was due to the 16th not being available – later I found out the real reason for the change! We received acceptances from the thirty or more friends and June who was in touch with the restaurant took care of notifying them. Then came the day, the 9th of May—I got one surprise after another as the day progressed! My children starting with the youngest boy, Danny started to appear until I knew that all but two would be with us at the dinner. I then asked June if the last two would also be present – and she admitted they would, for by now she was tired of keeping secrets. What a surprise! Then I received even another one when I arrived at the restaurant and found that three grandchildren would also be with us. The reason for the date change also became clearer. On the week after my birthday, on the 23rd, our first grandson, Tommy, was getting married. It was to be in Atlanta, GA. So in order to avoid my gang travelling two weekends in a row June changed the date of the dinner to the 9th. I unfortunately due to needing oxygen, etc. could not travel up to Atlanta to attend. But I was there in spirit!
The next day my children came to our home and showed me a DVD they made of interviews with friends and my sister Rosemary. There was one scene with all lawyers who were related to me. It was a fun to watch and listens especially three grandchildren, Aiden, Alex, and Owen tell of memories of their Pop-pop!
Thomas More (1478-1535) saint, author and lawyer, has been a name familiar to me since High School. Our high school, West Catholic, competed against St.Thomas More High School in track, basketball, and football. Both high schools were located in West Philadelphia. Then later when I became a lawyer I learned of an organization called “The Thomas More Society”. It was for Catholic lawyers. I would have qualified at that time for membership but I can’t recall that I ever joined that society. Recently I came across a book I had picked up over a year ago entitled “Portrait of Courage” by Gerald Wegemer. It set forth the life of Thomas More. He was an intellectual, prayerful lawyer father during the reign of Henry VIII of England. He lived in a period of historic turmoil referred to as the Reformation years. He is still remembered as the author of “Utopia” a story of an ideal community. It a word that is still used to day to describe the imagined perfect place like paradise, heaven, bliss, never-never land, etc. He as a young man was a page in the house of the then Chancellor of England and got to meet an even a younger man Prince Henry. This would be the Henry as King who would order his execution. This book was published in 1995. While I was reading it I found in the New York Book Review magazine a review of a book entitled “A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and his Dearest Meg” by John Guy another biography of Thomas accenting his daughter and her intellectual feats and her love of her father. She had many visits with him when he was a prisoner for many months before his execution.
She tried to convince him he should take the oath that the King wanted. In effect that would be acknowledging his right to divorce and marrying Anne Boleyan and that he was the head of the Church. Many of the English Catholic hierarchy had done so. So, argued his loving daughter, than so should he. He said his conscience wouldn’t let him do it. In one of the books they referred to Thomas as a “conscientious objector”. It is of course an apt description of his behavior but in the years past whenever we heard about a conscientious objector it was usually in the attempt to avoid service, not accepting punishment for your beliefs.
Among his other writing Thomas wrote a life of King Richard III. He got most of his information from relatives that lived under Richard and his tyranny. It is believed that a lot of the material in the Shakespearean play “Richard III” was based on this information. His daughter could read and write in Latin and Greek. She translated from Latin into English a book written by another famous name of the times, Erasmus. The book was on the Our Father. She had it published under a male pseudonym, since woman were not either expected nor permitted to do such things. As the play and the movie suggest Thomas More certainly was a “Man For All Seasons”!
June is, or used to be, the month of graduations. On June 7,1947 I graduated from High School but none of my family were there to celebrate with me. They were all at my brother John’s wedding to Patricia Sheehan. That marriage produced five children only one of which, Gregory, survive in 2009. Richard, the oldest son, led us to Florida and to the area where we now reside. He and his wife Shirley brought a house in ‘Shore Acres’ of St. Petersburg, Florida. His wife still owns that property. We visited and lived there many times from 1991 on. In 1996 we decide we should buy a place to come to live in retirement. So we walked around ‘Shore Acres’ of St. Pete’s and ultimately found the house we now call ‘home’. We have now lived here for close to twelve years thanks to Rich and Shirley’s venture.
Until next time, Pax Tecum!