Thursday Fun

I spent another wonderful day with Deven and Tori. We walked to downtown Byron Center and had lunch with Bill and Ty, who is working for Bill at the co-op this summer.

Later Deven, Tori, and I went to a movie before heading back to their house to check out the progress since reconstruction began after the fire. Carpet was laid today and some of their belongings are being moved back in. Cleaning crews are coming in Monday and Tuesday and Steve and Lynn hope to have their family moved back into their home sometime next week - yeah!

Tori is eager to move back into her newly-painted bedroom. It's been 3 1/2 months since she's been able to sleep in her bed.

Deven has already set up his treasures in his room.

The kitchen isn't quite ready for meal preparation.....

(love the shoe on the counter :)

The basement....still a lot of work to do.


Zac is raising chickens :)

Deven's job is to stack the wood for the fireplace and the campfires.....

We enjoyed a great supper with Beckie and Rick - beautiful weather for outdoor dining!


Hope your life is colorful and bright!

Great Times!

Note: If you are viewing this page with Safari or Internet Explorer, you may see text that doesn't match the pictures. It's an issue of incompatibility with my eMac....sorry.

We enjoyed a beautiful Sunday afternoon with Tom and Anna and the kids at a pool in Holland, followed by a wonderful dinner at their house.

Pretty Abby.....Pretty Anna

Sophie and Tom

Noah says he swims 'like a turtle' :)

Tom and Abby

Monday night Tom and I took the kids downtown to see Anna at work and then headed over for a great dinner at Boatwerks. We walked to nearby Kollen Park where the kids played on the jungle gym before heading home after a fun-filled day.

Sweet Sophie loved her deluxe
Mac and Cheese


Precious Abby


Noah, Abby, Sophie

Today we celebrated the 70th birthday of my friend Em Riemersma. She is battling pancreatic cancer, so if you're a praying person.....

Then it was out for ice cream with precious Lidia, who celebrated her 12th birthday.

Sweet niece!

We went shopping and she tried on many dresses before choosing the perfect one. Doesn't she look pretty!

Life is good!

Fun with Family and Friends

Just posting some recent pictures..... (with some adjustments that hopefully will make for better viewing for those of you using Safari or Internet Explorer)

We had a wonderful time with the family (minus our Seattlites) on Fathers' Day. We went to the beach, grilled kebabs, and stopped for ice cream at Captain Sundae.

Zac's temporary vehicle - he's got his truck
almost ready to be back on the road!


Steve and Lynn


Experts at the grill - Tom, Bill, Steve


Fun in the sand


Sophie, Tom, Anna


Noah loves his Daddy!

I spent Friday with Deven and Tori, which included - of course - a walk to Houseman's for ice cream.

Tori lost another tooth :)

We had a short time with the kids in Holland....

Abby


Sophie


Noah

Then it was off to Jim & Nan's cottage on beautiful Lake Michigan. We spent a wonderful evening with friends, had a delicious meal on the deck overlooking the lake, and the weather was ideal - a perfect night!

Back row - left to right:
Joan, Jan, Joan, Mary, Lin, Gail
Front row:
Nan, Shirley

Back row:
Jim, Gary, Jim, Rich, Bill, Curt
Front row:
Tom, Terry, Chuck


A great view......

A better view.....

Memories of Dad from Aunt Bea

I saw my Dad's sister this week and she talked a lot about 'her little brother', especially about when he had rheumatic fever at age seven. Dad was born with a very weak heart and early predictions were that he may never even walk. So the rheumatic fever was especially dangerous for him and he spent a year flat on his back, beginning in April of 1934. Being the oldest sister in the family, it was Aunt Bea's job to take care of her little brother - giving him baths every day, rubbing his back with oil to prevent bed sores, fetching what he needed, etc. When the rest of the family would go away for the day, Aunt Bea would stay home with Dad. She told me that when she was out picking beans or hanging clothes on the line, Dad would call to her. She panicked every time and would go running to him; he would simply ask, "What time is it?" She said this happened 'thousands' of times, which may be an exaggeration but we've always heard about this little trick Dad would pull, so it must have happened often.

Aunt Bea told us how Dad would be taken - by horse and buggy - to Grand Rapids to see a doctor there. Dad overheard one of the doctors say that he should NEVER sit up. This terrified him for months and he would lay with this arms across his chest, trembling at the thought of moving. The fear and tension was likely more dangerous than sitting up may have been.

Dad's mom would lay him near the stove in the kitchen and wrap him in blankets to keep him warm in the winter. On summer days he would lay by the side of the rode, stopping anyone who came by. His favorite trick was to say, "The last person who stopped gave me some candy." This, of course, would obligate the new visitor to come up with some sort of contribution. Sometimes he would be given a nickel! Dad showed his entrepreneurial spirit pretty early and he 'earned' money that year. His family was very poor - he often told us about the only year he received a Christmas present - a tennis ball and orange from his uncle and aunt.

