st. john's lodge no 2 - The Trestleboard

William T. Coleman Jr. – 12/01/2008
Robert C. Crystle – 12/09/2015

My sincerest apologies to brother Tom Herron whose birthday I mistakenly omitted from the October Trestleboard. Tom is a true gentleman and wonderful brother who was Entered on October 17, 1979. Thank you for reaching out and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. ‐ WM Joseph Schulze

Dad's Gift

In early July of this year I was sharing with my Dad a catalog of pretty "snowballs" (the glass globes with figurines and snow inside). In the catalog he found one he wanted me to pick up for Mom for Christmas. So I did, and promptly forgot all about it until I was retrieving the wrapping paper from under my bed Christmas Eve.

While I am pulling the paper out I saw a bag that I did not recognize until I opened it, there was the snowball with a man and woman angel kissing inside and a guardian angel perched on top on the outside of the globe. Dad said that was Mom and him with their guardian angel.

Have you ever been in a situation where you know when you tell or give someone something it will make them sad and happy at the same time? That's the situation I was in. Dad passed away in August and I knew in giving this to Mom she would feel sad and miss Dad even more, yet I also knew it would in the long run make her very happy. The gift did both.

When I got to Mom's on Christmas Eve evening, I spread the other gifts I had out around the fireplace, then sat the snowball on the coffee table. I had wrapped it just like the others but knew exactly which one it was.

Since Mom is not a curious person, she never asked anything about the gift sitting on the coffee table, after we both got settled down I said, &quoit;I don't know how to say this except to just say it. This is your Christmas present from Dad, he asked me to pick it up last July".