Fish, fish…….er………fishing man and assistant
Been going through some paper and pitching them in near-miss at the wastebasket. Ran across my tribute ti Don Seems, one of the many former Circle of Friends volunteers who dedicated his money and time to keeping the program honest and transparent. He and I were fishing competitors and also enjoyed fishing with students. I understand the fishing poles were thrown away. Such a shame as as Bob and others bought the poles and finally a bunch of carrying cases to keep the poles untangled. Well. good ;ick with that. We tried. But everyone enjoyed fishing. Anyway we all have good memories of the poles and the competition of wearing the fishing hat if you caught a fish.
Don is the missed. Here is a missal I wrote for him and read at the memorial service. Still miss him when I eat at our Chinese restaurant. I feel he is still there when we eat there with Claudi.
Donald Siems
Don Siems who died and went to be with God last night left some big footprints for us to follow. Behind him are the tracks made by his oxygen wheels and Claudia’s footprints hurrying to keep up and find the next oxygen tank. Trailing her tracks is an array of Circle of Friends drama students running to catch up. They have just discovered that they DO have talent just like Don said they did, and now they have to learn their lines.
Don could find a silly or serious song to match the ever-expanding scripts, and he could scrape money from under a carpet to pay for lights or a microphone for Circle of Friends actors.
We always had a contest going between his fish worm bait and my cut up cheese hot dogs, and who ever caught the next fish got to wear the fishing hat. Don and Bob kept the 20 fishing poles in untangled working order — well mostly untangled.
But his light shined in other places where love sparkled along with his award winning Christmas yard decorations.
His love blanket is thrown over his family and all of us. It feels good, and we will always remember that the blanket comes from God, just like Don said. He said a lot of things, but mostly he lived a humble example of the light of Christ.
Thursday speech, May 23, 2019
Early this morning over coffee, I picked up a book of poetry called MEDITATION to read RANDOMLY from it. IT FELL OPEN TO A POEM CALLED OXYGEN.
Oxygen! Oxygen! Who is that? And why this poem?
It is Don, pulling a tank around so he could breathe, and Claudia running along behind trying to keep up with the oxygen tanks. If you are a grandchild or Circle of friends member this may be the way you remember him.
We all see him differently from whatever contact WE had with him.
—the truth is — looking back gives new meaning – and will continue to do so
We didn’t know what his lessons MEANT, but they changed us
I will try in a few minutes to highlight through stories the essence of this man, the way some of us see him.
He was generous. At our house from time to time a package would arrive from him and Claudia. A CD or a book or video, something he thought we would enjoy.
He was generous with his time and money with the church .
He was a “Last man out – turn out the lights” sort of guy, always staying late to put away equipment or return borrowed things with Peggy or meet with Dorothy or Susan about scripts.
He was a writer and play adapter. When someone got sick or a new person showed up for the drama group, he wrote them in or out of the script and the show went on. He would take one of my scripts and rewrite it for the group making it a thousand times better and appropriate for Circle of Friends.
Problem solver: When there was no budget money for something his group needed, he turned his pants pockets inside out – there is a nickel in there. He scraped out the rest to buy a new set of lapel mikes so the drama actors could be heard or lights to make them look beautiful. Sometimes his problem solving turned to beggin— there was no money for them when the money requests were made years ago we didn’t know we would need mikes.
He was a fisherman. If you fished with him as a business employee, you were likely to have some sophisticated bait, but if you fished with him as c of f you likely held a can of worms. Here was the competition: There was a contest between Don’s fishing worms and My cut up cheese hot dogs. The person who caught a fish got to wear Bob’s big fishing hat. The hat got passed around
It was more than fishing. For the students, It was “I can do something I have never done before.” And it was “I know how to handle competition even if I don’t catch anything “ because not everyone caught something. It was just fun and the fellowship of fishing together. If you saw the smile on Ignatio’s face, you knew fishing was fun.
He was a borrower:
I’ll just borrow this (he and Peggy and unknown others who worked with drama always needed props BENCH FROM THE HALLWAY, egg beater from the kitchen, costume from the children’s department) Permission unknown. We will return it. Costumes he did. Our costumes got borrowed and were never seen again. If you see a spare rack of costumes someplace, please return them to Dorothy or Susan or —
He was a behind the scenes man
- Music or sound effects — HE COULD FIND THEM\
- Fishing party preparations
– springtime clean up and untangle the fishing poles in preparation for the annual fishing party. Each year he and Bob added poles and finally bought carrying cases for the fishing poles. The challenge was to keep the fishing lines untangled for all of us.
He was a man of patience, always waiting by the door for Claudia or someone. Usually because Claudia was talking to me or arranging the next event.
He inspired — A student shows up just to try drama. Don would see in them a talent they didn’t know they had. He helped them discover an inner core of talent they could develop and depend upon. He led the way and pulled them along with him. Slowly but surely they discovered themself. He was an encourager. He bought pizza for them on production night and listened to their stories and encouraged them and became their friend. He loved them.
But his light shined in other places where love sparkled along with his award winning Christmas yard decorations.
His love blanket is thrown over his family and all of us. It feels good, and we will always remember that the blanket comes from God, just like Don said.
He said a lot of things, but mostly he lived a humble example of the light of Christ.