Below is a poem written by Dad's grandma, Mattie Commissaris. It's a bit hard to read in places and at the end are the words 'Burnips, Michigan' - Dad's hometown.

In Honor of my Dad on Fathers' Day (with added memories from Tom)

Marvin "Red" Brummel

a.k.a. Dad and Grandpa
March 1, 1927 - February 3, 1987

Denise's recent post made me want to write down some of my own thoughts about my Dad. During this past week I have been going through old pictures and reading the many tributes written about Dad after he died. He was admired and respected for so many things - his expertise as a businessman, his generosity, his commitment to education at all levels, his community involvements, and - most of all - his love for his family and friends. It's wonderful to read all of it and know he made such an impact on so many. Yet to me he was more than all of that - he was my Dad. He taught me so many things - about life, friendships, and finances. I treasure the memory of him and thank God for giving me such a wonderful father.

This is a really long post, but I hope it gives you a good idea of the kind of man my Dad was.

Note: If you're viewing this post in Safari, a lot of the pictures and captions are out of alignment. Internet Explorer is nearly impossible to read because it's not compatible with my eMac. Mozilla Firefox works best - the url to download Firefox is http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ (for Mac users only)




US Navy
1945

April 10,
1947

Our family - spring, 1969

Lessons and memories....

He was the most generous man I ever knew.

• If he had it, he shared it.
  
• Countless thank you notes arrived at our house, often delivered by Harold Poll because there were many times Dad chose to remain anonymous and did his giving through Mr. Poll.
• One summer we couldn't use our house in town because Dad let another family use it. They were home from Korea for a time and needed a place to live. We were not happy but it was a no-brainer for Dad.
  
• I lost count of the people who came through the line at the funeral home to say that Dad was there with a helping hand when they were down and out.
  
• Dad always said, "Use your money - don't let it use you."
• He sponsored a family from the Netherlands - found them a home, employment, etc. I remember the father of the family sitting in our family room trying so hard to express his thanks in broken English.
• Just last week I talked to a long-time employee of Dad's who was injured years ago and was unable to work for a long time. He told me how Dad came over every week with a personal check to help them meet expenses. The man cried as he told me about it.
  
• Every time we took a vacation with our kids, Dad would ask what time we would be leaving. He would show up just as we were pulling out and always had an envelop of cash to spend on 'extras' that he knew we couldn't afford to have/do. He always told us how much he loved it that we took our kids on trips and vacations.
  
• Although he had lots of money and enjoyed many things, he preferred blue jeans to suits and cookouts at the cottage to the finest restaurants.
  

His faith in God was so important to him.

• Dad's faith was shown most clearly in his love and respect for others, his compassion, and his generosity. He was also known as a fair and honest business dealer, as someone who always looked for the good in another person, and encouraged us to 'walk a mile in their mocassins' before making judgments. He loved people the way Jesus loved them.
  
• Sundays were a day 'set apart' - always church services, never swimming, water sports, or winter sports. An afternoon drive to Burnips was okay :)
• Dad watched EVERY Billy Graham crusade that was televised. Three nights in a row was a bit much for us kids, but he loved watching it and hearing George Beverly Shea sing. He watched it all the way through to the 'altar call' at the end during the singing of 'Just As I Am'.
  

He taught me the value of hard work.

• Dad found me the perfect job! I worked at the hardware five days a week all summer - started in 1961 at 25 cents an hour and ended in 1970 at $2.50 and hour :) I loved those early years when Dad and I would leave the cottage at 4:30 in the morning. I would sleep in the car until 7:30 when the hardware opened and would work until about 2:30 when we would head to the cottage and ski until dark.
  
• I paid for all of my high school tuition but my Dad bought my first car - a brand new, hot-off-the-lot 1967 Camaro. Guess which I valued more....The lesson: You treasure what you work for.
• When we used to gripe that we didn't have a dishwasher, he would say "We've got three of them - their names are Ron, Joan, and Marva. Get to work!"
• He always told us to never make a bet we couldn't pay.
  
• When Bill and I wanted to buy our first house, we needed some cash for the down payment and approached Dad for a loan. He said he would give us one - with interest. We couldn't afford the interest payments, so we never borrowed from him. Lesson: We needed to make it on our own - he would not be an 'open wallet'. He would have helped us in a heartbeat if we were down and out, but never wanted us to expect his help. After we proved we could make it independently, he loved to surprise us with cash gifts from time to time - always with the instructions that the money was for 'splurges' and not for paying our bills.

