Monday, October 09, 2006

reading week

well reading week for The Leland Center is going down this week. Which couldn't have come at a better time. Besides being a little stressed from school and church, Shey's great-grandmother passed away this morning...it's sad, but kind of beautiful too. This will be the first funeral in a long time that I feel like I can actually celebrate the life of the person gone...

So on this day, I thought that I should tell a good story or two of the wonderful woman Evelyn Spah who left us this morning at the wonderful age of 94. First, I should let people know that the first kegger i ever went to was for "Vera's" 90th birthday party a few years back, complete with a Senetor or two, and a lot of fun family stories. It was one of those great evenings with Shey's family that I still look back on and think of all the fun that we will still have together...

One of the neatest things about Vera and her husband, was that they were famous for many things, including some neat showbusiness acts and Vera's husband was one of the few survivors of the Hindenburg crash. If you get a chance to check out any documentaries on the History channel looking at the Hindenburg and its inevitable demise, you'll likely see an interview with Shey's great grandmother as she describes the Hindenburg coming down and watching her contortionist husband hang on to the outside waiting until the Hindenburg was close enough to the ground for him to fall off (which he did, and survived!). Much of the video footage of the Hindenburg flying (before its crash) comes from Evelyn's husband trip on the zepplin. Anyway, she was a great storyteller, always wanting to discuss her travels around the world and a life of love and family. she'll be missed...

so things may be a little scattered on the blog, b/c between family stuff the next few days, I'll be working on a chapter for a book that I get to write that Nicholas Fiedler and Josh Brown are working on putting together...

1 comment:

Todd said...

Wow, Josh--what a great story! That sounded familiar to me--I saw a movie about the Hindenburg back in the 70s, and there was a character that sounded like Vera's husband. I looked on IMDB, he was a characterin the film. I read some on the web, he was a suspect in the explosion! Pretty wild!

Thanks for sharing. Hope the week goes well with you guys and family!