Funerals, Fires, and Family Events

Today was the funeral of my aunt Susie.  She was married to my father's brother, Willis Miller.  Susie died at the age of 93, following four years of having needed total care after a stroke.  Her only daughter, Clara, provided that care, with the help of Willis.  Willis and Susie had been married for 72 years.

The funeral also brought a flood of memories of my father's funeral.  The first two songs sung today were also sung at Dad's funeral.  His siblings had gathered, just as they have done on a number of occasions in recent years when one has left the circle, and Dad's absence was very conspicuous.  His and my mother's grave marker are close to the spot where Susie was buried today, and Dad's grave is still mounded with dirt.

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Some of the readers here have followed on social  media news of the wildfires in our area  beginning this past Saturday.  We had a number of days of very low humidity and high winds.  Apparently from a carelessly-disposed-of cigarette, about 6,000 acres of the NE corner of Reno County went up in smoke.  The fire started near Hutchinson, on the northwest side, in The Highlands.  Since the strong winds at first were out of the south, the fires spread to the north, away from town.

Here, SW of Hutchinson, we were getting a shower of ashes and a haze of smoke from fires in the county SW of us, near Pratt.  Fires in that direction burned over 200,000 acres.  Much of it was in sparsely populated areas.

In our county things got very serious very quickly on Monday evening when the wind shifted and blew just as strongly from the northwest, and the fires raced back toward Hutchinson.  Some residents saw the fires bearing down on their homes and escaped in their vehicles, with no time to take anything along, and only a minute to spare.  Everyone living in the area (north of 30th street in Hutchinson) was ordered to evacuate immediately.  This included 10,000 residents.

Brian and Cynthia, from our church, welcomed their first child into the world on Monday morning.  By evening they were home from the birth center, but then they got the evacuation order, and they had to move elsewhere

Fire crews from over 100 non-local agencies responded to the need for help here.  The military (National Guard) supplied several helicopters which dumped pond water on the fires steadily for several days.  Regional experts from a federal fire-disaster network came to the area to provide expertise.  Red Cross opened several shelters for those who were displaced.

Today, for the first time since the fires began, all evacuated areas were reopened.  Sadly, at least 10 families lost their homes.  and about the same number of houses suffered fire damage, but remained habitable.

We had a beautiful day today--sunny and 70 with light winds.  I really thought we were all "home free."  Since I've been typing this post, however, I've heard the wind pick up again, and I really hope that not a single hot spot reignites.

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This weekend, four of my siblings will be together in the Holmes County, Ohio area, and none of them lives there.  Dorcas and Clara planned to be there together for a women's conference, at which Clara's sister-in-law is speaking.  My brother Ronald is preaching in a series of meetings at Messiah Fellowship.  My brother Myron is attending a board meeting (for New Horizons?).

I also heard via Rachel, who heard it from Steven Brubaker, that my brother Caleb spoke at Faith Builders on gay marriage, etc.  He was headed soon also to Eastern Mennonite University, and to Bluffton College to do the same.  I presume he had already presented this at the school where he teaches, Messiah College. He was examining especially whether gay marriage makes sense according to typical standards of philosophical inquiry.  He found that it doesn't.  Caleb has a Ph.D. in philosophy.