Transition: Muskegon nurtured Newton family for a generation

A couple of weeks ago, Mom and I enjoyed dinner at the Hearthstone, her favorite restaurant in Muskegon, Mich. We then ventured out for a ride along the southern part of Muskegon Lake along Lakeshore Drive past the site of the S.D. Warren paper mill, which no longer stands, to Pere Marquette Park along Lake Michigan.

As we arrived, a storm was brewing up in Lake Michigan. I stopped to take photos as did many others. The scene was almost surreal as the wind whipped up the waves and out there in Lake Michigan appeared what looked like a tornado.

Behind that was a contrasting and tranquil scene of a calming sunset.

The image is a perfect reflection of my feelings at this moment: turmoil and calm; being in transition or settled.

You see. . .Pere Marquette Park and the Lake Michigan lakeshore have been go-to places for my family since my parents moved to Muskegon around 1954. The aforementioned paper mill provided employment for my father.

Over the past year, during my frequent visits to visit Mom, I’ve made it a point to visit Pere Marquette Park. She loves walking along the channel which connects Muskegon Lake to Lake Michigan. She loves to sit and watch how people enjoy this place of rest and recreation.

It all seems so bittersweet.

At 91 years of age, Mom has been living in her own home. In fact, she’s lived in the same house for nearly 64 years. I was 3 months old when Mom and Dad moved into this house at 1934 Seminole Road.

This house became a home!

“I love this place,” she says. She’s talking about her house. She’s talking about Pere Marquette Park. She’s talking about the collection of friends that she’s made through the years through her participation at First Presbyterian Church, P.E.O., her teaching career, a teachers’ group and numerous not-for-profit organizations which she’s supported with her time, talent and treasure.

She should love this place. It’s been her home.

And, it occurs to me as I think about this, that our lives are part living through transition and then being settled. We transition into kindergarten or college. We transition into a new job, community or organization.

Mom has been settled in her home for a very long time. Now, she will live a life of transition as she begins the process settling into her new home at Prairie Ridge here in Galena late this week and early next week.

As I sit here in my office contemplating this transition, I feel surrounded by a whirlwind of emotions.

My boyhood home, my only boyhood home, is being sold. Another young couple will start their lives in this home, just as my parents did.

This place, at 1934 Seminole Road, has been an epicenter of my life for so long. It’s been a Rock of Gibraltar.

It leaves me feeling melancholy.

But there is a deep sense of appreciation of a place, a community, which has nurtured a family for a generation.

It is in Muskegon where my parents turned a house into a home; where they created a family. It is Muskegon which provided employment. It is a place which provided educations for myself and my brothers, Tom and Jim. This is where we learned to play baseball, football and tennis and worshipped.

This is a place where we made friends. When my father fell ill, this is a place where friends protected us in a cocoon of grace and loving care; a place which stepped up and supported Mom when she could no longer drive.

A community is a place where people invest their time, talent and treasure to educate the next generation, provide opportunities for recreation, offer a helping hand and so much more.

It is a community that invested in a family, a family that, I believe, has gone out and paid back by investing in other communities with their time, treasure and talent.

As I drive to Muskegon this week in order to make this transition for Mom, I’ll be wondering if I can make one last visit to Pere Marquette Park. I’m suspecting that the emotions will flow as did that rain depicted in the photo.

But there will also be calm as in the sunset following the storm.

You see, Mom has said over and over that once she is settled here in Galena, she once again wants to live a life of purpose, to be part of a community with her time, talent and treasure. To live at age 91 with that sense of purpose is a great gift!