This will be mine and Ash’s first Thanksgiving without either of our children home since our first-born came into the world 30 years ago. Our son will spend Thanksgiving with his wife, three daughters and father-in-law in Missouri, and our daughter will spend her first Thanksgiving away from home working the holiday shift patrolling the streets of Dickinson, North Dakota. We will speak to each of them, I’m sure, sometime during the day. And while that won’t fill the two empty seats at our dinner table, I refuse to feel sad because they are both hundreds of miles away this year. Not when I know there are thousands of soldiers sitting in other countries, in service to our country, who haven’t been home for perhaps many Thanksgivings and Christmases.
Having spent more holidays away from my parents than I ever spent with them, I actually feel very lucky that we’ve been able to spend the majority of our holidays with both of our children in their lifetimes. And knowing if they had a choice, they would both be here instead. That makes me very thankful.
Aside from being blessed with a partner I cannot imagine living without, I have several other reasons to feel especially thankful this year. Among them is the Reimer family. Although the girls are known by other surnames now, the original six and their matriarchal Mother, known by me as “Ma-Reimer,” opened their home to me thirty-eight years ago and have included me in their family gatherings, holidays, weddings, and birthday celebrations all these many years. Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving a week early. Ma-Reimer’s health was failing, and as with many expanded families, which this particular family certainly has, not everyone was going to be able to make it for Thanksgiving Day. Ma-Reimer was able to spend her last Thanksgiving with all of her children and grandchildren together. Ma-Reimer died the following week.
It is a testament to this wonderful woman and mother of six that this year, another family Thanksgiving was celebrated with all six of Ma-Reimer’s children in attendance and the majority of her grandchildren as well. While they all still live in North Dakota, some have to drive a few hours to meet in Grand Forks, and a few have as many as four and five children of their own; a few have adult children who have agendas and lives and other family obligations. But the majority was all there and while I never expected it, I felt extremely proud to be invited once again to join them. Ma-Reimer raised her six children alone for the majority of their lives. How she did it, living in a small North Dakota town with few employment opportunities or any other resources, is beyond me. Her faith and her spirit never wavered; if anything, they grew stronger. Gertrude Reimer was a living example of being thankful for what one does have and rejoicing in the gifts of family and good friends, versus whining and having a pity-party about what could be or what she didn’t have.
I am thankful for the gift of having a woman with meager means who adopted me into her family so many decades ago and like her six children, taught me the meaning of accepting what cannot be changed, having the courage to keep moving forward and an open heart willing to share whatever bounty she had.
WHERE TO GO FOR THOSE IN NEED OR YOU CARE TO SHARE
The Moorhead Food Pantry, located at 1438 10th Street North, will have specialty foods, holiday-specific foods and everyday foods available Wednesday from 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. and on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. For anyone able to give, more canned goods are always needed. The Food Pantry is not open on Friday. The phone number is: 284-8895.
Sonia Elner, Director of the Dorothy Day House, told me they do not need food items as much as they need everyday toiletries such as tooth brushes, toothpaste, deodorants, and in particular thermal underwear for the coming winter months. If you have long johns, wool socks, heavy undershirts, flannel shirts, and any type of warm clothing that is clean and no one can fit into in your household, these items are drastically needed and would be immensely appreciated. The Dorothy Day House is located at 714 8th Street South in Moorhead. The phone number is 218-233-5763. Please, reach into your abundant closet and pull out what you are no longer using. Someone will find a good use for it.
I visited with Rev. John Roberts, the Director of Shelter Operations at Churches United, who says they are “fixed and ready to roll” for the multiple families and others who will share Thanksgiving dinner together this year. However, Rev. Roberts specifically asked for donations of men’s and women’s footwear from anyone who may have an extra pair or two of boots or heavier type winter shoes stored away in the back of your closet. The Metro bus passes by daily, yet there are still many who have to walk to wherever they are going in search of work or to apply for employment. Long underwear and wool or heavy socks are a priority need for the next few months. Many donations of childre’s clothing have already been made. What they need most right now are grown-up men and women sized items for the winter.
Churches United serves meals three times daily at: 7:30 a.m., Noon and 6 p.m. On weekends and holidays their schedule for meals is: brunch at 10 a.m., a heavy duty nutritious snack at 2 p.m., and supper at 6 p.m. Presently, Churches United has 65 residents of families as well as single men and women. There is an overflow room where they can accommodate approximately 21 more (provided that hasn’t filled up yet). Alcohol and drugs are not tolerated on the premises.
Thanksgiving Day, an open-to-the-public brunch will be served at 10 a.m. For more information regarding Churches United, please call 218-236-0372. It is located at: 1901 1st Avenue North, in Moorhead.
OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT THANKSGIVING
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. ~W.T. Purkiser
Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Native American Saying
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone. ~G.B. Stern
Gratitude is the memory of the heart. ~Jean Baptiste Massieu
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ~Epictetus
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~William Arthur Ward
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