Thankful for Ken - Part 4

 While I understand that November is over and today is December, I have decided to continue sharing about Ken.  I am more convinced than ever that these stories are important (at least to our family) and have meaning even beyond that.  So much history is lost when people die without having memories saved in some way.  I have scrapbooks full of pictures and journals that tell the story of our life together after 1972.  My goal in sharing is to motivate you all to think of ways to tell your own stories so that they will not be lost.  Don't put this off.  Share them now!  Tell those stories verbally to your kids and grandkids, but more importantly, write them down.  Think about the stories that your parents told you and put those on paper.  We, as a society, have not done a good job of keeping our personal history for future generations.  Enough said.... on to my sharing for today.

After the last blog, I was thinking about some of Ken's best memories.  The stories that made him so happy to tell and retell.  This photo represents one of those cherished memories.  This is Ken getting a hair cut from his "Uncle Charlie".  Uncle Charlie was actually his mom's uncle. Charlie and Alva had a cabin in the Cooks Forest Pennsylvania and also had a home next door to Ken's grandparents in Nokomis Florida.  That cabin in the woods was the site of this haircut and so many great memories for Ken.  I never got to meet Charlie and Alva.  They were already living in an assisted living home by the time Ken and I got married.  On Ken's 21st birthday, his mom gave him a picture of this cabin that she had painted.  It hung in our hallway for many years.  The frame is broken and needs replacement now.  But Ken wanted Doug and Susie to have it. 

 On our last vacation in 2019, we went to Cook's Forest and tried to find the location of that cabin.  But with no real idea of where it was, we were not able to find it. Charlie and Alva were certainly like another set of grandparents for Ken.  Charlie and Alva had bought their home in Florida before Grandma and Grandpa Baker were retired, and many of the visits that Ken made to Casey Key before he was 8 were to visit Uncle Charlie and Aunt Alva.  Around 1960, Grandma and Grandpa Baker made Nokomis home and Ken became a regular visitor there.  

This picture was taken in 1976 and is Ken helping Grandma Baker clean up her palm tree.  Ken's mom is in the background.  The house is really Ken's very favorite place.  We recently drove by and the home is sadly not in very good shape anymore.  But it held so many great memories for Ken.  

After living in Ohio, Ken's parents moved to Pittsburg when Ken's dad took a new job there.  They only lived there about one and half years, but Ken often called Pittsburg home.  When we visited there in 2018, Ken was able to drive right up to their house and find his school with no problem!  

This was his one and only birthday in Pittsburg.  He never was much of a big sports fan, but he loved the Steelers and we have many hats to prove it.  

After that short time in Pittsburg, his family relocated to Russelville, KY.  Ken spent his entire Junior High years in this small, very southern town.  He loved the weather (warm year around with not much snow.  He said that one year they had 2" of snow and the town shut down).  He had a really good friend, John that he lost track of after moving to Illinois.   Something he always regretted.

During those years in Kentucky, Ken's parents purchased a lake lot on a nearby man-made lake, Lake Malone.  They also purchased a boat.  These were truly happy years for Ken.  He loved the lake and the boat.

One of our first driving vacations, we stopped in Russelville and revisted Ken's favorite spots.  We even kayaked on Lake Malone and found the lot that his parents had purchased.  It was truly beautiful.  In the last years I would often see Ken searching Zillow for property on Lake Malone.  It was a dream of his to someday own a house on that lake.

Of course after moving to Elk Grove, the lake lot and boat didn't make much sense.  They sold the lot first but kept the boat.  Anyone who lives around here knows that there is not a really good place to use a boat anywhere around Chicago (think small fishing boat, not a boat suitable for Lake Michigan).  His parents did keep it for a couple of years and they actually took one "camping trip" to Minnesota and Canada when Ken was about 15.  

His favorite memory of that trip was the fish that he caught while camping in Canada.  His parents were not really the camping sort, and shortly after that trip, they sold the boat.  Again, something that Ken always wanted, but we never had - a boat.  

As I was thinking of these blogs, I spent some time really trying to remember the memories that Ken held on to.  I think I have captured some of the stories and things about his life before we were together, that were important to him.  A few pictures and several paragraphs can't embody someone's life.  But it can give you a glimpse into a deeper part of a person that you might have only known casually.  Both Ken and I moved around as children, and we knew that it had impacted our childhoods.  So we did decide to stay rooted in one place.  Our kids only lived in one house growing up and I still live here! Whatever the reason, I am incredibly thankful for the years we have spent here in Warrenville.  And I am very thankful that Ken and I got to visit each of his childhood homes and I got to see and experience the places he lived.  We had plans to go to South Dakota and Minnesota in 2020 to visit each of my childhood homes, but illness and COVID intervened.  I can assure you that I intend to make that trip myself at some time in the future.  

If you haven't visited your childhood favorite places, I encourage you to do so!  Make plans now to take that trip - hopefully in 2021.  Look for those old pictures and make plans to call or write to (or Facebook message) those old friends.  Scrapbook and journal your memories.  Do it before it is too late.  Your children, your grandchildren, your friends and family will thank you.  

Jesus, thank you for your plan and purpose for each of us that you have known since before we were born.  Remind us of your presence with us during the good times and the hard times.  Holy Spirit, help us all to let go of the hurts and trouble from our past.  Jesus fill us with your love and surround us with your peace as we see the past with your perspective.  Give us renewed joy as we continue to walk through this challenging year.  Thank you Jesus for your love and care for each of us.  Amen