October Song

It was five years ago, this day, when a very serious occurrence changed my life. It was so long ago, already. Feels like a lifetime has passed. I feel decades older. Five years ago I was such a child. And perhaps that would be expected. I was just thirteen, and very practical and childish.

Five years ago was the first time death ever hit close to me. Before that day, I had lived thirteen years in oblivion of death. No one had died in any close proximity to me, and in practice I seemed to believe that everyone would just live forever. Then, unexpectedly, my granddad died. There were many regrets, none of which I need reopen and describe... and many tears.

This is in memory of the man my family and friends loved and respected.

~

Granddaddy would get headaches every so often. He had horrible ones, most likely worse than any of mine ever have been. I remember one day while my sisters and I rocked him in the hammock while he rested.

~

-Hanna, resting with Granddaddy-

~

From the Frederick Community Winter 1997 Newsletter:

Many Frederick residents know Paul Yoder as the gentle, softspoken bus driver who takes them on shopping excursions, and picnics, or to a Phillies game or museum. But at one time he and his young family were missionaries in Kenya and the experience touches his life even now, almost twenty five years later. Paul still visits Kenya periodically to work with the congregation and has just returned from a month long stay with the Kikuyu tribe, with whom he once lived. On this most recent trip he was asked to deliver computer to a home for orphaned and deserted children that is operated by the Christian Relief Fund in Kitale, on the western side of Kenya. He was overwhelmed by what he saw. "Children at the home are aged five and under," he said. "They help care for the fruit trees and vegetable gardens, and tend cows and other animals. They also attend school, and they are obviously happy and well cared for." Paul relates an interesting story that highlights the ability of children to find unending joy in the small pleasures of life. On the day he visited the home, the older children were playing with a single roller skate. They were not complaining that the other skate was missing; they thrilled at taking turns skating on one foot across the concrete porch.

 Paul was blessed with an extra helping of patience and a warm smile that embraces everyone he meets. He takes great pleasure in driving Frederick's twenty-two passenger bus, enjoying the places that the groups visit and his friendly passengers! Paul's devotion and genuine concern for Frederick's residents make him a very special part of Frederick's extraordinary family.

~

~

"On Wednesday, October 14, 2009, I lost a friend and a neighbor, Paul D. Yoder. Paul left us to be with God as a result of a car accident. His vehicle was hit head-on by another vehicle. Unfortunately, the driver of that vehicle also lost her life. So we will never know what had caused that driver to go into the other lane of traffic. Paul was a very young 78 years old. He was in great health, good shape, and never was in a bad mood. He devoted his life to his family, God and many others he has helped over the years. He often traveled overseas to other countries to teach Christianity.... Life is too short, leave early, enjoy your favorite song and enjoy the ride. I will always have my memory of Paul on his tractor in the field, or helping his wife Naomi in the garden. Rest in peace Paul, you will be sadly missed and remembered for all the good things you have done in your life."

- By Dave Graber, next door neighbor and owner of Dave's Auto Service

~

~

By Jason A. Kahl, Reading Eagle

Two people were killed and another person injured in a three-vehicle accident Wednesday on Route 73 in Earl Township, officials said. Rachael S. Young, 27, Earl Township, and Paul D. Yoder, 78, Boyertown, died when the vehicles they were driving collided head-on at 11:15 a.m. near Little Getting Lane just west of the Colebrookdale Township line, investigators said. Young and Yoder were pronounced dead at the scene by Berks County Deputy Coroner Kurt E. Katzenmoyer. Both died of injuries suffered in the crash, and the deaths were ruled accidental, Katzenmoyer said. No autopsies were planned. [...] Troopers gave this account: Young was driving a car east on Rt 73 at a high speed when it crossed the center line at a bend and collided head-on with Yoder's westbound SUV. Young's car traveled back across the road, hit a metal guide rail and flipped onto its roof. The SUV spun and was struck by Meredith's westbound car, which was behind the SUV. Young and Meredith were wearing seatbelts. Yoder was not. Troopers closed Rt 73 for about four hours while they investigated. Young and Yoder were the 42nd and 43rd people to die this year as a result of accidents on Berks county roads.

~

~

There are many more articles and biographies and stories I could copy and share. Many, many more. I thought about copying my journal entry, cold and stark as it was. But I wish to close this post with a beautiful poem my sister wrote, years past. It never ceases to cause me to tear up.

Lost - A Tribute

To Granddaddy… and those who love him.

I lost you last October; you fell with the leaves.

Bright with color, with life, with sunshine

And wisdom and sage words - full of kindness.

Sometimes you forget how much you really have

Until it’s gone forever; and so with you.

I saw and sought but let you slip away

Caught up in my own whirl of life and hype

I forgot that you waited in the dusk

In the dim rich smells of wisdom’s library

Pausing with one hand on the page of living

So I could join you.

Gone; a passing shadow I never thought would fade.

“Sometime,” I would say, “Someday I’ll be there.”

There to meet you in the warmth of love

To kneel with you on the hearth and sip carrot juice

To laugh at jokes and riddles, to learn new words

Swahili, Pennsylvania Dutch, and maybe a few odds and ends

Or ends and odds.

We would have eaten milkshake - fresh out of the Vita mix

And played Scrabble until the bird clock in your office tweeted

Out the lateness of the hour and called everyone to bed.

Tiptoed into your bedroom in the dark of early morning

To listen to the radio and whisper “I love you, have a good day!”

And when you got up, to tickle Grandmamma awake

With your long peacock feathers from Africa.

And we would have ridden the tractor - me in the bucket

You at the wheel, going up and down and round and round

Toting metal to the scrap yard and getting half-dollars

From the yard man and another one from you

To match and make a whole dollar.

You showed me how to eat an apple

So that the waste-part would fit on a thumb nail

And when we went to Zerns, you took me to the ten-cent shop

To buy things for everybody. We stood outside the stalls

And you laughed with merriment as a gathering of ‘oldies’

Stood in the square and danced to the music of a harmonica

And a fiddle. And on our way out we stopped by the dumpster

So you could pick out all the things they threw out.

Seconds, but they were good. Very good.

You would have showed me all around the place

Like you did a dozen times before - the fishpond,

The fountain, all the little things you rigged up

And fixed up and jimmied up, until there was nothing

Nothing at all left to jimmy up anymore.

And we would have cracked walnuts, and skinned the bull

And butchered him, while you sharpened my knife

On your whetting rod and told us funny stories

Examined the intestines, cow-sized ones

And beheaded chickens and petted kittens

Even though you didn’t like them very much.

And then we would have sat around the dining room table

Joined hands and sung a song of thanksgiving

And eaten Grandmamma’s wondrously good conglomerations.

You would have salted your watermelon

And buttered your tomatoes with salad dressing

And sipped green drink and showed us how to make a farmer’s plate

Because you were a farmer and you made them.

But when we couldn’t finish you would take it

And scrape it off onto your plate and eat it for us.

And then you would smile and help us with the dishes

Say that it was more enjoyable for two to do it than one.

All those things - wishes buried in the coffin with you

Memories to call up and laugh at and cry over.

Funny how the memory of you does more for me now

Than the thought of you before. Because now, in the night,

I can only remember how much, just how much,

I lost.

~

I love you still, Granddaddy. Thank you for the legacy you left.