HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 1981-06-18, Page 3TrilJLte •
Editor's note - Mr. and Mrs. John Guetter
of Clinton celebrated their 56th wedding
anniversary on June 3rd. Asa tribute to
her parents, Mrs. Therms Bakker of
Sarnia, has written a very special Netter on
alf of the family. The Guetters have
other children Chris, Jean and Rita,
of Clluton, Pete from Feuwiek and
Harry from Arizona.
Dear Mom and Dad:
I wanted to write you a letter on "your"
day. You have just celebrated your 55th
anniversary, and I wanted to sum up some
of my thoughts and feelings which have
accumulated through the years. Not, that I
have hidden these feelings in the past! On
the contrary, I have ever so often shown
how much I love and care for you. But
somehow, I now wanted to pay a special
tribute to you in a special way. I do this by
means of an open letter. The prime pur-
pose for this letter however, is not to show
how marvelous and loving you are, but
first and foremost how marvelous our God
is. He brought us together as a family, and
to Him,alone be the praise and honor!
I first looked into your faces in the late
1930's. Little did I know then, what a rich
d beautiful life lay before me. But God
1!
do not remember much of my
childhood years, other than that the war
made an impact on me. Our uncle in
Amsterdam worked among the Jewish
people, and it was through him that little
Paul, a Jewish lad, came to live with us.
Paul, 41/2 -years -old, was a clever little boy.
He caused quite some confusion at times,
because of his gifted speech and dealings.
He was not allowed to go outside for fear
the Germans would spot and kill him. You
took a great chance to be put into the
concentration camp Man and Dad! But
you provided for him, because you knew it
was your Christian duty and God rewarded
you for it.
Remember too, how poor we were? You
hardly knew, dear Mother, how you were
going to feed the family frau one day to
the next. Yet, strange as it may sound,
there was always enough food, not only for
us, but also for friends or relatives.
At meal -time, you Dad, would have long
conversations with God. Your chair was
always in the same position, and when you
prayed you squeezed your eyes together,
stuck in
the middle
("Now, if I was a big, old Bengal Tiger,
you wouldn't find we trooping through
those hot, humid jungles in India.
No way man, not me. I wouldn't
spend my' days chasing after , those
crazy antelopes or taking chard es of
getting knocked off by some highfalutin
trophy hunter.
We. tigers may be kind of high strung,
but I'll tell you, same of us have got
some brains too and we headed right
over to Rockton, Ontario, Canada to
live in the lap of luxury at their African
Lion Safari Park.
Now that snow took some getting
used too, but it's all worth it, knowing
that we're protected and well cared for
by the wardens and veterinarians.
There are no guns allowed in this
safari park, and the people are so
friendly too. All they want to do is drive
by in those automobile -things and look
at us. Hey, now who can beat that!
Even though those lazy old lions get
top billing at this joint, there's a whole
bunch of us in this 500 -acre park in-
cluding cheetahs, zebras, white rhinos,
elephants, monkeys and baboons, birds
and exotic waterfowl, llamas and
giraffes, and some creatures that I've
never heard tell of in all my life - black
bears, elk and sad nething called a bison
Anyway, it's a pretty good deal we've
got, and I hear that beyond our quarters
the humans have got a lots of other
by saugbter to couple celebraii.n.
facing the one corner in the living -room. I
used to peek through prayer at t .i :, I'd
look so hard into the same cor er, r I
thought for sure you were se;' : g # od
through slits in your eyes.
After supper, when you were not too
tired, you would get on your hands and
knees, and we would play horse with you,
Dad. You were always a wild horse that
bucked and galloped easily. We sure had
our fun that way!
I also remember so well, how every
Monday morning we would have to wear
clean knitted stockings - long prickly ones
at that! Oh, how I hated Monday mor-
nings! Some of our more fortunate friends-
wore
riendswore the boughten, knitted stockings and
they didn't have to go through the agony of
adjusting to the harsh, cheap wool. But
then you, Dad, would come out of your
carpenter shop, and while the big tears
were rolling down our cheeks, you would
sit before our chair and begin to rub the
stockings on our legs - up and down, up and
down, up and down. Somehow, through
your gentle rubbing, the wool softened,
and even though we would still walk
around all Monday morning like dolls with
wooden legs, it was at least bearable.
I also remember the times we had been
tucked into bed by Man who had said our
prayers with us. You, Dad, would
sometimes come up, and just sit on the
side of our bed, and just chat awhile with
us. You used to ask all kinds of questions
about our home and school and those few
minutes were always very precious to me.
After we had talked together you would
ask if we should also talk to God. Then you
would take my little bands and place them
into your big, rough hands, and we would
speak with the Lord. It was through times
like these that I began to feel how close you
lived with God. I wanted that same
relationship with Him already at a young
age.
In 1949 we emigrated to Canada. Little
was I aware of our financial hardships. I
did not know until later that you had
borrowed every cent to bring your family
to Canada. A big step it was, but you, Mom
and Dad took it with God - and He provided
for us all!
