The wonderful month of May is coming to an end. I wondered if I would be able to write a blog post this month. My goal was to finish a translation from German to English; the longest translation I have had in all my years of translation work Fortunately it was neatly typed and I didn't have to resort to using a magnifying glass or dealing with the old Gothic alphabet. What I wasn't expecting was the emotional toll it had on me. These were memories of people who had been forced into exile by the Communist government in Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Their properties were confiscated and they were sent north to perform forced labour under unimaginable conditions. The stories are horrendous. How anyone survived and lived to tell about it is a mystery to me! My distant relative, who also shares my name, did a marvelous job by travelling to Germany, encouraging her relatives to write them and then collecting these stories. I hope that my translation will remind her grandchildren to work for peace.
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Elfriede gifted me with this basket of flowers as a thank you, besides paying me for my work.
Whenever I look at them I will remember those suffering even today by being sent into exile. My family narrowly escaped that fate in October 1943, the year I was born.
On May 26 I celebrated my 83 birthday with my four sisters and my family. I am thankful...for having escaped the ravages of war, for my health, for my children and grandchildren, for peace...praying for peace...
A lovely home made card from my granddaughter
My wonderful neighbours had left flowers on my doorstep when I came home from celebrating with my sisters. They are originally from Ukraine like I am.
Friends came for lunch the day after my birthday with well wishes and flowers. We marveled at how far we have come and how the time has flown by so rapidly since our days at Canadian Mennonite Bible College.
Joy and sadness are so intertwined, especially it seems in the senior years. Below is a photo from my kitchen calendar. It is a birthday calendar my daughter, Christine, designed with photos of family members on the month on which they were born, posing in an outhouse at the cottage where we spend a week each summer. Below is the photo for May. That is the month my son in law, Bryan, and I have birthdays. He will be 54 at the end of this month and I just turned 83. We had no idea when we happily posed for this picture what the next year held in store for us. Unfortunately, cancer has invaded his body.
A few days ago I attended a memorial service for a beloved professor, Waldemar Janzen, who taught me and many others Old Testament and German. He lived 93 years, the last few with dementia. In the bulletin was a German poem written by Eduard Moerike. Below is my translation:
Joy and sorrow go hand in hand and it's difficult to know how to hold them together. My dad had a favorite saying when we girls couldn't stop laughing. Nach dem Lachen kommt das Weinen. Trsl: After laughing follows weeping. I have found that to be true in my life many times!
In Him the beginning
Who moves moon and sun
On the blue tent of Heaven!
You, Father, advise me,
Lead Thou and guide me,
Lord, in Your hands
Is beginning and ending!
