July 2 Aunt Sally and Uncle Richard

Tuesday evening:  Ruthanne, Terry and I were invited over to Aunt Sally and Uncle Richard's for pizza tonight. We haven't seen them since Aunt Jan's funeral (last fall); but before that, it had been two years (at our last family reunion in cousin Mary's garden).

Aunt Sally is 85, almost 86; and Richard is 90, almost 91; but you would never know it from watching them move around their condo! They MOVE like they are still in their 40's--up and down stairs, briskly walking, bending over, etc. After all of the hip pain I've had in the last 10 weeks or so, it made me wonder what I am doing WRONG!

Anyway, we had a nice three hours with them Tuesday evening. Aunt Sally brought out a scrapbook from the cottage years in Sarnia, Canada. Ruthanne remembers this place better than I do--I was 5 years old the last time I saw it; but I have distinctly HAPPY memories from there--and those are some of the very few happy memories from my childhood. My great grandparents owned 400 ft. of beach property on Lake Huron, right at the mouth of the St. Clair River where it leads down to Lake St. Clair and then the Detroit River and on into Lake Erie. Anyway, from that beach we could see the Blue Water Bridge (crossing from Sarnia to Port Huron) and we could see the big ships approaching the channel there. I loved it there so much. There was one large cottage and two smaller ones on the property--all of the Holtzhouse families would come up for a week each every summer. I remember the rocks on the beach, digging small canals in the sand that would reach to the water, collecting shells, watching my grandfathers (and uncles) play shuffle board, eating my grandma's amazing meals, running around with my brother Kevin with a jar of ladybugs ... and even now when I hear wind blowing through the leaves of trees, I can transport myself back in time to Sarnia. It always seemed to be windy there, and there were a lot of trees on the property leading down to the beach. It was good to see pictures of the place once again. I especially love the picture of the stone perimeter wall and arch my grandpa built, and realized once again it is why I love rocks and stones so much. And beaches! And large bodies of water! Good memories to savor! Unfortunately, the year of my birth (1953) was the year one of my great uncles drowned in a sudden storm during a fishing trip, which marred all of the grown-ups memories of those days and then sold the property in 1958 (when I was 5). 

We asked a lot about their children and grands (12 of them) and great-grands (20 of them), and heard many stories--some sad and some happy. I think this is probably true of all families in our "fallen" world. We all concluded that Jesus could return any time--even this very day--and it would be just fine with us! Once a person has been rescued from the penalty of death, there is nothing more to fear about dying--so, whenever the Lord decides our time is up--that's fine too! We are so thankful for Christ's death and resurrection--such undeserved grace and mercy has been given to us.

Right before we left, I grabbed my phone and I snapped the first picture; and then Ruthanne took the second one.

I actually took THREE pictures,
but in all three of them Ruthanne's eyes were closed ...

Ruthanne did a better job than I did taking
this picture--we are almost all of us smiling even!

We all decided not to let so much time pass before seeing each other again. Next time, we'll have them over to our places here at Leisure Village.