Page 76 - MLD Book

resignation on December 26! He took a job at St. Martin of Tours and proceeded to rave about their organ as opposed to Calvary’s organ. He also made sure I would not be his temporary successor by highly touting Shawn. I won’t get into that now. He and his lovely wife are now happily ensconced in Waco, Texas, and he raves about himself and what he accomplishes at his new church on FB all the time. I wish them well.
All this ugly stuff culminated at the end of 2015, but plenty of good stuff happened during the course of the year. I was able to play a whole lot, and that kept me busy and my mind sort of off the fact that Melvin wasn’t there when I came home. I played another recital at Good Shepherd in Lexington, as well as full length ones at Holy Spirit and St. James Catholic, as well as the opening recital in the Lenten-turned Easter Calvary series. Yes, Eugene was so adamant to not carry on ANY tradition I had established that he changed the 30 year old Lenten Series to an Easter series! It was a real disaster, but I cheerfully did my part by playing one of the recitals on April 15. I also satisfied my longing to play church services by stints at St. Andrew’s, St. Georges, St. James Pewee Valley, St. Luke’s, and St. Martin of Tours in the summer (before Eugene!). I was offered an interim position at Second Pres and another at Anchorage Presbyterian, but turned them down. Erdman generously had granted permission for me to be able to play funerals for friends who died, so I was allowed to do that for Anita Richards and Herbert Thornton (with big choir) as well as a couple elsewhere.
In non-musical activities, I became the resident Thursday LEM, and was able to give out food and clothing on each Thursday as well. Jim had me appointed as co chair of outreach, so I became official! Jim and I started doing the food shopping too, although they still persisted in paying Trevon to buy and bag chickens. Chickens remained the meat staple of food bags clear up until the pandemic, actually, when canned chicken and tuna took over for practical reasons. One good thing Erdman did was to turn over his D Fund to outreach when he left, so we had some money to work with for once. I also joined the altar guild and was assigned the last weekend of the month, a post I still hold in 2020, although that has expanded greatly due to non availability of some members. Meg and I split the weekends and donate flowers ourselves when nobody is listed. I sort of learned how to arrange flowers on the job, and enjoy that very much. Bart and I continued to edit the Calvary Connection in 2015, which was a source of frustration because Erdman never met a deadline, as I mentioned already. We only managed three editions in the whole year.
As I read through my calendar for 2015, I notices a great many times I did things for Frannie Lewis, who was the daughter of Mrs. D, (Calvary secretary, Morticia) about whom I talked way back earlier. Frannie was pretty much alone after Jack died, and I felt an obligation to help her as a tribute to Morticia. I lugged her to the bank, grocery, and pharmacy, not to mention Paul’s Fruit Market, way more times that I can count. (She did not drive.) She also fell a couple of times and ended up in ECH, and I had to get her mail, etc. It reinforced my realization that I am not called to be a nurse, although she did give me some German books and a kitchen towel once as thanks!!!! Oh yes, and one time she took me to lunch.
Finally, 2015 was the year that Frederick Baker (the partially homeless with lice and crabs) was murdered by a Galt House employee who thought it would be fun to see somebody die, or at least that’s what he said! Frederick slept on Calvary grounds often, when he wasn’t shacked up with a girlfriend. After his murder, we all went together to place him in our Burial Ground. He is in good company there!