While we're talking about it...

...I just heard a week ago that Louis Teicher passed away this past year. You may not know who that is unless I say "Ferrante and Teicher" and if you are 50 and older. They were a piano duo that met in Juliard and went on to fame as duo-pianists. They came to Birmingham, AL while I was in college in the late 60's/early 70's. I was able to attend the concert and enjoyed every minute of it - especially since my undergraduate major was piano. I still have the records of them that I had bought those many years ago. Even tho' they no longer can play together, we can still enjoy their tremendous talent.

Death - so routine, yet not.

Tuesday evening, some friends W&MW lost a friend to cancer. SB was a fairly young man, about 49 years old. He was estranged from family. W&M and 2 other couples were about the only "family" he had. We visited the hospital Sunday where SB was hospitalized; medicated so heavily because of pain.

This has been hard on W&M because he was like their son. Being that we are friends of the friends - it puts a layer of people between us and SB. Does that make sense? But watching this from the sidelines has brought some musings to my mind. SB was a christian and ready to go be with the Lord. Yet, he was not wanting to die. He wanted to fight. We all have that will-to-live fight in all of us. It is natural. Yet, "from dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return."

This, of course, is not the first time I have encountered the death of someone. Our parents, other relatives and many friends have passed away. (Even my last post was the obit of a professional friend of mine.) Yet every time it seems like such an interruption to life, sometimes even a waste from the human point of view.

Dying is a natural process, yet we very seldom want to embrace it. It isn't routine, obviously, since it can only happen once in each persons own life. Yet it happens all the time. Is it something we can accept? Just why is it so hard to accept the death of someone? Often we have emotional ties to the deceased. We will not be able to have that kind of relationship again.

This is true, but death is a very natural part of life. I don't know that I really have an answer to these questions, but it is something to think about. I don't know that I really am any closer to accepting or understanding death, either. I do know that death is not an evil thing. Scripture even states that 'precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.'

I suppose we fall somewhere between being totally torn apart when someone is ripped out of our life to being emotionally detached knowing that death is just part of the cycle of life. It could be that none of us will never really, totally understand death until we experience it for ourselves. Yet the knowledge gained cannot be passed on to someone else, until they, too, pass to the 'other side.' In other words, this may be something we can never know on this side of life.

Hilda Kroeker's obit

Kroeker, Hilda
Hilda Kroeker passed from this life to be with her Lord on January 4, 2009. She was born Dec. 16, 1924, at Mountain Lake, Minn., and was the third of nine children born to Martin and Helen Kroeker. At a young age, the family moved to the community of Marion, South Dakota, where she attended elementary and high school. She graduated from Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kan., and received her masters degree from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kan. She began her teaching career in 1950, at the elementary and high school levels. She joined the faculty of Calvary Bible College as head librarian in Kansas City, Mo., in 1962, where she remained through 1984. After retiring, she began her second career in apartment management. She was an active member of Mission Road Bible Church until her health would not allow her to participate in many activities. She kept a personal interest in the lives of many of her former students and remained friends with them. She greatly enjoyed traveling, and participated in many of the trips sponsored by Powell Gardens. She kept extensive scrapbooks of each of her trips. While at Calvary Bible College, she organized the "Friends of the Library," and served in many capacities of the Christian Librarians Association, including Vice-President and President. She was honored with having the library at Calvary Bible College named "Hilda Kroeker Library." She was preceded in death by her parents, one brother, one sister, one brother-in-law and one sister-in-law. She is survived by her sisters, Mary Loewen, Martha Fast and Elvira Plett, all of Hillsboro; her brothers, Werner Kroeker, Clovis, Calif., Alvin Kroeker, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and O.J. Kroeker, Shawnee, Kan.; many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great- nephews, and many friends locally and across the country. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, at D.W. Newcomer's Sons Johnson County Chapel, 11200 Metcalf, Overland Park, Kan. The funeral service will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at Mission Road Bible Church, 7820 Mission Road, Prairie Village, Kan. Contributions in her memory may be made to New Hope Children's Home, India. Mail to: College Community Church, 2529 Willow Avenue, Clovis, CA 93612. Fond memories and condolences may be left at www.dwnewcomers.com Arrangements: D.W. Newcomer's Sons Johnson County Chapel, (913) 451- 1860.

