It has not been a good week for many in our community. Mimi Lawton called to tell me that Sharon McCombs had passed away. She taught 3rd grade in Plymouth some years ago.
Mary Jo Williams, mother of Marcia Avise, passed away on December 16th.
Rodney Wartick of Bowen passed away on December 18th from complications of COVID-19. Saw he and his wife, Judy, at many auctions.
Gary Melvin, of Augusta, was killed in a vehicle wreck on 336 by Colchester on Thursday afternoon. He and his wife attended Living Faith on occasion. He was driving some Amish gentlemen at the time of the accident.
Each of these people was important to our community and will be missed by us all. Please keep these families and friends in your thoughts and prayers.
Got a text on Friday morning that something was going on in Augusta. Though there has been very little that I have seen on the news media, Facebook has had some reports and we all know they are reliable-not. Anyway seems that three shots were fired early Friday morning at an apartment near the Augusta fire station. A person was killed. It is assumed that the incident was drug related. Even small towns are not exempt from drug crime it would seem.
Another big happening this week is the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. By the time you read this, the prime viewing will be over. Prime is on Monday about 5:30 pm in the Southwestern sky. This is important because it is believed that this conjunction may have been the “Star of Bethlehem”.
This is the best viewing since 1226 so I doubt that any of us saw it then.
Thursday evening, I headed to Macomb to get feral food and HyVee had advertised a special Chinese dinner for four. How can one turn down four pints of entrée, two pints of noodles or rice, four egg rolls, four crab Rangoon and four fortune cookies for 19.99. A dinner for four turns into four or more dinners for one! Interstate 336 was closed so I went through Colchester. We now know why the interstate was closed.
The ferals at the store are getting chubby and demanding. Now that they have all been spayed, they are becoming somewhat lazy. They come at noon and at five pm expecting to be fed and they are. Some of them even come to the door and stand on their hind feet and look in to see if I am getting their food yet. One of them, Freckles, has become tame and wants to be petted. She is a pretty red kitty and if anyone would give her a good home, she would not have to live in a falling down building uptown. Let me know if you would like to have a new family member.
It is easy to feel very alone during this time of COVID-19 isolation. Only Prince Harry and I will celebrate Christmas at my home this year. So I was especially interested in our devotional reading for December 17th. Part of the reading included that Immanuel means never alone and reminds us that God is always with us. Have to remember that.
Went to the Amish community to pick up a quilt that I had quilted and saw two coyotes in a field near the road. Though we know there are a lot of coyotes in the area it is very unusual to actually see one. Speaking of animals, I have a really cute fluffy possum who stops by frequently to see what is available for supper on the back porch of the garage. I know that it appreciates apple pie and cheerios thus far.
Today, December 20th is Bob and Ginny Lawton’s 40th wedding anniversary. Congratulations.
You can bet that when the higher authorities say that “little old ladies who run antique stores” can get a COVID-19 shot that I will be in line. Hope you are planning to get vaccinated too as that is one way to help save lives. Until then, please continue to wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands. There have been far too many deaths already.
Though Christmas will be different for a lot of us this year, I hope each of you remembers what the true meaning of the season is-we celebrate the birth of the Christ child. That celebration will take place whether we gather or whether we just pause and thank God for giving us His Son.
Merry Christmas.