Well yes it's Christmas I told Mac, for about the 4th time, as many of the preposee's wished us a Merry Christmas as we left the 2nd Floor...had to repeat what they said and that was Mac's question. I could have told him that even while we were having turkey and so many other wonderful things to eat at our daughter Gaye's home, but it really wouldn't stick. Which is just as well as just as the memory of the day is gone quickly, so would the memory of something that did stick, a piece of turkey. In a way my fault, I forgot to keep telling him to chew, the food was so good he just kept on eating and I kept on feeding him...and all of sudden, he was choking, I called out "hey we need to have the Heimlich manevour (sic) - must look up the spelling, anyway. it was awful..Glenna tried and I was patting his back (wrong) then Martin quickly grabbed Mac around the chest (he has had training), and just like that - the food came out. Mac was deathly pale, but gradually after much spitting and then relaxing the colour came back to his face.. o.k. Lesson learned here. Mac forgot the whole episode after 10 minutes but I know this could have been the end. In fact I know that one of my cousins actually died from choking on food, so for sure I will not forget -
So though Christmas was fun and in more ways than one, this one will be remembered- actually it will be remembered as well because of a discovery of a card sent to Mac in 1981 by a member of the United Church in Chateauguay. Christmas eve I was cleaning up, and placing some books neatly on a shelf when the card came out - fell on the floor. When I read the message it was so heartwarming it MADE my Christmas. She was commenting on the fact that Mac would no longer be treasurer for the St. Andrews Church Sunday School, (in those days they actually had quite a few kids in the Sunday School.) In any case she said that she asked her son if he had enjoyed Sunday School, and he remarked that Mr. McConnell was his Sunday School teacher when he was about 12 or 13 and was the only teacher he ever had that knew what he was talking about.
Well I'm sure Mac said the things that I remember and that is Jesus was a great teacher, - was he the son of god, well that was another thing, but his teachings were worthwhile and that is why Mac felt this man Jesus was a prophet that one could emulate and follow.
Mac was never a Church Man per se - in fact he left the church many years ago now, as he felt that he could not stay where he felt the teachings of Jesus really were not very prominent among the leaders or elders of the church we attended. I argued that no one really could be that good - but Mac insisted there were certain guide lines that were basic and even those were bent..so that was that.
Now I agree with him, although for me doing social justice work is something that is part of the mandate of many churches and this is something that I could, at that time, really participate in - and in fact Mac also did work for human rights through the United church human rights committees - but one would never see him IN church.
So it was a kind of gift from the past to read this card, and it's clear that he is still a person that people respect and love, as so many of the staff here and of course all of his family clearly were able to demonstrate today - by wishing him a Merry Christmas - hugging him and loving him. When I got him washed and into bed, I also hugged and kissed him and said Goodnight, Merry Christmas, and the same goes to you the readers of this blog, g'nite Merry Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment