ACROSS THE RIVER

Family finds its way home

My grandson, Harley Doneburg and seven members of his church, returned home on Friday from Uganda, Africa. As they do, on a regular basis, they visit areas where there is a need to assist children. They go to different areas where there are many orphans and they remain there for three weeks, doing all kinds of things, like building a home for these poor unfortunate children.

This time, they built an addition to an orphanage to try to accommodate the many homeless children.

One problem they encountered were that the children, who had no shoes (just about all of the street children) had a terrible problem with their feet. They all had a type of maggot which penetrated the soles of their feet and caused the children much discomfort. Everyone set out to remove these maggots, sometimes it necessitated using a razor blade. They were successful and then their feet were measured by tracing their feet on a sheet of cardboard (to find their sizes) and then shoes were purchased for all of these children, so they will no longer have a problem with their feet. They were able to purchase the shoes at a store (they do have stores, but children who live there do not have money to buy anything). All of the street children were given food to eat — many are thin and almost starving.

I really feel that our government should and could do more for these children. When we consider the money given to rouge and wicked nations, for whatever, that money could be used for these orphans.

We were glad to welcome Harley home — he was gone for three weeks and was sorely missed by his wife and six children. On his way home, Harley flew to England then to New York, and finally to Rochester.

All of us were saddened by the death of Toni Moore, who passed away on Jan. 26. Toni fought a long, hard battle, but succumbed to her illness. Toni Moore lived all of her life in Leicester and everyone who knew her, loved her. She will be missed by her family and all of her friends.

If you haven’t seen me about, be aware that I suffered for over 14 days with a virus. I was pretty much housebound. I am determined to not attend church, or shop until the weather thermometer reflects at least 45 degrees. Whenever it was necessary for me to step outside my door, for even a few moments, I really suffered from the cold. I regret that due to my illness and the resulting terrible weather, that I had to forego giving the Eucharist to my shut-ins.

I have spent my time, sorting my papers and my sheet music — I have even spent some time playing some of my favorite selections on the piano. (I really need to practice more).

On Sunday, one of my grandchildren came down to pick me up so that I could attend dinner at my daughter, Janice’s home. Janice lives in the “frozen tundra” (Perry). I often tease her about this. It seems that when the temperature is around 30 degrees in Leicester, it is always at least 10 or 15 degrees colder in Perry. Janice is a superb cook and when we have one of her dinners, we forget how bad the weather is.

I heard that the temperature will hit 45 degrees within the next week. I can hardly wait for that. Even my cat, Maggie, only steps outside for a minute or two. I have sent my order in to the Seed Company for flowers for the forthcoming year.

My son, Bo, called to tell me that my grandson, Zack, was honored at a dinner given by the University of Rochester, where Zack was nominated linebacker of the year by the football team. This is of course an honor. Zack is a very talented football player. Of course, that doesn’t keep me from worrying about his receiving blows to the head. I am glad that Zack will only play football one more year.

The Christiano Hardware is having a sale and then I believe that they will be renting out the store. Christiano’s have run the store for many years. When my husband had his contracting business, he bought all of his tools at the store. I really hate any kind of change and will be sorry to see the Hardware turned over to someone else.