Mamalade

I don’t often see the sunrise – I’m a night owl – but last Sunday I was up before the sun and witnessed the glory in the sky that promised a perfect day.

And it was a perfect day for our local Festival, which takes place every July in the big park in the centre of our town. Our World Vision stall was in its its usual place under the trees, but this year we weren’t allowed to drive into the parking area behind the stalls. That area was taken up by an enormous Jumping Castle. The street was already lined with cars when I arrived, but luckily I found a space just around the corner and used my trolley to wheel the boxes of goods across the road and into the park. Honnie’s husband Pat had brought the tables and was bravely double parked in the busiest section of the street.

We always do well at the festival. A lot of the stalls specialised in just one or two items. We had a bit of everything. Dressed dolls, toy cars, jams, plants, bric-a-brac, baby clothes, novelties, etc, etc…and lucky dips. The lucky dips are a big drawcard to our stall. The kids keep coming all day to buy a 50 cent lucky dip. Some of the other stalls sell lucky dips, but their’s cost $1.

And what is in our lucky dips? Well, it could be anything. We save little nick nacks all year round. We often find suitable things at our jumble sales. Anything that is small, in good condition, and worth at least 50 cents. (most are worth more.) Then there are all the little toys that people give us – things that their children have played with for a little while and lost interest in – like the toy that Miles found in the lucky dip I bought for him.

“I’ve already got one of these,” he said, “but that’s alright because I can’t find it.”

“No you haven’t,” said his mother. “Remember, we gave it to Meemar to put in a lucky dip!”

Our Toastmasters Club had an information stall at the Festival. I was able to spend a bit of time there as well, handing out brochures and inviting people along to our next meeting. Quite a few were interested.

I arrived home exhausted and discovered that someone had left 8 big bags of stuff for our Jumble Sales in my driveway. It was exactly what I didn’t need to round off the day! I dragged them into my shed, fed the cats and went to bed – at 7 pm! This night owl had had enough for one day.

Next morning, I tackled the bags of stuff in my shed. I enjoy it really, it’s like Christmas all the time, having a continuous supply of bags of surprises. It was mostly winter clothing, but there was an interesting old fashioned wash bowl and an ornate telephone. I had almost finished sorting, when the phone rang – no, not the ornate phone, it was my own cordless phone that I had taken into the shed with me.

It was the woman in charge of the hall where we hold our Toastmasters meetings. They were upgrading their generators and there would be no electricity for our meeting the following night. We were asked to cancel our meeting – for security reasons.

Cancel our meeting, after inviting all those people at the Festival? No way!

The rest of the day was spent phoning around trying to find another hall at short notice, and letting everyone know of the changes. One of our members managed to get us a church hall.

It was one of our best meetings ever. They are always fun, but some meetings seem to really sparkle. This one did. Everyone seemed to give their very best. We had four guests, and they all said they would like to join our club.

I’m so glad we didn’t cancel the meeting!

Joel and Miles rode their bikes over to see me last Saturday. It’s not far for Joel on his big bike, but Miles’ six-year-old legs would have had to pedal twice as far on his little bike. When they left, Miles wanted to borrow one of my video movies, but Joel said, “No, you can’t carry it on the bike. Meemar can bring it over later.” (I was going to baby-sit for them that night.)

Miles put on a bit of a turn about it, but Joel was firm. “He’ll forget about it by the time we reach the corner,” he said to me. Miles appeared to have already forgotten it as they set off.

Later, Joel told me that when they went past the corner of the street, Miles turned and said to him. “I’ve forgotten that video now, Daddy!”

It’s still hard to believe. Just 2 weeks ago, our friend Honnie was laughing and joking with us on our street stall. A few days later she was in a coma, after suffering an aneurism. Today, we all went to her funeral and said goodbye to her.

Honnie joined our World Vision Club 7 years ago. She was always full of life and threw herself wholeheartedly into everything she did. One of my favourite memories is of Honnie acting as auctioneer at our Christmas party. “Going, going…sold!” she declared, as she brought the hammer down into the cake she had just auctioned.

She loved anything Irish. I don’t think we ever had a conversation with Honnie, without her referring to “my Irish friends.” She frequently cajoled her Irish friends into donating clothes and other items for our jumble sales. She usually arrived laden with bags of clothing, saying “These are from my Irish friends.”

Honnie was 50 when she married a handsome Irishman, Pat. They had 11 happy years together and travelled quite a lot, especially during the past 2 years – since Honnie’s mother Darcy passed away. Honnie had spent years caring for her mother.

Honnie lived life to the full. She would have hatred to be left with brain damage – to be a helpless burden on Pat.

We all prayed and hoped she would recover, but God’s ways are not always our ways. It’s hard to understand why she should have been taken, but someday we will understand, when we meet again.

Goodbye Honnie. We will miss you.