Rethinking: Just Another Day
Rethinking: Just Another Day
A few days ago, my dad sent me his latest installment of “Grandma Luke’s Date Book.” Grandma Luke (Helen Lucille Kemp Wilson), my paternal grandmother, kept a date book (aka diary) from 1930-1969. Each day, she recorded the day’s events. For 39 years…more than 14,235 days, after a long day of caring for Grandpa Slats and their five children, feeding the “hired men,” tending her garden, churning butter, gathering eggs, etc., she sat at her desk and wrote a narrative of life on the Wilson ranch.
For the last decade, my dad, Daniel Kemp Wilson, has lovingly and painstakingly transcribed every word of Grandma Luke’s Story for her grandchildren to enjoy.
“Enjoy” really isn’t the right word. It’s much more sobering than that. Maybe “savor” or “glean” or maybe there isn’t even a word.
In 1954, there are entries like:
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Slats (her husband, my grandpa, who got that nickname because his legs were long and lean) in the pasture.
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I made soap.
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Dan took a load of heifers to Colton.
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Slats bought 300 chickens—beautiful sight.
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April 15, 1954—turned bulls out.
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April 16, 1954—turned cows out.
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Branded calves.
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30 loads silage.
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Picked beans for dinner and dressed 12 roosters.
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Looked out of bedroom windows to see radishes up that Slats planted Tuesday.
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5 loads of wheat to town, I picked beans, canned, etc—lonesome here.
On the day her mother (they called her “Mamo”) died in 1950, she merely wrote, “-Mamo-“
August 30, 1953, the day my 13-day-old sister died, she wrote, “Baby Debra gone at 6:45 – Shock to us”
In the 8760 days that I’ve read, she has never once said, “Just another day.” Each day had some significance.
Just another day.
Today, I thought about what another day with Jan would have meant to Rick, John, Julie, Joy, Roy, Shari and Terry; what another day with her dad would have meant to Pam; what another day with her mom would have meant to Brenda; how much Meredith would treasure another day with her mom and dad.
Another day.
Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days (those days already spent and those that remain) so we can have a wise heart.”
Lord, teach me.