MEEKER | My mother-in-law, Pat Hendrickson lived in Meeker about a year before passing at the age of 94. She didn’t get to meet most of you, so I would like to share some of her humor with you now. Her Christmas letters from Bartlett, Kansas, population 69, were hilarious stories of life on the farm. You will need a little background for her letter to make sense. Her reference to perches was Pat’s lighthearted approach to death. A caged bird dies and falls off its perch. Ern, at this point in time had advanced Parkinsons.
First came Thanksgiving and then before I knew it, Christmas had caught me by surprise as usual. Not so surprising is the fact I put away my stash of Christmas cars and addresses last year and have not found them yet. I believe they are situated somewhere in the far reaches of the house and will only resurface when Christmas is long gone. Or never. Hence-(and under used word that should be aired out more often) I have only been able to scrounge up cards that may have been freebies from some money laundering charity. You may ask why I do not buy some new cards. Go ahead, but don’t expect an answer. And try not to call charmingly befuddled old me a cheapskate. Now to news of the year. There isn’t any. That we are still sitting on our perches and not clinging to them upside down is something but not really news. Ern, and consequently I, am home bound. Well, I do escape now and then to run errands around town and see friends like the doctor, dentist, and chiropractor. We are not isolated despite not going on ten mile trips. Plenty of people shoot through our house most days. Ern’s nurses and a guitar playing chaplain from Hospice, and his morning and night caretakers are in and out during the week. Our church family and friends pop in to see if we are lying on the floor and can’t get up. Sometimes Ern is. I never lock the door in the daytime as it is too much trouble creeping to answer the darn thing. So far, no burglar has popped in. Maybe one could find my lost Christmas Cards. So nice to hear from you at this time of year and may we have many more years to come. Old friend are getting dearer every year.
A comment from Ed: My wife, Tracy found the 50 odd lost Christmas cards in a box of Pat’s old things this year along with this Christmas letter from Pat.
By ED PECK