I have just arrived back home from traveling to Kansas City for Miss Kroeker's funeral. It was a lovely celebration of her life and ministry. Many testified of her love and interest for her family and for young people. After her parents died she took up their commitment of praying for their children and grandchildren every day. How many of us parents even have that desire today?

Hilda Kroeker

Miss Hilda Kroeker passed away Sunday and is now enjoying her rewards in heaven. This lady served as the first professionally degreed librarian for Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO (USA). She served there for well over 20 years. The exact amount now escapes my mind.

I had the privledge of meeting her and visiting with her on a few occasions. Years later, I followed her in the same position (with other intervening librarians.) She did a lot to bring up the quality and level of the library to academic standards. She was a leader and mentor. She advised me on a few occasions and encouraged me on others. One urging was to join the Associaion of Christian Librarians which she had been involved in for many years.

She never married or had children. But she was an asset to many young people that passed through our academic halls of CBCTS. She was at least in her late 70's. She never forget her poise and professionalism. She was a big supporter of the Friends of the Library well into the last years of her life, including during the years that yours truely worked at reviving the comatose organization.

She gave much of herself to the institution and the library, so it was a wonderful day when CBCTS recognized her by naming the library after her. It was the least we could do for her after all she did for us.

New Year's Intentions

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It has been said that you no longer are to make New Year's Resolutions. Instead, they are to be called Intentions. That's probably a good thing, because that is pretty much what resolutions turn out to be. How many have we made down through the years and never kept? - Maybe not every year. But any year? yeah, we very seldom keep any of them.

So this year, I have some intentions. One of them is to get back to my exercise regimen and healthier eating. I did well for 1 1/2 years and lost xxxxx amout of weight. But when I quit work in May, and began preparing for our "big" move this year, my "routine" and structure fell by the wayside. So I put about 2/3's of the weight back on.

Holidays are the "worst" time to try to diet. I decided that I was going to enjoy the holidays, but as soon as they were over, I was hitting the gym once again. Yesterday, after work I went back to the gym and starting exercising. I walked a mile, carrying some light weights, then worked out on 6 or 7 machines. I put in about 45 minutes of some good exercise.

Already this morning I could tell the difference. Although, having exercised late in the day, I slept very light and woke up about every hour till towards morning. BUT, the good thing was, I woke up (the last time) about an half hour before I usually get up. When I did - I was WIDE AWAKE. Now, you have to understand, I am not a morning person and it takes me awhile to really feel awake and revved.

I'm slow to get started and awake but I'm also slow to wind down at night. It's easy for me to "sleep-in" come morning and it is easy for me to stay up late at night. But today I was wide-eyed and bushy tailed. What did I do? I got up! WOW. That gave me a whole extra half hour in the morning.

I decided to go into work early. As a result, I was able to take an hour for lunch instead of an half hour. Since I did that - I was able to come home during lunch and get some supper cooked for Mike to have when he got up. Maybe he can even take some to work tonight.

Now don't get any bright ideas! I can't promise I'll do that every day. But, my INTENTIONS are to keep up this new routine as much as I can. I don't really have any other planned intentions. But, finishing getting unpacked would probably be a good one to add. But there's also so many other new things I want to get involved in, here in Arkansas that I didn't have the opportunity to do, living in the country in Kansas. So, I don't know how quickly the rest of that unpacking will get done. Well, maybe a year from today, I can an inventory and see just how well my intentions turned out, and just how much of that unpacking I got done.

What about you? Do you even have any? How did you do with your "resolutions" from a year ago? Maybe you ought to make a list of (only) intentions. BTW, there's not as much guilt with having intentions then resolutions if you don't get them done.