Post 9/2025. Cornwall UK. On Tuesday we walked on the upper footpath above Porth Kidney Sands, the tide out, on the way to Lelant for lunch at the Badger Inn. I found it refreshing, a chance to muse on things other than the disruptions across societies I read about in the news, and in a …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
When the world shuttered
Post 8/2025 Cornwall UK. This is my second of three posts looking at our experience away from home in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were in Carbis Bay, County Cornwall, UK when the March orders of the day all revolved around the novel coronavirus. Normal life shuttered to a stop. Before moving …
Five years on
Post 7/2025. Cornwall UK. Five years ago Marty and I were faced with a worrisome dilemma. Return home if you can. Scores of travelers were faced with the same issue. COVID-19 was spreading around the world. The World Health Organization officially called it a pandemic on 12 March 2020. We were nicely settled in at …
Émigrés said goodbye from Padstow
Post 6/2025. Cornwall UK. Hail March. New month. It's anything like the weather proverb: "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Gorgeous day. We did a three-plus mile walk along Church Lane to the West Cornwall Golf Club and then back on the upper, sometimes still muddy, footpath above the expansive Porthkidney Sands Beach. …
Cheerfully afoot in Cornwall
Post 5/2025. Carbis Bay, Cornwall UK. Windy. Muddy. Overcast. More rain than needed. Who's complaining? Not me. We arrived on schedule and have had a warm welcome. Marilyn and Steve had us over for morning coffee. On Sunday we attended St Anta & All Saints church. On Wednesday Lynne kindly took us along to do …
Cornwall in prospect
Post 4/2025. Our travel to Cornwall UK is coming up. Boarding Passes printed. Scores of preparations completed. A friend humorously shortened my recitation of visits to health care providers to "all the ologists." I'm grateful to all medical people, family, and friends here and in Cornwall for their well and travel mercies wishes, and my …
Remembering Doris
Post 3/2025 Goshen IN. Sister-in-law Doris Mast died 12 days after her 92nd birthday. At the visitation many people remarked on how Doris was the queen of hospitality. Her memorial service took place on January 27. Fifty chairs were needed to seat her children, 12 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. As a youngster Doris begged her …
Celebrations, sorrow, soup, steps recalled
Post 2/2025 Goshen IN. The week included: Martin Luther King Day. Inauguration. Frigid temperatures. Looking Back, Looking Forward, Anabaptism at 500. Death of my sister-in-law Doris Mast at age 92. Ducks on the pond again. Soup. On January 21 area Mennonites gathered at College Mennonite Church in Goshen for a worship service celebrating 500 years …
A sniffle start
Post 1/2025 Goshen IN. What misery colds carry. Sniffles. Cough. Blahs. Concerns. Is it really just a common cold or one of the other superbugs that have a thing for our airways? Decaf tea with lemon and honey. Some OTC meds. No fever. Recovery seems afoot, even as worries linger. That’s my welcome to early …
Ready or not, a new year awaits
Post 45/2024 Goshen IN. Since my last post on November 4 . . . what to say . . . life has moved on. This week we bid adieu to dear President Jimmy Carter who died on Sunday at age 100. The tributes and reflections are heartwarming and true. September. The potted Gerbera daisies did …
It's About Now 