He had a zest for life that was unequaled.

• He packed more into 59 years than anyone I know. He loved to travel with family and friends, attend plumbing conventions, and have friends at the cottage EVERY Wednesday and Saturday. I remember Mom scrubbing the rack of the charcoal grill in a old, white porcelain basin twice a week in preparation. Our friends were always welcomed and treated as special guests. The cottage was his favorite place in the whole world.
  
• He would spend an entire afternoon rounding up skiers from around the lake, just for the challenge of seeing how many he could get up at one time. The record stands at 12-13.
  
• He loved to bet on everything - golf putts, especially. He would even bet that he would win the bet!
• He was always planning trips and excursions.
  

He made everyone feel special.

• He always was the first one to call on my birthday - 8 a.m. October 14, 1987 at 8 a.m. was one of the hardest moments of my life.
  
• He had dozens of 'best friends' - over and over at the funeral home we heard "Your dad was my best friend." Amazing.
  
• When families would come to the cottage, he ALWAYS took the biggest steak and gave it to one of the young boys. That was the day and age when the adults usually had steak and kids ate hot dogs.
  
• At his graduation party - when he got his high school diploma in 1984 - he said over and over, "All the money and accomplishments in the world can't buy this!" He was referring to his family and friends.
  
• He always chose one of his grandkids to help him 'clean off the beater bar' of the ice cream maker. The two of them would sit on the back steps and enjoy the extra ice cream.
• He loved to take the grandkids for rides on his golf cart and dune buggy.
  
• In the winter, Dad would call almost every Saturday and ask us to go snowmobiling with him. He would not take 'no' for an answer. He just wanted to be with us.
• I continue to be amazed at how many people still talk about him twenty years after his death.
  

Can't say it any better than what we wrote for his funeral......

(click on the page to read it more easily)

Dad in his office

October, 1974

Michigan

Contractor
of the Year
1981

High School

Diploma!

1984

The infamous
dune buggy -

a favorite

of young and old!

Early memories....

• Before Dad bought the cottage in 1960, he would take us to Gun Lake every Wednesday afternoon and every Saturday in the summer. He taught me to ski when I was six years old - mostly by refusing to let me quit trying. He spent an entire afternoon pulling the boat as I struggled to learn.
• Lake Gogebic, Drummond Island, Mackinaw Island.
  
• Dad couldn't watch Bonanza without crying. Every time he would say, "Still a good moral to that show...."
• He would lay on the couch in the den with several apples in his chest. He would cut slices out one by one and share them with us kids.
  
• Dad and me tromping through an old abandoned house up north. I found an old boot that came home with us.
• Watching for 'Picnic Table Ahead" signs and cooking our meals on the back, pull-down door of the station wagon.
• Throwing open the wooden shutters of the big lodge on Drummond Island and Dad acting as if the fresh air was one of life's greatest joys.
• Dad always lit the charcoal grill by dousing the coals with gasoline. He would tell everyone to stand back and would throw a match on it. It would erupt in a huge flame and he was like a little kid every time.
  
• Sailing with Dad on beautiful summer afternoons at the cottage. He always tried to see how far he could get the sailboat to lean without it tipping over. He tipped it every time.
• Dad taking me to the old, abandoned airport (which is now Roger B. Chaffee Drive) and teaching me how to drive a 'stick-shift'.

Later memories....

• Florida, Hawaii, Callaway Gardens.
• The most angry I ever saw Dad was after he called the hardware on a blistering hot Saturday afternoon and told me to cut out of work early and come up to the cottage. My boss, the hardware manager, wouldn't let me leave - said I didn't need to come back on Monday morning if I left. Dad was furious!!!!! (I think the store manager had a little 'meeting' in Dad's office on Monday :)
• How excited Dad was to plan an elaborate party for Mom - he asked us girls to handle some of the details and he called almost daily to check on things.
• How he loved to tease Meike, the exchange student from Germany who lived with my family for a year.
  
• He loved the water and yet he COULD NOT swim - even paid a man in Florida to teach him, but he sank like a stone. He kept trying but never succeeded.
  
• Dad went shopping by himself and brought a gray, stuffed poodle to the hospital when Steve was born.
  
• Dad arranged for a friend with a private plane to get Bill's parents from Oshkosh, Wisconsin when Bill's brother Tom drowned. Dad was at the river's edge when Tom's body was found and had to identify him. Dad couldn't sleep for several nights.
• He LOVED the 'good ol' USA and was very thankful for the freedoms we enjoy. Many times he would say, "Still the greatest country on earth!"
• He loved to play Santa Claus on Christmas day.

Memories from our kids....

