Eleanor and I were discussing plans for Easter this morning, and I asked if she wanted to go to church; I suggested we could go to the Easter Sunrise Service. At that point she told me an amazing tale.
Fred and Eleanor were getting ready to go to Easter Sunrise services in Panama. They planned to meet their neighbors from across the street at the bus stop for the ride to the Lutheran Church. Eleanor was getting dressed and thought she smelled smoke; she asked Fred to go to the kitchen and see if anything was burning. After checking out their small apartment, Fred came to the bedroom to assure her that nothing was on fire. Soon thereafter Janet, Fred, and Eleanor were standing outside at the bus stop when Eleanor again smelled smoke. She thought it was coming from the end of the apartment complex that they lived in, so she asked Fred to go to the end of the apartments to see if everything was alright.
Fred went to the end of the apartments, and suddenly ran up the stairs to an apartment where he could see smoke coming out a window. The apartments in Panama didn't have glass in the windows, only a screen. As Fred looked in, he could see that the bed was on fire in the apartment. The couple sleeping in bed had gone out to celebrate the night before, and somehow the mattress had caught on fire between them,. Fred broke the door in and picked up the women to take her downstairs, she began protesting loudly that she didn't have any clothing on. Fred went up the stairs to help the husband out, and as they were coming down the stairs, some of the other residents of the apartment complex came and started to put out the fire.
At this point the couple that Fred and Eleanor were going to Church with arrived at the bus stop. The woman asked Eleanor if she shouldn't hurry upstairs and save her valuables in case the whole apartment complex went up in fire. Eleanor left Janet with their friends and began running up the stairs, once she reached the top, she suddenly stopped and realized that SHE DIDN'T HAVE ANY VALUABLES.
Eleanor walked down the stairs. Fred joined them at the bus stop. They caught the bus to go to the Easter Sunrise service. The whole event had lasted only a few minutes.
It would hard for me to match the excitement of Easter Sunday, 1948
hard to match that event!! this appears to be fun for Eleanor to share her life's many adventures with your "blog". we never understood the attraction to a blog. but this is something we look forward to reading everyday. thank you so much for recording these priceless family memories!
ReplyDeletei thought we were posting comments during these many days. duh ... this was the first time i succeded in the entire process. since we don't tweet r facebook , i'm such a novice. look forward to an endless stream of comment !@&$?
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