Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

The last known picture of the six "Moll Sisters" together--including my mother

My mom--Frieda--had five sisters who grew-up in the Thumb of Michigan.  Looking at this picture makes me wish I would have had iPhone with video.  These women had a real story to tell about growing up on a sugar beet farm from the time the oldest of them was real young to the youngest from the early 1900s to the early 1930s.

Their family of twelve siblings, including six brothers were real heroes who were the grandchildren of immigrants from Germany.  They lived through extreme poverty, backbreaking work from the time they were children and the loss of both parents at a very young age.

They kept the family together after moving to Bay City.  With the deaths of my mom and her brothers and sisters many if not most of the details were lost.

Theirs is a story that would have rivaled Little House on the Prairie.  Their parents--my maternal grandfather and grandmother died way before I was born.

Bartimaeus shows me that I need to change the way I pray for myself and for others

I spent a lot of time this past year with an old, blind beggar named Bartimaeus who was blind on the road out of Jericho and who had the temerity to shout out to Jesus to heal his blindness.  This past year I read and reread this story because of my rapidly declining vision.  

As I waited to be admitted to the University of Michigan Kresge Eye Center, Pastor David Maier and his wife Pat came off the elevator.  I was taken aback a little when he prayed for God to heal my vision.  I was a fallen away Lutheran and he was the head of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Michigan.  He prayed anyways with a great deal of passion.

He prayed for the transplant surgeon and all the people involved in this ever so delicate surgery when somebody died in order for me to have their cornea.

As I face more things going awry in my head and neck such as plugged carotid arteries, a large mass on my tongue and a goiter working on becoming a softball, I can see from this post that I need to pray like Bartimaeus, a plain old beggar on the side of the road in Israel.

I'm not a fancy church guy who can quote much of the Bible from memory.  I grew up on the poorest side of Bay City, right on the river.  I'm not a big contributor to the church, but I know that Jesus loves me.

Pastor Maier connects the dots with this post.  It's practical and real life and it's worth of sharing.

 

Here's why we bought five quarts of plain yogurt yesterday at Meijers

I started this episode of my weight loss journey tipping the scales at the high 220s and yesterday I showed I was down to 187.  One of my enemies is snacking, particularly after supper.  As I inch towards my goal of 175, I've become more dependent on plain yogurt and frozen fruit pieces to satiate my desire for food.  And this includes pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top.  We also have it at meals.

When you think of plain yogurt, your first reaction might be "yuck."  At first, it seems tasteless but after awhile, you can taste its nuances and layers, especially with the fruit.

After I reach my goal, I know I need to keep it off because of my carotid artery disease.  One is blocked 100 percent and the other less than 20.  I know that if I'm not at peak health for a 72 years old, I would be a prime candidate for a stroke.  That's motivating.

Now, I need to get the exercise in line.

 

Was MSU President John Engler a bully when he was in the Michigan Legislature and when he was governor?

As a reporter at the State Capitol, I wrote a lot of columns with some opinion that I tried to back up with fact. Is this one about John Engler when he was in the Michigan House to irreverent?

At the MSU School of Journalism, they called it a string book.  It held clippings of what you had published in a newspaper and it was usually bound together strings in two or three places on the margin.  Over the years, my string book morphed into a several and then into a collection of good sized boxes.  It survived several moves and a couple of marriages.

I've been paring down my collection of columns and stories I wrote.  I found this one written when former Gov. Engler was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives while he was in his late twenties.  He's now the acting president of MSU.  

His leadership style morphed into what many have described as skillful bullying.  Was it intimidation or just being an effective leader?

Was Engler a role model for Trump or vice versa?  The stories are legend.  

Meet my grandpa--Charles Moll--my mother's dad from Michigan's Thumb

I never met my grandpa or grandma on my mother's side, but this picture makes me regret that we never got acquainted.  This picture makes me regret that I never heard his stories about being a sugar beet farmer in Michigan's Thumb where my mom grew up.  He's on the left and his brother is in the middle.  As I become more and more experienced at being a grandparent, I want my six grandkids to know me and my life.  This old photo is part of a collection that my mother left me when she died.