2023 offered big changes

Some were foreseen, too many weren’t

Photo by Werner Pieper sometime between 2005 and 2009 at Calvary Fellowship Baptist Church in Painesville, OH. This was the last posed photo by my Mom.

Changes come with any new year. The questions become what will be the changes and how does one respond to them?

When 2023 started, I was fully aware of big changes coming to my family, but on Jan. 1, 2023 writing a regular column on Substack was not on that list.

I knew a huge change would happen with my daughter’s high school graduation in mid- June. However, the bigger one occurred in the late evening of May 21, 2023 when my Mother died.

My Mother, Ola, had a challenging life raising two boys by herself when my Father, Clarence, died in a farming accident in December 1969, less than a week before his 35th birthday. My Mother had constant obstacles, financial and otherwise.

But God . . .

But God is good, His Word is the truth, and He can be trusted.

My Mother beat sepsis twice as a senior citizen, but things radically changed when circumstances landed her in a nursing home in 2022. In the last 6-9 months of her life–she was 85 at the time of her death–she became intensely intensely nostalgic about my dad. I heard stories I had never heard her share when I was growing up.

For someone who has no memory of my Father–I was 20-21 months old when he died–I felt I was learning some of the interactions that could have unfolded years ago.

In the late evening of May 21, 2023, my wife and I and my brother and sister-in-law were called to the nursing home because Mom wasn’t doing well. In the 15 minutes it took to get to the nursing home, the nurse on duty greeted my brother and sister-in-law outside. When my wife and I arrived, my brother locked his eyes on me and said, “She’s gone!”

Whatever took her life did not bring pain, and she was instantly in the presence of the Savior.

A couple of days later I had asked my brother if he planned to do the eulogy. He said he likely would be too emotional, so I did the eulogy for the memorial service on May 27, 2023 at Jamestown Church of the Nazarene in Jamestown, NY.

Photo by Curt W. Olson at Busti Cemetery in Busti, NY in August 2023.

My youngest child graduated from high school 2 weeks later. Olivia is the only grandchild’s high school graduation my Mom did not see. Olivia, the class valedictorian, dedicated her speech to her deceased grandfathers and my Mom.

Olivia, and our oldest, Samuel, are both attending Cedarville University in Cedarville, OH. 

To underscore how God brings clarity, sometimes very quickly, it was also at this time it became abundantly clear a job change was happening. No more teaching English at the Christian high school and serving as athletic director. I would have to flip my part-time job at a produce store to full-time work. That happened rather easily. I thank God for that.

Yet, it also expedited a column on Substack.

Around the time of my birthday in March, God reignited the itch for writing.

I had spent more than 20 years in journalism, working at newspapers in Western New York state and Northeast Ohio and government accountability websites in Austin, TX and Columbia, SC. When things ended in journalism in June 2013, within 6 weeks I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. Some significant stress had built over multiple years, and it was clear that God was compelling me to make a change.

I have always regarded writing as my calling, and when I ascended to my dream job, editorial page editor, in Northeast Ohio, I knew I was doing what God called me to do.

However, I enjoyed teaching, and the teams under the International Sports Academy club teams that emerged during covid that represented Bethel Baptist Christian Academy, which would become Chautauqua Christian Academy in the 2021-2022 school year, were wildly successful during my 3 years as AD. However, I did not have a degree for teaching English. I flipped journalism to teach English, and it was not going to last forever. I always knew that.

When my Mother died in late May, God made it clear full change was unfolding.

Shortly after that, the weekly writing at Substack started, and It has been regular ever since.

Do I wish my list of subscribers to the column was growing faster?Absolutely!

I am trying to earn readers’ trust with my credibility to fidelity to the truth and providing credible evidence for my writing. It is my desire to have clear, compelling, engaging, and cogent columns.

The Hardest Truths column will carry on and I hope it will gain traction with more and more readers. 

And because I am new to all of this, my podcast that will be coming–His Vine and Fig Tree podcast–will be free in the early stages. It will not stay that way. I explained the genesis of the name last week. However, I simply don’t have the traction to make it a paid feature yet. I would love to, but I can’t at this point.

For those who have subscribed to my column, thank you for reading. Please spread the word on my column and coming podcast.

I look forward to what’s coming. We are going to have fun.