Howard, Life Outtakes: Going on date night

When Samuel, a local church leader, arrived at the church for his weekly Tuesday evening meeting, he saw the usual group of cars pulling into the parking lot. They mainly carried teenagers and their leaders who were meeting for their weekly activities. But the Bishop also saw something he didn’t expect. Walter was out mowing the church lawn.

Walter was almost ninety years old. He and his wife, Betty, had served in the community and the church all their lives. They had especially loved the youth. Though they had always wanted children of their own, they’d never been able to have any. So they seemed to adopt the youth of the community. Ma was a common nickname for Betty, and Walter was often called Pa.

Walter and Betty had always been asked to serve with the teenagers in their church. Either Betty was off with the girls camping, or Walter was hiking with the boys into the wilderness. Often the two of them organized fundraisers for youth activities. Together they had served the youth every Tuesday night and many other nights for as long as Samuel could remember. Even when they could no longer hike or camp, they still showed up on Tuesdays with ice cream or other treats.

But in the last year, Betty had become so sick that Walter spent every free minute he had taking care of her. Walter lovingly attended to every detail of Betty’s care. Kind people had suggested that this was too much of a burden for someone his age, but he insisted that it was no burden at all. However, Walter had said that the thing they missed most was the Tuesday night activities. Samuel knew the teenagers missed Walter and Betty, too.

Then a couple of months ago, Betty passed away. Walter was lost without her.

His grief was so intense that everyone thought it would kill him. No one expected him to last long without her. He didn’t come to church and was seldom seen outside his home. That’s why Samuel was surprised to see Walter mowing the church lawns.

Samuel parked his car and walked over to Walter, who was busily walking back and forth behind the selfpropelled mower.

“Walter,” Samuel said, “what are you doing?”

“What?” Walter replied.

Walter was quite deaf, and the noise from the mower didn’t help.

“What are you doing?” Samuel yelled.

Walter let go of the mower’s throttle bar, and the mower went silent.

“I’m mowing the lawn,” Walter replied.

Samuel nodded, feeling a little silly for asking an obvious question. “Yes, I can see that,” he said. “But why?”

“Because it needs mowing,” Walter replied.

Again Samuel felt sheepish at having asked an obvious question, but Walter wasn’t catching the drift of the questions. “What I meant,” Samuel said, “was, do you think you should be doing this now, at your age?”

“I’m not sure what age you think I should do it at,” Walter replied. “And if I do it next week instead of now,

I’ll just be that much older.”

“So why did you come to do it at all?” Samuel asked.

“The youth wanted to have a cookout here tonight,” Walter replied. “And besides, it’s date night.”

“Date night?” Samuel asked.

Walter nodded. “Betty and I always made Tuesday our date night. We worked with the youth, and then we went out for a milkshake.

I’ve really missed her, and I decided it was time for a date again.” He paused and smiled. “I’m not sure, but I can almost feel her here with me right now.”

Samuel only nodded, feeling too emotional to speak. And as the youth piled out of the church, many of them hugging Walter, Samuel felt Walter was right. Betty was probably there for her date with him.