God Bless Mrs. Streger. I just spoke with mom and she mentioned that she and Corrine went to her funeral this afternoon. She was 102 years old and one of the older widows that lived on our block. I used to cut her lawn and my first memory was when she caught me delivering a "may day" basket to her doorstep and she invited me in for some lemonade. That began a treasured neighbor/friendship that helped make growing up on our block special. Three houses side by side - Mrs. Snow (who also passed away recently), next door to her was Mrs. Neitzel and then Mrs. Streger. All very genuine. All very wonderful ladies. I miss that sense of neighborhood.

A part of me wonders if I would ever want to get that old and still be here? Mom said that Pastor Dave came out of retirement and came back to Faith and gave the euology. She also said that apparently Mrs. Streger learned the same prayer mom and dad had us say before bedtime...of course mom was suprised that I still remembered it (even if my German is getting rustier the longer I'm away from it.)

Ich bin klein, mein Herz ist rein, niemand darf drin wohnen, als Jesus allein. Amen Gute Nacht.

I've been thinking about prayer more these past couple of weeks and in particular memorized prayers like The Lord's Prayer, which I don't say very often any more and Creeds that I memorized or even that German prayer above...What place does that sort of thing fit in my life today? I've said the Lord's prayer probably a few thousand times, probably heard a few semons and I think that aside from the arciac language, the words really are appropriate for this world today, I just don't wonder if sometimes I just don't pay enough attention to what I'm saying because it's memorized.

Anyhow...God bless Mrs Streger. I hope you know how much you enriched the neighborhood and in particular my life.