The Passage Of Time
Got up at 5:30AM and by 6AM I was climbing into the cab of the big blue Volvo semi. I spent the weekend with Aunt Clara and her family, honored to be included by marriage. The occasion was a celebration of her 90th birthday. A family member, David operates a trucking business and kindly offered to give me a return lift from Eagle River Wisconsin to Illinois.
The first leg of the trip involved picking up a trailer load of pallets, freshly manufactured by Speedy Pallets in Loyal Wisconsin. David introduced me to Noah the proprietor of the pallet manufacturing operation. I liked him immediately. Before we arrived David had told me several stories about Noah’s family, which involved the values of the Mennonite Community and how those flowed into their flourishing pallet business.
With a fully loaded trailer as we headed south east for Milwaukee, and then to the Illinois state line –we had time to swap stories about family history, opinions about current politics, our thoughts about the challenges of operating a business and so on. The high 
cab of the tractor surged, the air suspension responding to the road surface and the movement of the load,– while we conversed, protected by the engineering of past generations. I am convinced both of us were changed by the words that we shared.
Aunt Clara is a gem of an individual. How does one reach a milestone of 90 years old? One does not reach such a milestone alone. It takes nothing less than the kind of conversation, the mutual support and companionship that David and I shared for a few hours on the road today.