From Steve - Random memories and traits of Grandpa Brummel:

• homemade ice cream
• summer days at the cottage
• Grandpa betting me that I could not get an 80 pound bag of cement out of his trunk (he was right)
• he went snowmobiling without a hat (I have never seen that done again)
• he was tougher than the average bear (see above)
• making me say "Please, Gramps, let me go" (said in his smooth, mellow voice)
• trying to get up on one ski until I couldn't hang on anymore
• weeding the Pierce parking lot stones (did Roundup exist back then?)
• he mowed the grass at the cottage twice in the same day
• trolling for walleye (me driving the boat, Grandpa sleeping)
• snowmobiles left for us to use while he was in Florida - complete with extra cans of gas
• Grandpa wallowing around in Beckers' septic tank
• Grandpa coming into our bedroom every night at the cottage and saying, "Get some sleep - we have a big day tomorrow."
• generosity
• Grandpa loved to have company and always made everyone feel welcome
• hard working
• fun loving

I always wish that Lynn and the kids could have known him.

Memories from Tom:
Sorry this is late. I kept meaning to sit down and type up some stuff at work but then I kept getting side-tracked. OK, here are a few things I remember:

1. I know this one has already been used but you can never forget, “Please, Gramps, let me go.” Of course you had to try to mimic his voice…which isn’t easy to do when you’re an 11-year-old boy.
2. His hands were unbelievably, remarkably, freakishly strong.
3. He was always squeezing those hand-strengthening squeezer devices. He had one of those in every vehicle, one in the boat, and about 3 more lying around the house.
4. What was up with his golf swing?
5. After snowmobiling, we always had to pull the snowmobiles in that downstairs garage and hose off the snow. I know – at that point – he had not yet graduated from high school but didn’t he know the snow would melt on its own inside the heated garage? I suppose there was never a need to mow the lawn twice in a day either but I guess when you can’t sit still…
6. That giant swordfish in his office.
7. He had a skinny little body with a big belly. He’s fat. No, he’s skinny. Stop – you’re both right.

Now on to some sappy stuff:

• I’ll never forget the lesson he taught me about generosity. We were at a basketball game at Unity Christian and he stopped me on my way to the concession stand. He asked if I had any money and I told him I had a dollar. He then asked me if he could borrow a dime. Hold on! Let’s do the math on this. Candy was $0.50 cents (at least the stuff I wanted). So if I give him a dime, I will only have $0.90 cents left. That means I can only buy one good candy and a couple dumb candies. I reluctantly agreed and went to the concession stand and got my Sprees, 2 lousy Jolly Rancher Sticks and a dime for change. I walked back over to Gramps a little upset that he would do this to me. He was a millionaire for crying out loud and he took my last dime. I’ll never forget how as he put my dime in his pocket, he pulled out a dollar bill and handed it over to me. He just smiled. He didn’t have to explain the moral of the story to me because I already knew…JACKPOT! Chewy Sweet Tarts here I come!
• The Christmas before he died, he asked me if I would ride with him to go pick up Great-Grandma at the nursing home. I was leaving the next week to go skiing in Colorado with Dave Heyboer and he was leaving for Florida. The way he talked to me was different than any other conversation we ever had. He was interested in my trip and what I had planned for the spring. He joked about me getting a girlfriend and how he couldn’t believe how fast I was growing up. He told me he was proud of me. The last thing he did was pull a $20 bill out of the glove box and told me to buy a souvenir on my ski trip. He smiled and said, “I’ll see you when I get back from Florida.” As I look back at the conversation now, I believe he knew he wouldn’t.
• I was only 13 when he died so it didn’t really hit me at the time but it was unbelievable how many people showed up at the funeral home. Obviously, I loved him because he was Gramps but I still can’t believe how many people showed up to pay their respects. It’s clear that I was too young to fully understand what a great man he was.

Laura wrote:
Aunt Denise's blog brought me to tears. I sure miss Grandpa. I wish that Ben could have known him. I seem to have many times when I tell Ben about how wonderful Grandpa was. (I think that I talk about Grandpa so much that Ben actually feels like he knows him a bit.) Some things that I respect about Grandpa are his hard work ethic, his generosity, and that he was not afraid to show his emotions. He had a way of making you know that you were loved. Some silly memories I have (which I listed on Aunt Denise's blog) are....making ice cream on the deck of the cottage, pulling his toe nails off with a pliers (swearing under his breath), mowing the lawn twice in a day just because he couldn't sit still, taking as many kids that could hang on on the golf cart around the loop at the cottage, holding our hands together with one of his making us say "Please, Gramps, let me go". He sure was fabulous!

Dad's last Christmas - 1986. He died less than six weeks later.
I knew, and I believe he knew, that we would not see each other again
this side of heaven.

Until we meet again - I love you, Dad.