Birthday Greetings!

Dear Mom~

I know your birthdays are happier now because you are physically able to enjoy them more. I really understand that you have far better things to do than recognize something as trivially human as earth birthdays. Come to think of it, you really weren't that big on recognizing the real number associated with earth birthdays when you were on this side. I appreciate that more as I draw close to what my friend Marci Inman referred to as “a landmark birthday.”

I've been thinking of you more lately, and not just because of your earth birthday. Last week I went to the Rio Coco. As I rode along in the canoe against the current for 10+ hours I listened to my music. My genre is a unique mix I’m sure. A guy I once worked with referred to it as Old White Guy Music. It is a combination of 70’s and 80’s soft-to-moderate rock – Eagles, Styx, Journey, the harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel. It also includes The Sons of the Pioneers. Mixed in is some Christian Rock, Contemporary Christian and some plain old a Capella. Its wide range of simple four-part, barbershop style to complex choral arrangements took me back to a musical tradition we cannot find in the churches in Nicaragua.

But what got my attention most was the rush of memories when the Gaither’s Homecomings files played. It took me back to sweet memories of times we shared in your last months and weeks. Of sitting in your room watching JD Sumner, Jake Hess and Vestal Goodman, along-side a bunch of young folks (who weren't too bad, either.) They sang familiar tunes so that we could join in and some others that weren't as familiar.

One of my favorites was Vestal’s version of “Rock of Ages.” She would belt it out, waving her handkerchief over her head and we would sing along. Seems like out of the four of us in the room singing (Vestal, you, Dad and me) there was always someone crying. It was never Vestal. I had vivid visuals in my mind as I rocked along in the canoe with Vestal singing. I’m sure you know, as was recently explained to me by a worker here who just lost his mother, when a Latino refers to his “Piedra,”(Spanish for rock) he is referring to his mother.

The last few months around here have been really difficult on many levels. I have missed the times when I could go to you and hear you say the reassuring things, in the soft way that only a mother can, that could help over the humps. I know when Augustus Toplady wrote “Rock of Ages” in 1763 he was talking about the Savior you see daily. But the depth of the song, the profoundly deep spiritual sentiment, the trials of our brothers and sisters in the harsh reality of the Rio Coco, the rocks that hid just under the surface of the flooded river we traveled, and my earthly rock and the Heavenly Rock all came to have new meaning for me.

I am blessed that the picture I have in my office is when you were at one of your more recent “earth happiness” stations. You were feeling better than normal so you and Dad were going out. Maybe it was even your earth birthday. I love you and I miss you.

Descansar en Paz.

~ Love, Jonathan

  

  PS – Thanks for putting in a good word to keep the rains at bay while we were on the river. J