Читать книгу Ten Bridges Seven Churches No Stop Light - Rodney Earl Andrews - Страница 9

News of the tragedy spread quickly through town and all the hunting camps. High school students were informed by an announcement on the PA system at 3:14 p.m., one minute before the end of the last class. Jake’s older brother, Harvey, had been part of last year’s hunt, but decided not to go this year, as he needed every last mark on June’s departmental exams, so he could go to university. The vice-principal took Harvey and Rose aside and tried to tell them the news without breaking down. He wanted the brother and sister to hear the news before the principal made the PA announcement to the student body. Everyone was in shock. No one wanted to believe the news.

On the southeast corner on the main street in Norwood stood a hydro pole bristling with tacks and staples. This was where death cards were posted for public viewing. The Norwood Register was the town’s only paper and it published weekly. It told you what had happened and what was going to happen, but it could not deliver immediate news. That news was posted on the hydro pole. Obituaries were found in the back section of the Peterborough Examiner and that is why that paper was read back to front by subscribers who would say,“Good. My name is not there. Now, who has died and what is going on?”

In Norwood, the church and the funeral home were both possible places to hold the service. Jake’s body would be embalmed and the three-day mourning period would begin. The question was where would the final service be held? At that time, the United Church, like many Protestant churches was trying to cut costs. Realizing that funerals added costs not revenues, churches hoped to get funeral homes to pick up the cost of a service. The minister would gladly go to the funeral home to conduct the service as this did not require heating up the church and cleaning after people had left. Churches were only interested in providing a paid luncheon in the basement after the graveyard service. The funeral home, a business-for-profit, saw the opportunity to provide the complete service, justifying a hefty fee.

The funeral director and the minister, a new recruit after the retirement of Reverend Wright, realized that Jake’s funeral was going to be too large for the funeral home to conduct. A church would have to provide the service. Then, a form would be filled out to explain to the authorities in the head office why the funeral was held in church. The United Church Minister was expecting one to two-hundred people to attend the funeral, which, he estimated would require four or five hours of extra caretaking time and added expenses for cleanup after the casket was gone.

However, over one thousand people attended and the church, front steps, and lawn were filled with mourners and spectators. The procession to the graveyard was a continuous line of cars and trucks stretching from the church to the gravesite.

The traditional pallbearers were cousins and friends of Jake’s. Many students from NDHS attended, as well as all the kids who had gone to elementary school with Jake. This community tragedy touched the heart of a wide range of people in and around Norwood.

The United Church Minister was new to town, new to the ministry, and was grasping to find a meaningful sermon. He took out a funeral eulogy template provided by head office and was busy talking to friends and relatives to find key words to fill in the blanks, so the sermon would sound as if he knew Jake, the family, and the town’s feelings. The Reverend also realized that this was an opportunity to establish his reputation, not only with the church members but also with the community at large. He worked hard. This is where a good partner comes in. His wife watched her husband working and suggested, “Why not call the retired Reverend Wright to help conduct the service?” Reverend Wright was very pleased to get the call and he led the proceedings and coached the new minister on how this funeral should flow.

Norwood cemetery, mainly full of Protestants, is on the north side of the esker that divides the town in two. In November the ground has not frozen and a site can be strobed and dug, so the body does not have to go into the crypt to wait for a spring burial. The men who dig graves always push a thin metal pole or strobe into the ground to find out what is below.

At the grave site, the front row was given to Jake’s parents and the other five members of the hunting camp. Manley stood in the center of the group. As the casket was lowered into the grave, the minister drew a white sand cross onto the head of the casket with his aluminum push-button cylinder. The creaking of the straps while the casket was lowered, reminded all that their turn would come sometime in the future.

What most mourners did not notice was Jake’s twin sister, Rose moving over beside Manley and quietly slipping her hand into his. Rose worshiped her older brother, older by a mere fifteen minutes. Everyone in and outside the family expected sisters and brothers not to get along, but Jake and Rose had a special relationship. They did everything together. They took on their small world as a formidable team. They had a pact.

The casket was being lowered and reality set in.

When people attend a funeral they do four things. One, they look around at all the headstones and realize that they are in a cemetery; two, they read names to see if they recognize someone buried there; three, they realize that some day they will be here or in another cemetery; and four, they think about why they are here today.

Jake’s family touched many people in Norwood and now, as they stood at the gravesite, they all thought about this family. Reverend Wright had a special talent in reaching one’s soul. During the service, after the Thirty-Second Psalm was read, the Reverend paused. He raised his voice and looked at the crowd in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle. He said, “I served in the Second World War and Remembrance Day is soon approaching. I have found the minute of silence to be the most important part of my life. I want you to take two minutes now to think of the best time, the most important time, the toughest time, the time you should have spent with Jake. We will be silent. I don’t want you to close your eyes, as I invite you to look over at that hill to the south and see Jake and his twin sister Rose screaming with laughter and filling their faces with snow as they careen out of control down the hill.”

