Page 83 - MLD Book

postponement of Lindsey’s wedding for the second time due to Covid restrictions, what is going to be the future for these little ones? That, along with the stark reality that I won’t be a part of it after a few years, if that!
On that cheery note, I might as well get the funerals over with next. We lost three Calvary people within the span of two months in 2018 who had played a big part in my life, two for better, one for somewhat worse - Lois O’hara,, Frannie Lewis, and Ginger Ray. I played for all three of those funerals, and added three others as well. In addition, Burrel Farnsley, who has been described in detail throughout this epistle, died in January as well. He happened to again be mad at Calvary and the funeral was at the Cathedral. Shawn was hired full time in July and I was allowed only a couple of chances to play, as he asked others on his list for other times. I did play a Lenten recital March 7, and subbed a lot at St. Mark’s and St. Luke’s.
The big news of 2018 was the calling of Lee Franklin Shafer to be the new Rector of Calvary. She was called in October and her first Sunday was in December. Although she isn’t musical, she fully supports our outreach efforts, and since that is now my main occupation, I am happy with that. I do mess with music enough to be on the music committee again (remember delBane kicked me off) and am head of flower delivery as well as go-to altar guild member. And so we finish off 2018.
2019
This year may be labeled as perhaps the quietest in a number of years, at least in terms of big crises, rector changes or yet another search committee to contend with. It marked Lee’s first full year and the honeymoon went on for a while. I got to play for the Thursday service, and she had me add a prelude to the mix, plus when a anybody had a birthday, I could surprise them with my rendition of Happy Birthday. I still was confined to one Sunday in August to play as Sunday sub, plus the usual tit for tat Lenten recital in return for my providing all the food and labor for the recital series. Shawn had instituted a Bach Vesper series, and I remember enduring his rendition of Bach Cantata 64 featuring three Sackbutts!! I was not the coninuo player for that of course, that fell to Herr Bozeman – I won’t go into that association! I did accompany the junior choir in its couple of stints for the year, a dreary little group that Shawn did the best he could with. I kept my fingers in action with sub stints, including ones at St. Luke’s, St. Mark’s, and a longer one at St. Thomas, including Christmas Eve! I
also filled in for Glenna at Broadway Baptist after the death of Robert.
Food and clothing went great guns in 2019, with Jim and me being responsible for buying all of the food for both the morning hours and the Well. Somehow, people donated quite generously to the Well, but really not much to the food program, so we were having to buy a lot. Stay tuned for 2020 when all that changed. Fresh Stop was a good summer source, and the Calvary gardens on 7th street got bigger and better too.
I played for six funerals, four of which were for people from Calvary who had contributed much to our church, and whom I had known for years: Bonnie Fritschner, Marion Six, Ted Mussler, and Whitney O’Bannon. Marion’s death hit me the hardest because we had been so close for so very long. When Maria was 3 or 4, she was in Marion’s nursery class, and Marion always cut her hair (she was a hairdresser) during class!! (Maria endeared herself to