APPENDIX D
I wrote down
some words.
Kelvin loved
words.
He approved
of words being assembled together.
He would
have approved more
If these
were in some kind of logical order
For some,
Jesus is their co-pilot
For us,
Kelvin was our editor
There is a
song entitled, Jesus, take the wheel,
Our family’s
version would be
Kelvin, brandish
your pen
Just to
forewarn you, my remarks today
would have
benefited from the efforts of
Kelvin, our
editor
Considering
Arta’s recent health issues, I regret now asking her
If it would kill her to arrange Kelvin’s
funeral.
Eight
minutes.
That’s the
time I’ve been allotted
to provide some of my remembrances
on Kelvin’s
86 years of life.
That’s one
minute per decade.
Six seconds per year.
A half-second per month.
To put that
in perspective,
since I took
the podium,
a
half-minute, or five years
of Kelvin’s life
have passed.
He’ll be
getting ready for his first day of school soon.
If Kelvin
were standing, here, today, at the podium,
he would
tell us, do not weep.
He would
want us to be happy for him.
He has disembarked
the grey ship,
And is
standing on white shores,
Smiling and embracing
his mother Bessie, his father Miles,
his “not-twin”
brother Beverly, his sister Nadine.
What a
glorious reunion that must be for them!
Kelvin loved
his parents, his brothers and sisters.
His love for
them was immense. He doted on his
sisters.
How their successes thrilled him, how their
challenges broke him.
Kelvin’s
children could see his love for his brothers and sisters,
whenever we
attended family reunions.
His love for
Preston. For Betty. For Molly.
It was
impossible to drag Kelvin away from his siblings.
World War II
has started.
Kelvin is
10, and will encounter German POW’s
picking
sugar beets in the Southern Alberta beet fields.
He’ll be
teaching them English
He’ll be
learning to play the harmonica
Near the end
of Kelvin’s life, He,
his big brother
Grant, his sister Sharon,
all resided
at Seton Place.
Kelvin spent
all the time he could with them.
Kelvin would
make a point of including Grant
whenever we
came for visits.
During one
visit, we unsuccessfully
played card
games with Grant and Kelvin.
But their
brotherly love meant
that Grant’s
memory of Kelvin was undimmed,
Grant had no
difficulty sharing many stories with us
of Kelvin’s
childhood days.
Time’s
passing. Kelvin’s into his teenage years
now
He’s
becoming the dreamboat of Barnwell.
Kelvin loved
to laugh.
He laughed
when anyone told a joke.
He laughed
harder on those occasions
when he actually
got the joke.
He laughed
harder still,
when he
realised the joke was on him.
While the
joke was often on him,
Jokes played
were played out of love.
Kelvin was
the quintessential straight man.
He tried to
teach the importance of being earnest.
But
earnestness was not a lesson we wanted.
Kelvin
played the straight man so well
because he often
“was” oblivious to the punch line.
Kelvin was
an intelligent, thoughtful man
But had the
misfortune of married into a family
whose humor
was as biting as his was gentle.
Kelvin always
took our kind of humor in stride.
Kelvin’s off
on his Mormon mission to Washington and Oregon
Kelvin loved
education.
When he
brought his family from Grande Prairie to Calgary
He purchased
a home close to the University
Close to
schools
Close to his
church
Kelvin
wanted all of his children to get the benefits of a liberal education
The benefits
of a religious education
For us to
feel free to challenge conventional thought
To think for
ourselves
To Question
Kelvin’s
mother had worried that education
Would drive
him from his faith
But it never
did
Kelvin’s heading
to the University of Alberta now,
to explore his
favorite topics, literature and language
Kelvin loved
science.
He saw no
contradiction between the truth of science
And the
truth of religion.
In Kelvin’s
estimation the big bang did not repudiate religion
It was
evidence supporting it
In the
beginning god created the heavens and the earth
And God said
let there be light and there was light
Was that not
the definition of the big bang?
In Kelvin’s
estimation evolution did not repudiate gods creation of man
It was
merely the technique God employed to create us
We had the
national geographic magazine delivered
Every month
Thanks to Kelvin
I remember
poring over the pages of that magazine
It was
filled with information about the natural sciences
Information
about space
And the
wonders of the universe.
He shared
that joy of knowledge with us
Kelvin’s now
working as a cook in the arctic
between
university semesters
Kelvin
fancied himself a chef.
While in the
arctic, he cooked for dozens of men
Ordering
food flown in by plane, serving meals
He brought that
cooking acumen
And
creativity
home to our kitchen
When Mary
was born, he decided to cook
A delicious
Italian spaghetti dinner
But trust me
Chinese five
spice and spaghetti sauce do not go together
We were
quite happy that Kelvin
was soon banished
from the Kitchen
Kelvin has
met the love of his life and is now married
Kelvin loved
books.
He built two
walls of bookcases in our home in Calgary.
Those
bookcases were stuffed with the world’s great literature
He had a
complete set of books
containing
the classical greek writers
He had all
of the plays of Shakespeare
He loved
those books
and wanted
to share their knowledge with his children
In addition
to two walls of books in the house
Kelvin also built
a study in the garage.
It contained
his beloved collection of university texts
All three
walls of that study were lined with old books
Sadly, they
were lost during a garage fire
Kelvin has
five children now.
Three more are
on their way.