While growing up, Rose often thought about how poorly Jake dressed. Jake would put on clothes only because he had to wear them. The hat was on his head, his shirt was buttoned up, and his pants were on. Colours matching or clothes fitting were not his concerns. The best way to think of Jake was - yes, the hat is on. Rose and other young girls saw Jake’s potential and thought if only they could get their hands on him to make improvements. Jake was too busy talking, listening, and teasing to worry about what he looked like. If he was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, he had spent enough time on that chore. Jake’s best day was when he had to dress only once. To change clothes more than once was an absolute punishment. Skinny-dipping in the local creek was the ultimate freedom.

Hank, Jake’s best friend, who lived on the farm next over, sat either behind him or in front of him in every grade of elementary school. Each grade had its row in the one-room school. Where you sat depended on who was growing the fastest and who was the tallest. The shortest student sat at the front and the tallest one sat at the back. It seemed each year, Jake and Hank would trade places with each other. The year they graduated to Norwood District High School, all students were streamed. Students with the highest marks were in 9A and those with the lowest marks were in 9E. Again, Hank and Jake ended up in the same class. They rode the same bus together and ate lunch side-by-side in the cafeteria. Hank was busily trying to fit in and envied Jake, who was a roller, having fun with the new experience of high school, meeting kids from Hastings, Havelock, Norwood, Cordova, and Centre Dummer.

Once a month, there was a sock hop in the school gymnasium on the last Friday of the month. Friday buses would be held back and would not take students home until 9:00 o’clock. Jake loved to dance and he always seemed to be on the floor. Girls would sit on steel chairs against the south wall, and guys would sit on steel chairs on the north wall. Once a record started, each guy would figure out if he could move to the music, and if he could, and had the courage, he would walk across the gym and ask the girl he had been admiring for a dance. Jake was on the floor all the time. The girls wanted to dance, not to sit, and they would dance with anyone once or twice just to get up. Jake discovered this secret early and worked his way down the line. Jake was there to dance and all the girls could hardly wait to be asked.

At the gravesite, Brenda broke out in uncontrolled laughter. To Brenda it seemed to last forever, but for the quiet crowd, it was short. Some people in tragic situations are so overwrought, that instead of crying, the socially-acceptable behaviour, they break out laughing.

Brenda was the hockey coach’s daughter, who attended every game her dad coached. During practices she would put on her skates, boys’ skates, not figure skates with points on the front. Brenda would always correct her hockey guys and she would say, “They are picks not points. Do you want to pick a fight or get poked?” Jake would always find a way to set her up, so she could score a goal. The coach’s daughter was off limits for a rough stick-check, or a push into the boards or goal post. Brenda made practices fun as players could see she was trying as hard as they were and having as much fun.

The coach had two older sons who were grown up and long gone when along came a surprise, Brenda. He forgot most of the times that his daughter was a girl and took her places, just like he had done with his two sons. If he needed a spare goalie, she would put the pads; if he needed a forward, or a defenseman, she would fill that role. Brenda was also secretly in love with Jake and would make sure she was in the dance line at sock hops.

Jean was just one of the many high school students who crowded the cemetery that day. Jean had been in the same grade as Jake all through elementary school and was in Jake’s home form in grade nine. English class, first thing in the morning, all year long. One September, Jean did not feel well, and by the middle of October was in Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto losing her hair to a cancer treatment.

Jean always watched Jake from afar. Shy, with only sisters, how do you act around boys especially the ones you like?

Jean returned to school in late November with no hair. The only wig her parents could afford looked like a wig. She dreaded going back but she knew she must. Getting on a cold school bus on Monday morning, she carefully pulled down a toque to hide that wig.

Sitting in her designated bus seat just behind Jake, she rode that lonely trip to school. After getting off the bus, walking down the hall, opening up her locker, and taking off her winter coat, Jean slipped into the girls’ washroom to remove her toque and comb her artificial hair.

The bell rang and everyone was seated. Jean felt all eyes were on her. Then the laughing started and she could not bear it, until she looked up and there was Jake with his head completely shaved. The teacher, who was naturally bald, did not miss a beat and said, “Welcome back, Jean. Jake looks like my younger brother.” The laughter continued. After a week, most of the students in the class had shaved their heads. It took Jean a bit longer to take off her wig. She felt accepted.

The only person, who was not at the gravesite, was the town’s Doctor. Shirley a young, first-time-to-be mother was in the last stages of labour at Civic Hospital in Peterborough. Dr. Atkinson had to be there. Manley and Dr. Atkinson were the best of friends and they would reconnect later. Dr. Atkinson had been the town’s only town doctor when Jake came into the world. Jake did not need a tap on the bum. He came out crying. One thing that the town did not know was that Jake was the son of a young teenage girl. He was born out of wedlock.

