On that bright and cloudless morning…

9th grade

Sometime in the early morning hours today, my friend Deirdre Maureen Dennison Dow Dawson passed away. For some years she has drifted away from us due to Alzheimer’s and today was her day of release.

I remember where I was standing when she first told me she was in trouble; we were chatting by phone and I was watching the sunlight sparkle on the Okanagan Lake outside my kitchen at ‘Pebble Beach’.

As I did my walk today I thought of her and all the good times we had way-back-when. Deirdre taught me the fine art of note passing in 8th grade. She was also an expert on how to read a book-of-interest during a class without teacher detection! And she and I were in total awe of our friend Linda who was the Mother Superior on Boys…Deirdre and me, we were simple novitiates.

And could we laugh…there was a lot to laugh about in 8th, 9th and 10th grades…I can still see her mother looking over her glasses and shaking her head at us. I can still hear Deirdre call out as I walked to school, Hey, Kandt and I would look around and call back, Hey, Dennison! (What’s with the last names?)

countryside north of Vulcan, Alberta...land that she loved

After high school we followed divergent roads…she on to university, I chose marriage. We did get married within one day of each other though, she beating me by one day!

Deirdre did have a different life than I…while I was raising my little ones she was racing cars and graduating from university. At about this time Deirdre survived a gunshot wound that could have been her end. What a girl!!

As time passed we lost touch but when I came back to Canada she picked up and it was talk, talk, talk like we did as kids.

When our class from Vulcan High all turned 50 Deirdre invited us all to her house for a party. She was that kind of person; warm, engaging, personable and loads of fun. Everybody loved her.

In the summer of 2005 Rick brought Deirdre out to Mayne Island; her last trip to the coast.

I think Rick had a great time messing around with Sherwin for a couple days.
 
Someday I would like to think I will be roaming the hills of heaven and I will hear someone call out, Hey, Kandt! What a reunion that will be.

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.

On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.