943 - Who Are You Guys?
Friends: It was a tough Christmas season in 2002, but an angel named Mary Jean Alig rekindled past, joyful memories of my mother. This will be a two-parter. May your holidays be joyful! Blessings, Bob
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Spirituality Column #943
December 10,
2024
Common
Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Who Are
You Guys?
By Bob
Walters
Twenty-two
Decembers ago, in 2002, my mother Ruth McKinney Walters was in a northern
Michigan nursing home with a broken hip that healed and general vascular
failure that didn’t. She would pass away
in March 2003.
My dad, John
Walters, had died from post-surgical complications in September 1991, and both
are buried in Mackinaw City, Michigan, where we have had family roots since the
early 1900s. Mom and Dad met in Mackinaw
in the 1940s, and our family grew up vacationing there at our cottage on the
Straits of Mackinac’s south shore. The cottage is long gone, but Mackinaw City remains
a family cornerstone. We visit there yearly and it is an area that “speaks to
me” as a beloved lifelong home.
Growing up I
heard countless stories, especially on vacation at our cottage – the longtime
McKinney summer vacation venue – about Mom’s and Dad’s friends and adventures
in their teens and beyond at Mackinaw. They had a fully-functioning “beach
gang” several of whom were around in the 1950s and 1960s with kids my age. Mom’s
and Dad’s Mackinaw friends, stories, and adventures were legends of my
upbringing.
Anyway, in
October 2002 Mom had fallen at home and broken her hip. She lived alone in Alpena in the house where,
in 1980, she and Dad had moved from Kokomo, Indiana, where I grew up. Her injury was an awful ordeal; Mom was alone for two days until a waitress at the
coffee shop she frequented daily came by to check on her.
In the
intervening months I was back and forth to Alpena often, but mom wasn’t getting
better. My brother and sisters and I felt guilty we hadn’t been there, and
Mom’s illness intensified my memories of all those old stories of the great
times in Mackinaw.
That said …
that same December of 2002 I was here in Indianapolis (we lived in Carmel) at a
Thursday morning Christmas carry-in breakfast for the “Mustard Seed” Bible
study I attended which was taught by beloved retired minister Russ Blowers. The
class in those days met Thursday mornings at the Castleton MCL cafeteria, but
the breakfast was at our East 91st Street Christian Church less than
a mile away.
Standing in
the E91 Friendship Room breakfast line behind an “elderly” couple obviously of
my parents’ vintage – roughly the same age I am now – we introduced
ourselves. They were Vincent and Mary
Jean Alig. I said my name was Bob
Walters.
“Hmmm,” Mary
Jean queried. “Are you related to …,” and I cut her off. “Naw …,” I said. “I’m not related to anyone named Walters
except my immediate family. My dad was
an only child and his dad was an only child and neither was from here.”
As if Jesus
had sent a gracious angel, Mary Jean, who appeared to be about my mom’s age
(mid-70s), said wistfully, looking at Vincent, “The only Walters we knew was several
years ago; Johnny Walters in Mackinaw City, Michigan.”
Stunned …
and I mean, truly stunned … I said, “Who are you guys? My dad was John Walters
in Mackinaw City, Michigan.” Many years ago.
Turns out, she
was Mary Jean Milner, aka, “Jeannie,” whom I’d heard my folks talk about as one
of their summertime Mackinaw friends, and also the daughter of long time Indy
Second Presbyterian Church minister, Dr. Jean Milner. More next week.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
became fast friends with the Aligs and learned much about his mom’s younger
days from Mary Jean, 95, who died Friday, Dec. 6, in Carmel.
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