Sandwiched
My number one prayer involves counting my blessings. It’s important to be grateful for everything the Lord has given us, and I try to thank Him every day.
Family is at the top of my list. I start with my sons and husband. I then thank God, in no particular order, for the family that I married into, the family that raised me, and the family that helped to raise me.
That last category may sound strange, but as we all know, it truly takes a village to raise someone. My village consisted of my mother, father, grandparents, and older siblings. It also included my Heintzberger family, the one my sister Vicky married into.
The Heintzbergers have been in my life since I was a toddler. They lived on Broadway just a few blocks from my house in Mishawaka. Chuck and Dorothy were truly like my grandparents. Their son Mike became my brother-in-law when I was five and I grew up playing with his youngest brother, John.
Chuck and Dorothy had a cottage on Lake of the Woods in Bremen, just 20 minutes from South Bend. My family and I would go there often every summer along with Mike and Vicky and their children, Brian and Melissa, who are so close in age to me that they’re more like my siblings. I would get in the water every morning and barely get out until almost sunset. My skin was “pruny” and often sunburnt.
The cottage turned into Chuck and Dorothy’s year-round residence in the mid 80s, around the same time I learned to water-ski. To this day, the sounds of speedboats on a lake take me back to my childhood and are soothing to my soul.
Whenever we left the lake after a day of fun, delicious food (corn on the grill at Lake of the Woods tastes better than anywhere else!) and sun, Chuck and Dorothy always stood in their driveway to wave goodbye. It was a comforting sight.
Fast forward to me having my own kids and the visits to Lake of the Woods dwindling thanks to moving to Central Indiana. Mom didn’t visit as often either but still enjoyed coming down once or twice a year when we made it there for different celebrations. I still remember her chatting for hours with Dorothy, whom she adored.
I decided to write a letter to Chuck and Dorothy in 2010 to let them know how much they meant to me. And when they passed away a few years ago, I was so glad I took the time to write and send it.
My sons and I just spent a couple of days at Lake of the Woods for the holiday weekend. While the cottage was overflowing with people Saturday, last Friday we just enjoyed some time with Mike, who lives there now. We only see him once a year now, as he and Vicky divorced years ago.
We were lucky to have enjoyed an afternoon and evening of fun, but the skies finally spewed raindrops, so we retreated to our car at sunset. Mike sat on the back porch while we fiddled with the navigation in the car to figure out how to get to our hotel. Since I wasn’t used to my husband’s Ford Fusion hybrid, it took us a longer than expected. To my surprise, Mike still sat there.
Then it hit me why he was staying. He couldn’t do the traditional driveway goodbye without getting soaked, but he was pretty darn close. My throat constricted and decades of memories flooded my heart. I thanked God once again for the family that helped raise me and hoped that we will still have many more years together.