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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A visit from Mary Lou

Mary Lou Goertzen and her son David visited the other day.

Mary Lou is 81 and has lived on Deadwood Creek Road along Deadwood Creek in Deadwood Oregon for over 35 years, across from where Catherine and her family had a farm. Mary Lou, her husband Ernie, and their three children settled there from Berkeley a year or so after Catherine settled there.

Ernie has died and Mary Lou still misses him. He is buried under a tree on their property and Mary Lou often goes there and sings. She has a beautiful voice, strong and clear at 81 years. She lives in what was an old one room schoolhouse and David lives in a cottage on the place. A daughter Anya lives nearby.

Mary Lou and Ernie came from Mennonite families Kansas and later became Quakers. Mary Lou is an artist, as was Ernie.

When you meet her you meet a presence, the quiet and clear presence of someone who is totally at home with who she is and where she stands. You sit up and pay attention. You feel good being with her and happy to share conversation with her. A quibbling and contentious person like me has no interest in being quibbling and contentious.

Because we live where we do there aren't many folks around and visits don't happen often. Because they happen less often they stand out more and this helps me appreciate them more. Perhaps some day I'll appreciate them all regardless of how often they happen, but this is how it is now and I'm simply enjoying it. Especially when Mary Lou visits.

2 comments:

  1. There's probably enough history in Mary Lou to fill a lifetime. It seems folks in Corvallis either keep very quiet and to themselves, or they reveal so much of themselves in one sitting that it's hard to take in their whole panorama.

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  2. I enjoy your writing so much, John!

    It helps to quiet down the busyness of urban life; I read one of your posts, and find myself just sitting and looking out at the Sycamore that stands sentinel outside my window to a quiet (but hardly still) life, if only I would pay attention.

    Thanks for helping me pay attention.

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