YOU TELL ME!

I have been thinking about my post from the other day about playing the organ at the church in Waldersee.  That whole experience is still on my mind, along with so many questions about how I came to be sitting on that organ bench in the first place.

You might be correct in thinking that I have overreacted to many things I talked about in that post.  Maybe like one of my brother's you believe that I only say things to charm people my way. 

It has taken me several days to write this post, and it has revealed to me something that I do believe in very strongly.  At this point, I have to thank my Mother for furnishing me with dates and facts, because there is no way I would be able to remember any of this... but she wrote every life event on her calendar all year long.  At the end of that year she sat down at her desk and transferred everything she had written into a spiral notebook.  I have the notebook that covers 1966-1980... and reading through it is an incredible journey all of it's own.

So - here's the reason I cannot get last Sunday out of my mind.

. . . 

Do you remember seeing this old photo on that blog?  I am not sure what year this was taken, I'd say sometime in the mid to late 1930's.

The picture is taken on my Grandparents farm here in Manitoba -  the grandparents whom attended the Waldersee Church their entire lives.

The man with the black vest is my grandfather.  The girl in white beside him is my mother, and the girl beside her with the black dress and white collar - is my Mother-in -law!  Yes - Gary's mother, Olga Mantey... born, raised and lived her whole life in Chicago Illinois.

The lady beside her holding the child and the man beside her with the hat, are my Mom's sister Ida, and her husband my Uncle Jake.  They both were born and raised in and around Waldersee, but had moved to Chicago and lived next door to my Mother-in law's parents.  (Gary's grandparents)

Aunt Ida and Uncle Jake came up to visit the family, and decided to bring along the young girl who lived next door, because they knew they had a sister ( my Mom) back in Manitoba who was around the same age.

So my first question is  - Who does that sort of thing... goes home to see family and takes the young daughter of their neighbour's on a road trip to a different country for a few weeks?

Apparently they did.

So even though according to the picture it looks like the two young girls had been friends for a very long time, they had only met for the first time during this visit.

After that visit, they would not meet again for another fifteen or so years, when Olga - this time married to Gary's father and their little girl, Jane come to Manitoba to visit my my Mother, now married to my Dad with three young boys of their own, and living on a farm they rented north of the town of Plumas.

That would be the last time Erna and Olga would see each other for another 30 years.  They continued to correspond through Christmas Cards once a year.

In April  1980 I quit my nursing job and decided to take a few months off nursing to do some travelling and generally visit my family.  The first place I decide to travel to is Janesville Wisconsin to see my Aunt Margaret.

I set off for a month's visit on May 3, 1980.

While I am gone, my Mother gets a letter from Olga, asking if it would be okay for  her and her son Gary to come up for a visit.  Of course my mother says yes, and plans are made.

I leave Janesville for home on June 8 - driving straight through, stopping for only food and washroom breaks,  taking I- 90 to I- 29 then Hwy 75 once I crossed the border.  I arrive home tired but happy to be home June 8  around 9pm.

Olga and Gary leave for Winnipeg on June 8- taking I- 90 to I- 29 then Hwy 75 once they cross the boarder.  But they stop overnight in Minnesota and arrive in Winnipeg one day later.

Do you find this just a little weird, that we are on the same highway, on the same day, going to the same place - only we don't know it?

I meet Olga and Gary for the first time, and at first I believe we must be somehow related, because until now, I never really knew they existed.  Perhaps my parents did mention them, but if they did I had no recollection of it.

Gary and I hit it off, immediately.  We are so alike in so many ways, and we talk and talk and talk for the days of their visit, and when they leave for home - I cry!

We spend two years travelling back and forth to see each other then decide to get married. We get engaged, but before the next year is over, we break up and go our separate ways.

My Mom passes away very suddenly the next year ( March 1984),  and I struggle with the decision to let Olga know... I struggle because of Gary.  But I send a note to Olga, and the next thing I know, Gary is at my door.  Before he leaves, the engagement ring is back on my finger and I am making plans to move and be married in Chicago.

I move to Chicago in August 1984, and we are married in October that year.  We settle down to married life and are very content and happy. 

One Year later Gary loses his long-time position at Swift & Co.  Economic hardship is everywhere and he can't get a job.  We stick it out for another year but then decide perhaps job prospects would be better in Canada, so we decide to move back to Winnipeg. 

We live happily in Winnipeg for 19 years, have a family, buy a home and all is well until I lose my job in 2015.  At almost 60 yrs of age, there are no jobs for me, so we decide I should retire.  But, we still have a mortgage and a son living at home, so we look for options.  If we could find a nice property somewhere outside of the city, we could then afford to retire.

We look online for weeks and eventually find our new home in a small town, 30 minutes away from WALDERSEE, and we pick up stakes and move to the country.

Gary starts doing spiritual care work at the personal care home, and providing Sunday church services for the Anglican church in town.  After he leaves that position a year later he in summer of this year he is offered a monthly position performing the lay service at Christ Lutheran church is Waldersee.

I am asked by the congregation to play the organ for services that are led by Gary, and I start doing that November 2018.

Do you see the circle that started in 1935?  It has taken 83 years - but it has come around and joined itself together.

Now  do you believe me when I say it's not simple?

But maybe it really is very simple.  I believe it is as simple as a single hand guiding events through 83 years.

You be the judge - is this all:

Fate

Destiny

or

 A Real GOD Moment.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Mid-late 1930's Erna Rossnagel and Olga Mantey meet in Waldersee Manitoba.

Around 1950  - Olga, Barth and Jane Graumann from Chicago Illinois, visit Joe and Erna Fischer on their farm near Plumas Manitoba.

1953 - Joe, Erna, and their three sons move to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1955 - Dale is born in Winnipeg Manitoba

1956  - Gary is born in Chicago, Illinois.

May3, 1980 - Dale travels to Janesville Wisconsin to visit her Aunt Margaret for a month's vacation.

June 8,  1980 - Dale returns home from Janesville Wisconsin

June 9 , 1980 - Olga and Gary arrive to visit Erna and family, and Gary and Dale meet for the first time.

October 1982 - Gary and Dale are engaged

1983  - Gary and Dale call off the engagement, and break up.

March 1984 - Erna passes away.

June 1984 - Gary returns to visit Dale and Joe.

August 1984  - Dale moves to Chicago

October 1984 - Dale and Gary are married.

1985 - Gary loses employment

1986 - We move back to Winnipeg hoping to secure better jobs.

1986-2015 - We live in Winnipeg in our home with no intentions to moving or retiring until I lose my job in 2105.

2015 - we retire and move to a town 30 minutes from Waldersee, after seeing a property on the Internet, which had originally been sold, and then the deal fell through, making the property available to us.

2018 - Gary starts providing church services at Christ Lutheran church in Waldersee,  and Dale plays the organ for church services.