Letter: A Family that Rows Together

A family that rows together is a family that stays together.

That’s because it takes a team, matching strokes, guiding the fragile craft down the course, crossing the finish line in a flourish, in sync (mostly), together (certainly).

Such has been our family life.

The One Year Bible reading for today, as it every year, year after year – and, as in the case of rowing, mile after mile – includes Psalm 144:12.

That bible address – 14412 – was the address of the home – 14412 Grant – where we brought our first newborn home.

Interestingly, the first word of 14412 is “Grant.”

Psalm 144:12 is a prayer of the Psalmist David, that God would grant him a son to grow strong and tall, and that his daughters would be beautiful, “polished like a palace.”

God granted that prayer of my wife and me.

When we moved into 14412 Grant, my wife Lennie and I had no children though we almost did. Our first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage of twin boys at four months.

But upon moving into 14412 Grant, God blessed us then with a beautiful daughter, to be followed by a son who has indeed grown strong and tall, and two more beautiful daughters, all three daughters ‘polished palace like,’ and ten grandchildren.

Their mother and grandmother, my wife of 50 years married, is gone now, lost to cancer just over a year ago.

She never did row. But she stood there on the dock cheering for her family who did.