Kelvin loved
reading to his children
When we were
young, Kelvin read to us each night
He read the
Hobbit
and the Lord
of the Rings
By JRR
Tolkien
Each Chapter
was a cliff hanger
We were
horrified at the ends of
The first
and second books
When Boromir
died and the fellowship broke,
When Sam
lost Frodo to the Goblin tower
But Kelvin
was not limited to story-telling
From
established authors
He made up
his own tales of adventure
Tales starring
his children as small animals
And their
own perilous adventures
Kelvin
instilled in us
A desire to
share the same sense of wonder
With our own
families
The title of
my remarks,
And my
modest collection of books,
Have both
been called
Appendix D by
my sister Catherine
I suppose The
D stands for Doral or Dad
My book
collection owes much
to Kelvin
and his love of books
His love of
story-telling
Kelvin’s teaching
English in the Calgary High School system
He’s teaching
English as a second language to immigrants.
He is upset
the government will only pay for one immigrant family member to learn English.
Kelvin loved
to provide service to others.
He gave freely
of his time.
He gave
freely of the time of others as well.
It would be
an understatement to say
Kelvin had a
childhood of modest means
He never
forgot where he came from
And he never
refused anyone’s request for assistance.
Kelvin’s
children are leaving home now,
are in
university, or are getting married.
Kelvin
fancied himself a handyman.
He built a
massive kitchen table for the ten of us.
That table
was encircled by re-purposed church pews,
And many a
religious discussion broke out at that table.
Kelvin built
closets and cabinets
for the girl’s
basement bedrooms.
He built
bedframes, with built-in storage.
He built
couches.
He built an
extension to our home in Calgary.
He built a
retirement home in the Shuswap,
with the help
of his brothers and brothers-in-law.
He felt so
adept at constructing,
he began to
fancy himself a surgeon.
Those fantasies
ended when he discovered
a fingertip is
not a board,
a table saw is
not a surgical suite.
Kelvin’s
reached age 65.
Time for him
to retire from teaching.
Kelvin loved
to educate.
If you
needed assistance with your homework,
You could be
sure that Kelvin could turn
any one hour
lesson
Into a five
hour one.
Or any
afternoon school project
Into a three
day ordeal.
Kelvin
didn’t only to help you with your homework
He learned
that subject as well,
With you
sitting dutifully at his side while he did so
All kidding
aside, Kelvin’s assistance always converted
A solid C
effort into an A+ one
We are
forever
Grudgingly,
belatedly
Deeply
grateful
Kelvin made
us all better writers, better thinkers
Even if our
patience never improved
Kelvin’s retired.
He’s nearly
finished building his retirement home in the Shuswap. It, and the Calgary renovations from 20 years
prior,
remain
stubbornly incomplete.
Kelvin loved
music.
One of our
family’s prized possessions was
A baby grand
piano in the sitting room.
Kelvin loved
that piano
It was a
piano on which many a tune was learned
It was a
piano at which many a song was sung
It was a piano
at which many a tear was shed
(by those
not wanting to learn to play it)
Kelvin
played the piano, as do many in our family
When
Kelvin’s fingers were still limber, he loved to play
The song “Flight
of the Bumblebee”
If you know
the tune, you will understand why
He would
play it just as fast as he could
It was
always a marvel to watch his fingers fly across the keyboard
We spent
many wonderful moments around that piano
Singing
together
The
baritones, the sopranos, the altos, the tenors
I’m not sure
there were tenors, maybe my brother Trell?
All Kelvin’s
children have moved out.
He visits
their homes, spread out all over Canada
International
students, boarders,
Become
Kelvin’s second dear family now.
Kelvin was a
poet.
Some of his
favorite poets were Walt Witman, and
Robert Frost
Kelvin loved
to write poetry
Had he been
born 100 years prior he might have been a great poet.
But he was
born in an age that no longer appreciates poetry
Rap has
become our poetry now
Kelvin would
sometimes write poems for his children
Kelvin wrote
a poem for me on the birth of my son
That poem is
somewhere in storage
I could not
find it prior to our memorial, today
I should
have liked to have shared his poetry with you
Maybe you
will see or hear some of Kelvin’s poetry
Or you knew
of his love of poetry already
Kelvin is
ill now. The prognosis is not good.
His family
set him up with an ipad
so they can
video chat with him
Kelvin was
my father.
He was also
my friend.
I had the
good fortune to see
Don Giovanni
with him
Several
months before he passed
I was in
Calgary and I called him to see if he had time to visit
He was off
to the Opera
But
fortunately, there was one seat left In the theatre
After some
seat re-arrangements
I sat by my
father and we enjoyed
The opera
together
The phone
call comes. Kelvin has passed away,
surrounded
by his loving family
In
conclusion, I want to share two quotes
that bring
me comfort,
I hope they
will provide
some comfort
to you as well.
The first:
No, the journey doesn't end
here.
Death is just another path,
one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of
this world rolls back,
and all turns to silver
glass.
and then you see it;
White shores,
and beyond,
a far, green country,
under a swift sunrise.
And the second quote:
I
am the resurrection,
and
the life:
he
that believeth in me,
though
he were dead,
yet
shall he live:
And
whosoever liveth
and
believeth in me
shall
never die.
Believest
thou this?
Kelvin
believed this, that death is not the end
That death
is just another path
That belief
sustained him
May Kelvin’s
belief sustain you
Till we meet
at Jesus’ feet
