Page 59 - MLD Book

Calvary is an exciting parish, and I consider myself to be blessed to be called as its rector. The emphasis of your parish on worship, music, outreach, and faith is evident. His first Sunday at Calvary would be July 4, 2010. Of course, that is my anniversary too, as well as Callie’s, but as the next years ensued, it would only be marked as HIS. Ego is not lacking in that man. He was instituted on October 7. Already by August, people were asking “Is Erdman a control freak?“ Stay tuned for the answer!
In May (10 to be exact), Melvin had another of his falls that would become more frequent as the body protested various moves it didn’t like. I can’t count the number of times in the next four years that I would come home to find him on the floor, even once in the driveway where I almost ran over him. This one did something to his ankle, so that necessitated various hospital and doctor trips, and a “funny shoe” that that Doctor Renda had him wear. Renda, remember, was the guy who set his leg a couple of years previous. His personality had not changed in the interim.
One nice thing happened in 2010. Judge Tom Fulton had cultivated hundreds of tomato plants and donated them to Calvary for people to take and grow to stock our food pantry. There were still many left over, so I suggested that we convert the very Ugly space beside the handicap ramp into a garden. The rest of the large area now contained a playground, lots of nice bushes, and was very attractive and a compliment to the Burial Ground, but the ugly space remained, although hidden to most. Originally before the 1994 addition, this had been the space where the rector parked his car. After clearance by at least FOUR committees, the idea caught on in a big way, and we planted all manner of vegetables and harvested them. People worked the soil and donated dirt, as there were rocks and rills and grates and pipelines to be considered, and it became a community undertaking that was both pleasant and productive. Ruth Robins has taken over the overseeing of that space and has done a wonderful job, although the “hire it done” concept has taken away the joy many parishioners felt as they rescued ugly into beauty.
2011