He was born in the same early morning hours as Rose. Jake would be the first son, of this young teenager from a well-established farm family in Westwood. This young mother had no means to raise a child. Her parents were typical parents, embarrassed that their daughter was pregnant, but not able to afford to send her to private school or just away. Instead she had been sent to live with her aunt on a farm near Millbrook to hide the pregnancy.

Most small-town family doctors looked after everyone in their communities. The teenage girl was told quietly by Doctor Atkinson that the baby was going to be looked after and a family had been found. Rose’s parents had been given the option of taking home two babies, instead of one, and they agreed with the doctor’s plan. Paternal twins do not always look alike especially when they are female and male. Only the doctor, Shirley, her parents, and the operating nurse knew the true story. The records were sealed away.

The official part of the funeral was over. The people in earshot were invited back to the basement of the United Church to visit with family and friends and enjoy a light lunch. Close friends, family and people from out-of-town congregated in the church basement and enjoyed egg, tuna, salmon, and ground meat sandwiches. Platters of cheese and vegetables were placed on the serving table and coffee and tea were served by the ladies hosting the luncheon. A reasonable fee was charged to the family for this luncheon.

Annie, an elderly town lady, attended every luncheon. All funerals, weddings, anniversaries, and birthday receptions had a place for Annie. In some cases Annie knew only the serving staff but they would make her feel comfortable. She was part of the town and this was her outing for the week, a lunch or a dinner that she did not have to prepare and eat alone in her small home. Annie did not know Jake, but she knew his parents and many of his relatives were familiar faces and they would pass the time of day with her. Annie was an integral part of the fabric of Norwood.

Everyone who knew Jake now had a hole to fill. Cleaning out the school locker, cleaning out his bedroom, collecting all the small possessions that were a part of Jake was hard to do. You can’t say goodbye; you only hope to understand. Jake is not here and we are left. Are we the lucky ones and will this happen to us again? The answer is yes. If you live long enough, you get to see it all. If you live long enough, you lose all your older relatives, your neighbours, your friends, and, maybe if luck is with you, your memory.

The dirt was shovelled back into the hole. The sod was placed and tramped on top and the job was done. One of Jake’s school buddies stayed behind. He could not leave his buddy alone. Only when darkness fell did he leave and walk home slowly. Hank was with Jake to the end.

Jean saw Hank walking past their house towards the highway, where he would hitch a ride. She found her dad and asked him if he could take the car and give Hank a lift.

A week after the funeral, Manley was in the doctor’s office for his yearly medical. Only a few people in town had a yearly medical, but Manley always requested one. He wanted to be in control of his life, and to do that, he had to be in control of his body. He was one of the few people whom Doctor Atkinson had met in town to hold this belief. Manley thought of his body as a machine that had to be maintained, properly fed, rested, worked, and cared for. He also thought that his mind ought to be kept active and challenged to keep growing. Dr. Atkinson prepared for this medical. The questions Manley would ask would probe into the current research and views, not only of North American medical practices, but also of others, such as the veterinarian school in Guelph.

Manley had read the death notice posted on the corner hydro pole at the four corners of town. The date: Born April 2, 1945 jumped out at Manley as he recognized the numbers and remembered his younger brother had a son born out of wedlock on that same day, same year.

Young blood runs hot and Manley’s brother, Richard, in one of his rare uncontrolled moments had stepped over the line and a pregnancy was the result. Richard usually had a dating standard that above the waist was fair game, but not to touch or go below the belt. One night during a hot July spell, one slip in the back of a 1952 Ford.

Manley looked directly at Dr. Atkinson and asked the question that he had been waiting fourteen years to answer. “Was Jake, Richard and Shirley’s son?” Doctors do not take a lying course in medical school, but they all must master this art early in their careers. Some patients cannot take bad news and others need to be misled. There is no need to cause patients more danger or more pain.

Dr. Atkinson paused, looked down, and then went into the routine he had practised for years. He looked Manley straight in the eye and said, “I have been waiting for years for you to put things together and ask this question. Manley, you are one of my best friends and I have to tell you, Jake was not your brothers’ son.” When the examination was over, Manley dressed and got ready to leave the prep room.

On leaving, he turned to Dr. Atkinson and said, “When you looked me in the eye, your pupils told the story. You are a true friend.” He quietly closed the door behind himself, walked to the parking lot, and drove home.

Dr. Atkinson had given Manley a diagnosis for his condition. Manley was showing early signs of dementia, known later as a disease, like Alzheimer’s. Manley had forgotten that his memory was fading. His hunting error in judgment was due to the onset of his illness. Manley was one of the lucky ones, as his disease progressed slowly, and he had a number of ways to compensate for memory loss. The one thing he did do, was to tell everyone what he was suffering of and then he asked for their support and understanding. As the elected reeve of Norwood he got both.