As many of you know, I met Rod when I was a teenager and we both lived in Vancouver, BC, Canada back in the mid 1980's.
He and his first wife, Karen & Jessica (once she arrived) lived in the basement suite of the house where me, my mother and my brother occupied the upstairs. Plus we all attended the same church.
At one time there were some Missionaries visiting our church for a couple weeks and the Partingtons invited them over for supper. Since we lived upstairs and were part of the same church, they invited us to this supper too. It turned into a two family pot luck type of thing.
My family went downstairs about 20 minutes before the Missionaries arrived and we brought the buns, a casserole, some brownies and the napkins (if I remember correctly). By the time the Missionary family arrived the table was set, the food was ready and we all went to greet them at the door.
It was a good visit between all three of our families. But this Missionary family had somewhere else they had to be later that evening, so supper had been on the early side and after about 3 hours they had to say their "Good-Bye's" and "Thanks You's".
Rod's wife, Karen said, "Oh, it's too bad you have to leave right now. I was just going to put on a fresh pot of coffee because the Rahns brought some brownies too." (Karen had also supplied dessert) But they said they just couldn't stay and so they left.
Right after they walked out the door my Mom and Karen disappeared into the Partington's kitchen.
Suddenly Rod took off his tie, grabbed the TV remote control, jumped on the love seat by the TV, stretched out, turned on the TV set and said,
"Good. There's still some time left in the hockey game."
You know how it is when you've been on your best behaviour for company and then they leave and everyone gives that sigh and relaxes. It was that type of feeling.
About 3 minutes later Karen & my Mom come walking out of the kitchen with the coffee and the brownies and Rod, who was still stretched out on the love seat with the game on, put down the remote control, swung his feet around and started clearing room on their coffee table for the brownies and coffee.
Karen sees him and says, "Rod. What are you doing with the TV on?"
He responded, "I wanted to see the score. What's the problem? The company's gone."
Karen responded, " The company is not gone. The Rahns are still here."
Rod responded to Karen, "They're not company."
Then he looked around at the 3 of us and said, "You guys don't mind do you?"
I was just returning into the living room from where I had been and said, "Please say you don't mind and don't say we're company!"
Everyone turned and looked at me and I continued, "Because if we're 'company' and Rod has to put his tie back on, then that means I'll have to put my panty-hose back on!"
And I let my panty-hose dangle out of my right hand where I was holding them all scrunched up after removing them while I was in the bathroom.
So we all laughed, watched the rest of the hockey game and ate the brownies, with all of us lounging and relaxing around the living room. From that moment on we were one family instead of two.
But it was also obvious that Rod and I had a similar way of viewing things. So I'm not surprised it's survived all these years - even though we've been out of touch for so long.)
It has been my privilege to feel like a member of the Partingtons past & present. My prayers and love (and some tears) are with them all tonight as Rod is back in the hospital.
