Our whole clan of six went down to Monticello to join in Al English’s celebration of life. Al actually passed away in December, but he had instructed his longtime mate, Beth Mesner, and his son to do a celebration of life at their cottage in the summer, no matter when he passed. So a group of us gathered under a huge tent, spaced out Covid style, and memorialized our friend. It was a relaxed affair with much laughter and a few tears, which is how I imagine Al would have liked things. Beth and Al were our Lakehouse neighbors, so we got to spend the weekend at Trav’s sister Krish and her boyfriend Jeff’s place across the bay from our old lakehouse. It may have been a little too soon for staying that close, but it turned out fine. Let me tell you how we met Al.

We bought that lakehouse in 2009. Our first summer was spent buying beds and collecting odd castoff furniture from friends and relatives and hauling it in our minivan down to the lake. One cool morning, when we were busy with projects, Tessa really wanted to take the dog for a walk. After a few interruptions, Travis decided that she could walk Blackie down the dead end road and back without him, as Tessa was nearly nine years old. So, off Tessa went. It took her way longer than it should have, as down and back was only a mile. Just as we were thinking about searching for our girl, she came skipping back towards us with Blackie jumping along beside her. She had a story about meeting a nice older man with a nice dog. They talked for a long time and she pet his dog. Now, I’m not sure who went down to meet the “nice older man” first. Beth thinks it was my mother in law, Peggy. She would have been a good choice. Travis thinks it was him that went down the street with Tessa to see who this “nice older man” was. Either way, from the humble beginnings of potential creeper came a long friendship. Many an evening was spent with Beth and Al playing spades and sharing wine and stories. Both of them were professors at Ball State, so they always had plenty of stories. Al retired not too many years after we met. Beth is still a professor there, although neither of my kids that have attended Ball State have ever had the pleasure of taking her class. 

Beth and Al would frequently take their dog, Cheyenne, for walks past our house. One day, they stopped at our house. I got them a glass of wine and we stood on our patio and talked. Now, our patio had a rather extreme pitch towards the water. At one point, Al put his glass of wine on the picnic table, where it promptly slid down the pitch and crashed to the cement below. Al looked down at it and exclaimed, “Now, that is a waste of some mighty fine wine. Maybe you should do something about that.” I am still not sure if I needed to rectify his loss of wine, clean up the mess, or fix the sloped table. The following day, I made up the redneck table fix. This was accomplished by clamping two blocks of wood to one side of the picnic table to better level it. I was so pleased with the results, that I did the same to another table on that sloped patio. I’m not sure that Al was proud to be the impetus for such a shoddy fix, but I will forever give him credit for forcing my hand to fix it. 

We may not have known Al best or longest, but we were lucky to have him in our lives. Both Beth and Al managed to befriend all of our kids too. Maybe it was because they worked with kids all their professional lives. Our whole family was enriched by the presence of Al, with his dry wit… even if he and Travis always cheated at cards. Have a great Wednesday everyone. Appreciate the people in your lives.