Sometimes you meet people and you feel like you’ve known them for a long time.  That was my experience this weekend as I enjoyed a weekend at Covenant Harbor in Lake Geneva, WI speaking to the Harvest Baptist Church women from Oswego, IL.  We had a marvelous time…..became fast friends……shared a lot of laughs…..a good amount of tears……and talked through some really important issues together.  There were some Mary Kay makeovers thrown in, some good singing by the “beach girls”(they could take their act on the road), and some fiercely competitive game playing of Buzz Word, Apples and Apples(I think that’s the name), and Marble Chase.  It never ceases to amaze me what women can manage to pack into a weekend retreat.  I think I remember sleeping…..but I’m not completely sure…….    Did I mention we had some delicious food too.  Dawn and Ginni and….ooops, did I just start naming names?  Too many names to mention, including Sandy, my gracious accompanist.  Anyway…..God is at work in the terrific women from Harvest Baptist.  I was just glad to have a small part in the weekend.  I think I’d better grab a nap.  I’m starting to remember that I didn’t get much sleep!

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Today I was watching a mentally challenged man in the grocery store.  He was employed there and was bagging my groceries.  I love that my local store employs this man.  My mind floated back to my childhood and my cousin Gilly who lived with my Aunt Muriel.  Back when I was 6 or 7 Gilly was 46 or 47 and we called him retarded.  He would sit and rock and rock and rock in Aunt Muriel’s big wooden rocking chair.  When I went to visit my aunt it was Gilly who always answered the door.  It was Gilly who always asked if we wanted anything to drink, or if he could do anything for us.  Gilly was a fixture at Aunt Muriel’s.  I usually went to visit Aunt Muriel on a Saturday night, because it was bath night.  I would spend summers at my grandparents and they didn’t have running water, so Saturday night we headed to Aunt Muriel’s to make use of her tub and flowing faucet.  There were seven of us that would stand in line for the tub.  It never seemed like an inconvenience though today I’m sure I’d think it was.  As a young girl it was a chance to be with Aunt Muriel, who always had a tin full of cookies and a mind full of stories.  Aunt Muriel would start in on a story and Gilly would often interrupt with what he thought was an important detail.  Aunt Muriel always cut him short and said, “now that’s not part of the story Gilly.”  It was a pattern you could count on, the story, the interruption.  And inevitably when Aunt Muriel was in the middle of a great story one of my brothers would come out of the bathroom and say…..”your turn, Anita.”  Great memories, all triggered by the bagboy at the grocery store.  I’m thankful for memories, aren’t you?

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