Living Here

 September 22, 2020

Thirty eight years ago, I wasn’t impressed. This place wasn’t quaint like some New England villages; the poverty of the area was palpably visible. It hasn’t improved much since that first encounter. The hotel burned in the late eighties, the two village garages are gone, as is the Masonic lodge, the corner diner, the Agway and the Agway mill. But first impressions can be deceiving. 

Sinclairville is as idyllic a place to live and raise a family as can be found most anywhere. It’s not perfect, but the people we have come to know and grown to love here make this little village a place to envy. It is home to our children and their many friends, it’s where we worship, live, and (for the most part) love one another. Most of it still isn’t much to look at, but it is a great place to live in.

Today Linda and I finished splitting and stacking the firewood from the cherry tree we had cut down. We have so much wood, we don’t have space to stack it, so we decided to give some away. We took two pickup truck loads to a young couple whose own supply is depleted. Two more, and we are a little closer to getting the backyard ready for next year’s wedding reception. 

On the second trip to son Nathan with logs his wife Deb wants to use for the wedding, “adopted” daughter Nicole helped load the loveseat we had given them years ago into the truck. They needed the room, and we had a place for it, so back it came. I returned the splitter I borrowed from pastor Joe, and after dinner went to son Matt’s to see how the remodeling project is coming along. While I was there, son Nate stopped by to see if Matt could repair a warped part for his wood stove. He had already helped install a window in the room. Matt and I finished the window, and I went downstairs to find neighbor Bob who had come over to see the progress. Bob is doing major remodeling on his house, so we talked about it for awhile before I came home.

About fifteen minutes later, daughter Jessie stopped by for a visit. In the course of a single day, the intertwined network of family and friends repeatedly criss-crossed my field of vision, giving and receiving help and support. In these days of COVID when people are feeling isolated, living in this small village is a gift of the highest order for which I am thankful tonight.