Joel Jongkind

At the beginning of May, I called a former Managing Director of the pipeline engineering firm for whom I worked to congratulate him on his 94th birthday. In my early years with the company, I worked for him, and later, with him. The two of … Read more

On the seventh of June, I went to a funeral of a lady whom I have known for about seventy years. She had just celebrated her 105th birthday. In the order of service, there was a card with a poem written on it in her own handwriting. Her … Read more

According to statistics, in Canada, depending on location, between five and a half to six percent of the people who are able to work cannot find meaningful employment. Yet, employers don't seem to be able to find workers. Every once in a … Read more

For many years, we lived on a fairly large property on the outskirts of town. Part of the property was bush, with both hardwood and softwood trees, as well as the various kinds of brush that grow in those places. The Northern White Cedar, … Read more

For about 35 years, I had a flock of homing pigeons. I didn't race them, but I took them out for a fly on occasion, mostly for short distances — sometimes longer ones — and they would always find their way home. I had one big white cock … Read more

Before we moved into town just over five years ago, we lived on four acres of land on the outskirts of town. For many years, one of my hobbies was having homing pigeons and several kinds of chickens. They gave us eggs, they ate all our … Read more

On Easter Sunday, my wife, our pianist, and I had planned for quite some time to go to the local Long Term Care Centre. A good number of residents always enjoy coming to the worship services, especially on Christian holy days. While we … Read more

During Lent, I was studying some of the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus on the cross, and, in particular, the passages in the book of Matthew where the authorities and other people were mocking Jesus. "Even the … Read more

During the last several years, there have been reports of hundreds of thousands of people being displaced by wars and uprisings, or leaving their homeland for economic reasons. We hear and read about them on a daily basis. Many are living … Read more

Last summer, a good friend died after a very long illness. We had attended the same elementary school. I had forgotten about her until I met up with her some thirty years ago. We became good friends, and we visited back and forth a lot. … Read more