Wright/Cromwell news

Our sympathy to the family of Jacob Fredrick Bok, 97, of Meadowlands who passed away Dec. 10. He was born in Holland and at the age of 6 his family moved to a farm in South Dakota. At the age of 10 Jake was doing the majority of the farming thus began his lifelong love of farming, farm machinery, welding, and mechanics. Jake moved his family to a farm in Meadowlands in April of 1951.

Our sympathy to the family of Lawrence “Boz” Thomas Dahl, 71, of Cloquet who passed away on Dec. 9. He grew up in Cromwell and graduated from Cromwell High School in 1968. He enlisted in the Navy and served until 1970. He spent six months in Vietnam. After his discharge, he returned to Cromwell and worked in logging and various construction companies and for 28 years at Northland Construction.

The older I get, more and more of my friends and area acquaintances are passing away. And one of the things I have been doing for the past 13 years is keeping track of all the deaths in our area. I keep this list for history’s sake and also for the luminary program which is held at the Villa Vista each January. We honor those who have died the past year and folks can purchase a luminary bag for each family member they want to honor.

This year, there will not be a program due to the pandemic. This is so sad, as these events have been so meaningful to the residents, staff and the community. I miss visiting with the residents and staff and I’m sure the residents miss visitors.

After subbing a few times in the past few months, I didn’t realize how much I depended on lip-reading for communication until I couldn’t see anyone’s lips. Since I’m deaf in my left ear, I have been able to read lips quite a bit, but now with the masks on everyone, that ability sure has been curtailed. I find myself asking people to repeat themselves a lot more than I used to.

Also, new people you meet don’t look anything like you think they look. For example, I met a few new students while subbing in Floodwood this fall and thought I knew what they looked like, but when I asked them to step back and take their masks off for a few seconds, they didn’t look anything like I had imagined.

I hope you consider giving a special donation to your church congregations as this pandemic and not being able to meet in person has put a financial burden on them. Here are the names and address of our area churches:

• Bethlehem Lutheran Church, PO Box 54, Wright MN 55798

• Bethany Lutheran Church, 5660 Hwy. 210, Cromwell MN 55726

• Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 5944 Hwy. 210, Cromwell MN 55726

• Evangelical Free Church, Pease Ave. & Third St., Wright MN 55798

• St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1417 Second St., Wright MN 55798

• The United Methodist Church, Hwy. 210 E., Cromwell MN 55726

Jupiter and Saturn are closing in on their great conjunction on the day of the solstice, Dec. 21. The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226. They’ll surely be an appealing and mind-expanding sight. The close conjunction won’t be matched again until 2080.

Of course, Dec. 21 is a favorite day of the year for many folks, including Ray Lally, because for the next six months the amount of daylight each day increases.

That’s all the news from the Edge of Wright.

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