In a very gloomy way, you prepared us
for a life in Canada. We would presumably
have to live in an old shack somewhere in
the woods with lions and bears roaming
shelley
y mcphee
dii)
things to see and do. Local gossip has it
that there's a midway, picnic area,
train rides, petting and feeding zoo,
birds of prey exhibit, African Queen
_.boat toui`, elephant rides, and fishing.
Now I wouldn't mind seeing some of
those things myself, but the boss says I
gotta stay were I am.
Oh well, it's not bad in our corner of
the park. They've tried to make it just
like home, with lots of trees and bushes
to hide in and even a pond so we can
swim anytime we want.
This just suits our fancy and life is so
comfortable and happy, that we're glad
to raise our babies here. Normally
we're not keen about bringing our
young'uns up in captivity, but this
seems like a good place to have baby
bengals.
Now if you get a chance, come on
down and see us at African Lion Safari,
they can sure give royal treatment.
Why just the other day, hundreds of
media -types, whatever they are, came
to the Safari for lunch and a tour of the
park in our air-coriditionned trams.
They really seemed to enjoy them-
selves and I hear that most stayed right
until closing time.
Around here they, say, "Go Wild at
the African Lion Safari," but I still
think my pal Tony sums it up pretty
good, "It's Grrrreat!"
i
around our living quarters. We had our
initial shock but it was quite different from
what we had anticipated, Remember
Mom, how you and one of your daughters
were ill when you came off the boat in \
Quebec? In those days the immigration
office was not prepared for interruptions
like these. While you two were taken to the
hospital, they took the rest of us to a prison
for stowaways.
That was terrible wasn't it! Sick people
were automatically taken care of, but
what could the immigration staff do with
the "healthy" members of a family? They
did not want to split us up, sending -us on to
Ontario. As for ourselves, we could not
speak the English or French language. We
understood little of all the confusion and
had no say in this dilemma. We needed a
roof over our heads, therefore we were put
into the same place as "criminals" who
had not paid their fare.
Sunday was always the great day of the
week, when we would go to church by
chartered bus. All our Christian friends,
(they were almost as dose as relatives
then) would gather together and travel to
Mr. and Mrs. John Guetter of Clinton celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary on June
13 with a special open house at the Christian Reformed Church when hundreds of friends,
family and associates honored the happy couple. (Jim Fitzgerald photo)
Home Phone 482-3183
Ball -Macaulay Ltd.
is pleased to announce
the appointment of
John Patterson
to a sales position with the company.
-As- a progressive
member of Homecare Building Centres Ltd., Ball -Macaulay offers a
full range of building supplies and services. John will be representing
the three branches at Seaforth, Clinton and Hensall as a sales
representative providing an additional service to the community in all
phases of construction including kitchen design, home improvement
and form buildings.
BALL-MACAULAY
BUILDING CENTRE
BALL-MACAULAY LIMITED
Seaforth Clinton
527-0910 482-3405
Hensall
262-2418
PRO HARDWARE
Vacation
Cash
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i - - a
We'll Give You $5.00 Cash
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TILLEY
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BARBECUES
Hugo selection in stock!
ub
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482-9773
Membership Fee -635.00
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Offer Expires -July 15th, 1981
SMITH'S
PRO HARDWARE
CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, JUNE 18,1981—PAGE 3
55th 4 ' versary
church some 35 miles away. It was always
a beautiful outing. Ii the stormy winter
weather would not permit us to go, then
you Dad would take aver at hoarse with a
hymn -sing and a reading service. For-
tunately,
ortunately, that did not happen too often.
One year with the farmer proved to be
sufficient. It was then that we moved to the
town with the home church. I was about 14 -
years -old then and one of the things I
remember best from that period in my life
was that our home was always open for
others. No matter who came, there was
always room for relatives or friends.
Young people flocked in by the car loads.
They called our place the "Drive In," and
it was through your friendliness and
hospitality Mom, that so many came to our
home.
Assets, were never of great importance
to you. Fancy furniture was not at all
primary - but .cauiforts and cosiness were.
After the older children helped pay the
expenses of the trip overseas, the younger
ones helped to provide a little "nest" for
you two. What joy it was the day you
purchased a little hit of property for
yourself. How many thanksgiving prayers
were sent to heaven for your little home on
that day - and how many, since then? No,
money was never a big issue at home. God
II
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came first - and you showed t'r _ t t1 rpt
your giving for chard), school and somany
other worthwiule causes. Once, when 1
showed you my hope chest Dad, you said,
"Child, seek first the Kingdom of God and
all other things shall be yours as well."
I have tried to follow your advice - and
my riches are beyond measure to this day.
All the children were marriedone by one
through the years. Finally you two were
left by yourselves. Remember how ,you
summed up your feelings, Mother? You
said, "When the children were small, we
had small problems but what good times
we had. When the children became older,
we had more difficult tunes, but we grew
together as a family. But now that we are
just with the two of us, what joyful times
these are. Every day we thank God for our
lives together."
Yes you now live, the thiiee of you in your
cosy little home - you two together with
God. Fifty-five years you have been able to
live, knit and grow into each other's lives.
God has blessed you richly. Someday He
will take you to itis mansions above, where
you will forever praise and glorify his
name. I cannot think of two people more
blessed than you!
Much love from,
your daughter.
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