When will You be called Home?

The 19^th century poet, Phoebe Cary wrote these words,

“One sweetly solemn thought, comes to me o’er and o’er:

I am nearer home today, than I ever have been before.”

None of us know when we will be called to our eternal home.  A few days following our January 26, meeting, our long term secretary, Bonnie Brinkman suddenly and unexpectedly, was called home.  Bonnie served as secretary to the Board for at least 16 years, and was beginning to plan her retirement from Armstrong, where she was held in high regard by her fellow team members.  She clerked for various live BDRA auction events, and often remarked that she would have to describe various items in the pole barn as thing-a-magigs or watch-a-macall-its, because she did not know what they actually were.  She accurately recorded and filed the minutes of our Board and Committee meetings.  Along with her husband Mark, they worked on the clean-up bucket builds held at Florin Church of the Brethren.  Bonnie also initiated the first auction fundraiser on Facebook which raised over $1,000.00.

We also would like to remember another loss, Lowell Landis, a Board member and a member of the heifer committee, passed away from Covid 19.  Lowell was taken to the hospital and spent about two and a half weeks on a ventilator.  When it was time to remove him from the ventilator, he was not able to breathe on his own.  He died peacefully about two hours later.  Lowell was a willing worker, and was never at a loss for words.  He will be missed.

We extend our sympathies to Bonnie’s family and her husband Mark, and to Lowell’s wife Linda, and to his son Mike and his family, who serves as the chair of the Arts and Crafts committee.