Rick's Reflections
Day 4
Rick's Reflections
Day 4
Day 4 was a day to take it easy. We had only 50 miles to go and we had until 1:00 pm to do it. If you go too fast then you have a very long time to wait in holding for the closing ceremonies. One last top of the line breakfast from the folks at Prom Center Catering and I wandered out to my bike. After stretching and making sure my mascots are securely fastened I set out through the quiet Sunday morning of Downtown Northfield.
I spent a lot of time at each pit trying to pace my ride so I wouldn’t get to the holding area too early. It was another gorgeous day with a slight wind at our backs and temperatures reaching the low eighties. The route was mostly flat with only one challenging hill going out of Hastings. The scenery was beautiful as we passed rolling farmland and winding rivers.
I took a short break after Pit 1 to visit a cemetery in Cottage Grove. I’ve always enjoyed wandering through old cemeteries taking pictures of the weathered stones. They each have their own unique story to tell. It’s fun to imagine what the family was like with their joys and tragedies. You see sadness in a child’s grave marked with a sleeping lamb and strength in the parents nearby who had to keep going in spite of their loss. It is somehow comforting to see family plots with what often is the patriarch at the center with the descendants resting attentively at his feet.
The patriarch and matriarch of my mother’s family are buried at Lands Lutheran Church in Zumbrota. We rode within a mile of it on Day 3. I went back there a week after the ride to visit the graves. I hadn’t been there for about 15 years when we buried my great grandmother Josephine. She was 105. Those Norwegians in my Mom’s family live a long time! It took a while to find the stones as I hunted through a sea of Scandinavian names like Ronnningen, Ellefson, Lerfald, and Greseth. Hegseth was the name I was looking for.
The first stone I recognized was that of my grandmother Joyce who is still alive. The stone read, Joyce Kihlgren, 1918 - . It caught me off guard and I started crying. I thought about the next time I would come back to this cemetery which would likely be to bury her. It’s one thing to be comforted in the long lives of the dead but to see a stone for someone still living was more than a little unsettling. I can’t imagine a time when Grandma won’t be there. She is one of constants in my life. I have always known there is a house on a piece of land just east of Pine Island that I could go back to and be welcome. In the doorway of that house would be my Grandma smiling and asking me to come in and have something to eat. I just can’t imagine that doorway being empty and here was this damn stone telling me that someday it would be.
After a few minutes I got myself together and went to find Great-Grandma Josie. A few rows northeast of there I found her next to her husband Peter. They had simple stones befitting their lives. They lived in the same house their whole life together; the same house that Grandma Joyce lives in now. They were a constant.
I guess we all have constants like that in our lives. But then time comes along and things change. I’m ok with that I guess. I’m just not ok with anything cutting that time short…like AIDS. Our friend Joey is another constant in our lives. My wife has known him since right after college and I have known him since I met my wife. (10 years ago) We have a wonderful tradition of going to his house at Christmas time to decorate cookies and sing Christmas carols. A few years ago, at one of those parties, he told us he was HIV positive. Obviously we were stunned. His ex-partner had HIV and never told him. In his usual calm understated way, he assured us he was doing well and that he was taking care of himself. We eventually started in singing Christmas songs again and as I watched him sing I remember thinking that I couldn’t imagine having this Christmas party without his songs and cookies.
I don’t try to imagine it. I ride instead. I imagine what it will be like when we don’t have to ride for AIDS. I imagine that it won’t be very long. I imagine that I will be a very old man, singing Christmas carols with my arm around my wife, and watching Joey sing.
 and  |
 |
