A Brighter Springtime

I remember clearly what I did on Easter 2020: I went biking alone. No church, no family dinner, no socializing. Of course, that’s how the season was for most everyone. Stay home and slow the spread. I was fortunate to keep my job, but everything else pretty much halted. For good or for ill, that was spring 2020.

So while I have been seriously neglecting Penny Letters in the last few months, it’s because of happier days! I took a Saturday job answering phones at a mulch business, church activities are in full swing, and weekends are full of picnics and campfires instead of vegging out in front of the computer.

This year at Easter, we had a sunrise service and an Easter brunch at church. In the afternoon, I took my teenaged nephew Cordell and niece Mikayla to listen to a brass band, named Clarion Winds, playing in Ephrata. We had never even heard of some of the instruments before, but it sounded lovely.

In March, I started working at Weaver Mulch in Chester County on Saturdays. They hire a bunch of short-term workers every spring. My job is to answer phones and take orders for mulch, compost, topsoil, gravel, etc. I can now explain the virtues of bark mulch and mushroom soil.

My sister showed up on my first day of work and ordered mulch. Here’s the mulch in Brenda’s flowerbeds. It’s “premium bark” mulch.

A few weeks ago, after a busy Saturday of answering phones, I drove to Lewisburg to visit my friend, Judith. We ate at a BBQ place and walked along the Susquehanna River at night as Judith told me stories about her new home west of the river. “I’m never moving back to Lancaster County!” Judith told me.

The next day, we visited my aunt and uncle’s church and went to their home for lunch.

My cousin Peter showed us his electric unicycle. It was tempting to give it a try, but Judith and I did 18 miles of old-fashioned cycling on the Buffalo Valley Rails-to-Trails instead. (If you’re interested in the electric unicycle, see Peter’s Youtube channel here.)

One sad event that happened this springtime was the passing of a friend. Heidi died of sepsis after a long fight with cancer.

She was thirty-four, only a few months older than me. Although Heidi had been sick a long time, her death shook me in ways I didn’t expect. (A nurse friend told me that’s normal when someone very close to your own age dies).

Her funeral was on a chilly spring day, and I felt sad to see her four younger brothers carrying her coffin. Pallbearers should be your grandsons or nephews, not your brothers, I thought. But the care shown during Heidi’s long illness and at her funeral was a beautiful testimony of love and the hope of eternal life.

On Saturday I got a surprise gift in the mail from Daughters of Promise magazine. Every year, they do a special giving event of sorts for women in different stages of life. (The details are here.) This year, they sent gift boxes to single women, and the married ladies at my church arranged for the single ladies at church (there are quite a few of us) to receive boxes. Each box contained notes from the women at church and gifts from small businesses. I felt a bit awkward about it when I first saw the box and realized what it was, but I really enjoyed all the notes and know I am richly blessed to be part of loving community!

Enjoy your day and whatever blessings come your way! Love, Susan