Good morning folks!
I'm posting again so soon after yesterday's post of the Monster in the White House. I don't want to let that face looking at my blog followers for more than a day.
Today I'm posting the first iMovie that I made of one of my class reunions. I have hundreds of photos and videos that I have to put in this format and post before I make my Grand Exit.
The photos in this video were taken June 22, 2002 at my classmate Dave Fidler's farm in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Dave and his family adopted the Mennonite way many years ago.
I graduated from Downingtown High School in 1959. We have class reunions every year. In the odd years we have informal class reunions at a classmate's home or local restaurant. On the five year increments (10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, etc) we have a formal class reunion at a country club or some such other posh and formal location.
This particular class reunion was special because our classmate Steve Pope, to whom this video is dedicated.
Steve had never attended any of our previous reunions. I'm often on the reunion committee and one of my goals prior to our reunions was trying to look up former class members who had lost touch with our class. When I found Steve he said 'I've been looking for someone from my class.' Steve told me he had diagnosed with brain cancer (he had already lost an eye) and didn't have long to live and wanted to see his former classmates one more time.
Steve was a very popular member of our class so this was a perfect alignment of the planets him looking for us and me finding him. Steve had quite a history after he left school. Even though he was one of the brainiest members of our class (Student Council, Academic course) he had a very interesting work history. For a time he was a cabdriver in Chicago. During the Vietnam war he was in the Coast Guard and commanded a boat in the waters off of Viet Nam. After the war he was a Buddhist monk for a while. He told me he had purchased a hut in Bali Hai which he still owned. Steve is a perfect example of why I find my class reunions so enjoyable.
A few months after our reunion was held, Steve died peacefully with his wife by his side. His wife told me that Steve died exactly as he wished. He was sitting up in his bed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She said both of his hands were resting on his legs. He slowly closed his eyes and left us.
When Steve first told me he had terminal cancer and not long to live I replied to him 'I don't know what to say.' Steve told me 'Oh, I'm alright with this. I've always wanted to know what was on the other side.' Now that I am approaching my dwindling days on this earthly plane, I too am wondering what is on the other side. Know what? I don't think there is anything but if there is, wouldn't that be wonderful? Maybe I'll have another reunion with Steve.
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| Steve Pope 1941 - 2002 |
