Update Edward Richard Unruh was born on March 8th, 1915. He was 93 when he left us. He would be 100 years of age on Sunday. He loved ice cream in a cone, and one always tasted like one more to him. So that’s how we celebrate. Our family in Ontario and British Columbia have honoured his memory with ICE CREAM CONE DAY. Eleven of us in BC will come together for lunch and cones.
I recall my father, who was 5’6”, being a strong young man; hard working, predictably content, gentle, soft spoken, a man who always whistled current and favourite tunes, had a pleasant tenor voice, could harmonize vocally with ease, who became a committed follower of Christ in his mid-thirties; whose primary passion was his family; whose great love was Tina Martha Doersken to whom he was married for 66 years until she died 6 months before his own departure; who viewed as his greatest achievements, providing a home for his three sons, and seeing his boys acquire post high school education & each become involved in full-time Christian work, marry beautiful girls whom he loved, and then being ready himself, to go home.
I am having one of my ‘senior’ hours just now, having awoken at 3 am, and checked some art websites, some email like this, and now will settle into the middle of my current novel, reading Lee Child’s ’61 Hours.’ His protagonist in this multi-novel series is Jack Reacher. And over the past year I have read many of his works. Reacher is an interesting character, fascinating because he is unlike me in every conceivable way, standing 6’5”, an ex military man, with combat skills and awareness of other people’s weakness that makes him fearless; a vagabond of sorts who is constantly travelling across the USA, always on the move, without any possessions whatsoever, carries no backpack or anything else, purchases new inexpensive clothing every few days and discards the old stuff, and wherever he goes, he stumbles into some fascinating scenario where he has a string of heroic moments at the end of which, I as a reader feel relief from the resolution, strength from living Reacher’s story, eagerness to learn more about him as he moves on.
