I'm going to begin this story by saying that within these past couple of weeks I have written two very short stories in somewhat of a tribute to two people that I really don't know well enough to be writing about. In that respect my words probably didn't mean that much to them.
\This morning a light seemed to turn on inside of me telling me if I put those two stories together I would have a real heart warming story. This is a story of a connection, not just a connection but quite a connection. When I add a few names to it you will not only see this connection, you will feel it. I will leave it's culmination in the hands of the Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church.
It begins on one Saturday morning about twenty years ago. Let's call it the year of 1990. We had only been on the Island about a year at the time. I went to the Post Office to retrieve my mail. The Post Office was closed on Saturdays but the doors were unlocked for Box customers. At that moment I was alone in the Post Office and noticed that someone had left a credit card on the table. I took the card home and saw that the name on the card was that of Pamela Frucci. I told Janet and she told me that she was a member of one of the boards on Grosse Ile.
I called her and told her of my discovery and that I could deliver it to her. She seemed rather apprehensive in talking to a stranger and she asked if I would leave it in her mail box. I said sure and did so the next Monday.
Now I would like to go the the year of 2001 which would be exactly ten years ago. My son; David-Scott, was a freshman in High School. Janet and I attended a basketball game in the High School gym. Prior to the game Jim Parker conducted the chorus in the singing of our National Anthem. The National Anthem is very special to me in light of all of the death and destruction I witnessed in Vietnam. Jim's rendition at that particular time seemed to put me on cloud nine. It was beautiful. I can remember after that game shaking Jim Parker's hand and saying these exact words "That was the most beautiful rendition of Our National Anthem I have ever heard.
Just about a year ago in the year 2010, I wrote a story titled "A Pittance of Time." This was a story of my Vietnam experiences. It was published in the Ile Camera." A few days later I received a letter which stated in part that my story was a breath of fresh air and it was worth the price of a years subscription to the Ile Camera. This letter was signed by Pamela Frucci. I called Pamela and for the first time since the credit card incident at the Post Office some twenty years earlier, I was able to talk to her again. I thanked her for her words and she invited me to attend their next Grosse Ile Creative Writers Club meeting which meets the first Monday of each month.
It was three or four weeks ago that Jim Parker was honored for his thirty five plus years of service at the Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church. After the 11:30 Service in the Fellowship Hall, Sue Hurst read a few letters honoring Jim Parker for those years of service. A few others had special tributes to Jim. I remembered that time in the High School Gym ten years earlier and wrote about it when I returned home that day. I then thought no I don't know him well enough and decided not to go forward with that story.
The next week at the Island Fest I walked with the Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church. Since I have Parkinson's, I sort of brought up the rear. Sue Hurst dropped back and walked with me. I told her my story and of my writing the letter to Jim Parker. She made me promise to complete it and told me she would save a page for it in the scrapbook. I did finish it and gave it to her the next Sunday.
Last Monday, following our creative writers club meeting Pamela Frucci drove me home from that meeting. When she pulled into my driveway I read her the letter I had written to Jim Parker. I closed that letter with these words. "Whenever I hear the playing of the Star Spangled Banner I think of Jim Parker, and when I hear the name Jim Parker, I think of the Star Spangled Banner. I then looked up at Pamela and she was in tears. She told me that the tar Spangled Banner was their wedding song. Now I'm not exactly sure how this story goes and I will probably not get it all correct but she told me words to this effect. While her and Jack were at a Teachers Convention in California, they stood next to each other during the singing of the Sar Spangled Banner. Pamela immediately fell in love with Jack's harmonizing and it didn't take long for them to fall in love with each other. I'm not really sure but I believe that is how and when they met.
As I said at the beginning the culmination of this story will be in the hands of the Church. When I say that I mean wouldn't it be fitting to ask Jim Parker to conduct the choir in the singing of the Star Spangled Banner in honor of pamela and Jack Frucci's 50th wedding anniversary which just happens to be this year?
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;eautiful. I can remember after that game, shaking Jim Parker's hand and saying these exact words to him. "?
That was the most beautiful renditon of our National Anthem I have ever heard. if
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