Mitchell Way
2009-2020
My granddog, Milton Barry and I walked through the tall grass to a hilly knoll overlooking the ocean. He wasn’t walking as fast in his old age, but he didn’t mind the walk together. As the afternoon sun was setting, we sat together and I laid my hand on his back.
“Be careful. Don’t break it!” he growled.
“The two pieces of pipe aren’t lining up,” I said. “If I put anymore strain on this PVC elbow, I think it’s going to break.”
Gerald Metzger and I were installing new meters in the water association shutoff boxes. Gerald had for many years been the association mechanic. His dad helped found our association and it was officially known as the first registered water association in the United States. As I lay on the ground over the meter box, Gerald stood over me barking orders while staring into the hole.
Sitting on a log at Bowman’s Bay
Believing that today would be the day
That I’ve waited for so long for the chance to say, “Be my wife”.
And the sun was so warm, and the waves were bright
As they rolled to the shore in the morning light
The current was running in the pass so strong
Elizabeth Vangelder was born in 1929 in the city of Bellingham Washington. She was born with a Nuchal Cord, where the umbilical cord is wrapped around the neck one or more times. As a result, she was born with brain damage and cerebral palsy which led to intellectual disabilities and developmental delays. Although she could walk as a child, in her later years she was confined to a wheelchair bed, her back twisted, her wrists atrophied, unable to straighten, unable to eat, dress or use the bathroom without the help of an aide. Every day she would be parked on the front porch of Needhams Rest home alone to watch the world go by. Though people would walk up and say hello, they would quickly leave when they realized that though she was smart, due to the cerebral palsy she could not talk in a language they could understand.
I had a friend named Angie who lived not far from Needhams. Angie was 18. Every Sunday she would walk from her home in the morning to her church to teach Sunday School. The route passed the front porch of Needhams. One day as she passed, she noticed the wheelchair bed, a woman’s face and eyes that were following her. God asked her to stop.