The Year, 2014, as Reflected in My Blog

My blog has become, to borrow a phrase from Walt Whitman, my "Carte Visite" to the world--to my family, friends, and maybe to a handful of people I will never know. Anyway, here are a few highlights from reviewing the blog entries of this past year.

The year opened with the wonderful, miraculous birth of my second grandson, Robert Edward Nicholas Kleppel--son of my daughter Julia and Eddy Kleppel.

Bob and Robby

The blog chronicles a very snowy and cold winter in Northeast Ohio, and talks about how we opened a warming center at St. Mary's in Painesville. We were open something like 38 nights (I spent 2 nights there; Brian Rice and Kathy Phillips were there most of those 38 nights). This Work of Mercy probably prevented much misery and possibly some deaths from freezing.

Some Winter 2014 pics:

Colin, at a North Chagrin sledding hill

Carolan, atop Gildersleve Mountain, Chapin Forest

Lake Erie sunset

During 2014 Linda and I continued our work with the Karpos Ministry at St. Mary's Painesville. Every Thursday (and sometimes on Wednesdays) we would prepare and serve nutritious meals to the hungry and homeless, sometimes 150 or more per night. We felt great joy doing this work and working alongside our dear friends, Kathy and Dan Philipps, Kathy Flora, Ken Fitzsimmons, Chuck Hillier, Pam, Judy, Jim, Wayne, Rose, Bea, and many more. I haven't encountered people like this since my days in Cincinnati when I met the Cincinnati Peacemakers like Maurice McCrackin and Marion and Ernest Bromley (and others like Ken Przybylski, Greg Haas, Henry Scott, Chris Cotter, and many more).

In April, Kathy Philipps did a presentation at Borromeo Seminary on her dissertation topic, hospitality, serving the needy, homeless, and hungry. Below are some pics from the Karpos Ministry and from the Borromeo presentation done by Kathy Philipps:

Jim, Linda, Bea--doing the dishes

Dan Philipps, St. Mary's

Kathy Philipps doing her presentation

Slide from Kathy's presentation

Linda and Jan, Borromeo

Kathy Flora, at the Borromeo presentation

Serving good food at St. Mary's Painesville

Fr. Hanzo Center at St. Mary's

Susan Allsip, St. Mary's

Kathy Philipps finished and defended her dissertation in December. She is now Doctor Kathleen Philipps. Besides her Karpos work, she is teaching theology at John Carroll University. We are very proud of her!

During 2014 there were both births and deaths in our family and community. Among the deaths I wrote about included Jack O'Donnell, Bob Jaynes, Pete Seeger, Galway Kinnell, and Robin Williams. We hold our beloved living and dead close to our hearts always.

[More coming!]