mystery uncle

Uncle John was born during World War I, a year before it ended. He died one year before World War II began. There was more nation-sponsored killing of young men in the first half of the 20th century than I can imagine.

homage to unknown uncle

Six years before I was born, my mother's younger brother (John L. Groff) was killed when his car wrecked. Seventy-one years later (Saturday) some Groff cousins discussed the two newspaper articles about the accident and the two obituaries (one in the local newspaper and one in the church periodical). We gathered at the cemetery and shared info and asked questions of three of his contemporaries--Chris Brackbill, Amos Groff, and his sister, Elsie Martin.

not fighting commies in 59

Not fighting but inviting. In the depth of the Cold War, this was pretty bold. This comes from the back page of today's New Era, a newspaper in Lancaster, Pa. Maurice was my uncle. The image at right is generic online to represent the era.

50 years ago...

CHURCH INVITE: Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan of the Soviet Union declined an invitation to attend services at the Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster. The Soviet embassy said Mikoyan, who was visiting Washington, D.C., was simply too busy to accept the invitation, which had been issued by the Rev. Maurice Lehman, a former pastor of the church. “I believe Mikoyan should be given an opportunity to learn that Christianity is the answer to man’s needs, rather than Communism,” Lehman said. (Jan. 14 and 15, 1959)

nephew makes npr

Chris Lehman (blue shirt), my nephew who was born in Monterey, got his first story on NPR's All Things Considered. Take a listen. I'm a proud uncle.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89284522

Last uncle dies

My Aunt Jane called today and told me Uncle Irvin died shortly before 10 p.m. last evening, apparently in his sleep, between routine nurse checks. He was born in 1915 and was 92 yrs old. George, his son, who lives in Harrisonburg, Va., wants to wait until son Peter gets back from a truck run in Wisconsin to make final plans. As soon as I find out when the funeral is, I’ll look at my schedule to see if I can fit it in.

My uncle was known as G. Irvin. The G was George, the name of his father, my grandfather. There were eight sons in that family. My father, Lester, was the next to oldest. Irvin was the last of the boys living, the fourth youngest. Of the family of twelve children, only two remain—Aunt Jane and Aunt Gladys, the next to youngest and third to youngest.

I always liked Uncle Irvin and when I was twelve or so, stayed at his house the first time I (with parents) visited Milton at EMU. I was proud to have an uncle with a Ph.D. and a professor position at EMU. His first wife, Edith (Eddie), died about 1970, and that loss was catastrophic for their four children. The oldest, George, graduated from EMHS that year. I was proud to have an aunt who could play the piano pretty well, and I remember her banging out “Ben Hur’s Chariot Race March” one time in the early 1960s when they had a meal with my folks at Monterey. I promised myself I’d learn that awesome piece sometime, and I did a few years later.

She was a nurse by profession, and I visited her at work the last time I figured I’d see her, when Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community was not much more than one brick building, the last one on the left as you leave campus on Virginia Ave. I think it is, the street than runs next to MapleWood.

In the hayday of my growing up, I had seven uncles on the Groff side (five by marriage) and ten on the Lehman side (four by marriage) for a total of seventeen uncles. Uncle Irvin is the last family uncle. I have one uncle by marriage on the Groff side, Earl, who was a classmate of Uncle Irvin's at Manheim township high school.