Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Was Not Well!/by Susan Schuerr

Larry and I finished loading up our van with luggage, gifts, various types of  skis and ice-climbing gear. We finally were on our way from Chicagoland to Bozeman, Montana where two of our three children lived.   It was Christmas break and as a teacher, I was looking forward to my two weeks of freedom.  Flying was out of the question.  Our sleigh was too heavy for any plane.

We had an old Ford van; the mechanic had looked it over and said, “You’re good to go.” This man must have been Scrooge in disguise. We made it to Sauk Center at the Minnesota border when the van, to our dismay, stopped abruptly. We hopped over a fence and knocked on a stranger’s door. Being in a Christmas mood, the friendly folks took us into town where we found a mechanic and a motel for the night. When the faulty wire was finally reattached, we continued Westward on Rt 94. We kept our spirits up by singing Christmas carols, eating homemade cookies and hard-boiled eggs. But Larry was tense and worried that we would encounter another hiccup. I was getting colder and colder by the minute as the wind whistled through the drafty van and the temperature dropped. To keep warm, I snuggled into my sleeping bag feeling like a caterpillar in a cocoon. 

It was Christmas Eve in Jamestown, North Dakota and the sun was beginning to set when the van 

started hiccupping more violently.  We looked up and as fate would have it, we saw a Ford dealership. Larry was able to clickity clank into the driveway before the van heaved to a death defining halt. The franchise was getting ready to close when the mecahnic confirmed our greatest fears, “Your van is  toast.”  he said.” Scrooge was wrong; our vehicle would never make it beyond the Jamestown junkyard.  “Now what?,” we thought. The jovial Santa-like car dealer came to our rescue with a holiday special.  He showed us a beautiful used white and green conversion van in our price range. We filled out the loan paper work; but being Christmas Eve,  the dealer could not check our financial status to verify our bank information.  But the spirit of Christmas prevailed and the dealer not only took our word on faith, but gave us $500 for our hunk of junk. We moved our luggage, gifts and skis/ ice climbing gear to our new vehicle while shaking the hands of the friendly ford staff. “Merry Christmas” we shouted while streams of Chistmas music filled the air. God bless you merry gentleman, I quietly sang. 

Now on the road again, we thanked our Heavenly Father for the gift of a new van. No longer was I confined to  my sleeping bag. The new sleigh was warm and comfortable and soon I drifted off to sleep with visions of our Montana family dancing in my head. Larry, my wonderful husband, continued  his way to Bozeman arriving at 3 AM. We had made prearrangements to stay at our daughter-in-law’s parent’s home. They left the door open for us. We sank into our bed totally exhausted but so happy to have reached our destination by Christmas day.

The next morning, the in-laws woke up and saw our new van in their driveway.  “Whose here from North Dakota? ” they wondering seeing our temporary license plates.  It would be one of our best Christmas celebrations ever as we shared our tale-Twas the Night Before Christmas and Now all is Well.

By Susan Schuerr

We are celebrating Thanksgiving a little differently this year 2021. This year we are in Sebring, Florida volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. We are Care-a-vanning for the first time. All the workers except for a few are traveling from site to site in their self-contained trailers.

We met a wonderful group of giving people with building skills. Larry fit in like a glove. I fit in like a left-handed glove on the right hand, but I’m learning to paint, and to caulk.

It feels good to spend time now writing once again on my neglected blog. After spending 8 days volunteering, we will stop at Nancy and Steve’s home in Florida for Thanksgiving dinner. From there, we head back to Chicagoland.

I will be posting pictures of our serve soon. Larry’s backsurgery is finally healed and he has been careful not to overdo do it here as we volunteer.

Like me, you probably enjoyed the month of June with all the sunshine but then our grass was turning brown unless we watered it often. Now each day is filled with rain and the Fox River will fill up again and the grass and plants will flourish. As part of nature, we too need the sun and the rain to grow. Where do we get the nourishment, we need for our lives? Pascal once said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of each man/woman which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only God the Creator.”

It often happens late at night in the quietness of our soul when we have time from a busy day to reflect on our lives and where we are heading next. Each of us is born for a purpose to make a difference in the world and to family, friends and those who pull at our heart strings. Right now, my heart strings go out to the victims of the building collapse in Miami-Dade. We may ask why? “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, NO! But unless you repent, you too will also perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all of the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, NO! But unless you repent, you too will perish.” Luke 13:1-4

Our lives are but a vapor. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.” James 4:14. But God through his word and through his son, gives us hope for each day while we inhabit planet Earth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Following him gives hope that whatever calamity comes, we can trust him to hold the future. Jesus understands calamity, he hung on a cross for our sins and paid the price for our eternal freedom. We can live without fear if we repent and follow the resurrected Christ.

So, as you reflect on your life, open your heart and ask God to show you He exists and has a purpose for your life. Then watch as He unveils the blindness you once experienced. He talks to you through nature, through life experiences and through his word. “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; It has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” Martin Luther

In light of the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, I decided to write about my own experience with racism. I grew up with educated parents who taught us to love people of all races and religions. At an early age, my dad took me to the library and I still remember a book called April Love about an adorable black girl who suffered injustices. At the Lutheran Sunday school, we sang “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. The pastor’s wife taught us about missions in the world helping those of other races. But I never knew a black person until high school. I played soft ball with Thorpe High School in Chicago and they would always beat our Warren Elementary team.  I found myself fearful of unknown people, but then in my homeroom I met Harriet, a beautiful black girl. I was getting to know and love her but then one day she was gone. I found out that she was pregnant and back then a pregnant girl did not attend high school.

When I met my future husband, Larry, I also met his black roommate, Troy. Larry and Troy became close friends, and would tease each other with Mother jokes, etc. An example would be “Your mother wears combat shoes.” They would refer to Larry as fish belly white—all in good humor. Troy’s girlfriend, Gladys, taught Larry how to dance. To this day, Larry is a smooth dancer. They wanted him to join their fraternity and he would have been the first white person in a black fraternity. But Larry didn’t stay in school long enough to have this happen; instead, he became an air-controller in the Marine Corps.  One Saturday night, Larry and I along with Troy and Gladys went to a Beach Boys concert and we decided to switch partners to see how people would react as we crossed the street. This was during Martin Luther King’s marches in the 60’s. Larry observed a young, white couple sitting in their car. The woman was looking at us and pretending she didn’t see us. She poked her husband and with her body language, pointed to us as we made our way to the entrance. Larry stopped, smiled and waved at the freaked-out couple.

I admired Martin Luther King and his non-violence stance.  My family and I were shocked and deeply saddened when he was shot. I recall his prophetic words, “I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”  How sad that we are still so far from the Promise Land. In the 90’s, Walter Payton was not allowed to join Barrington Country Club because of his race. How heartbreaking that so much emphasis has been placed on race.

As a high school teacher, I did my best to teach my students through literature and personal experience about the importance of loving others regardless of their race. We read Raisin in the Sun, the Power of One, stories about Rosa Parks among many others. When Obama was running for president, the students would turn to a black student in my class and ask him if he was going to run for president someday. Fast forward to today. I thought we were making headway, but I think we are moving backwards.

If we claim to be Christians, then our actions must reflect God’s love for each human being. “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24)” He is the light that enlightens every person who comes into the world. How can we be enlightened? It’s a process of stepping outside of the lines and shaking hands with new friends. Volunteering with Humble Design in Chicago and working at the Care Center in Barrington has given us an opportunity to forge friendships and to become color blind.

I’m looking out the window at a foot of accumulated snow on my deck table, and I’m thinking what good snow that would be to ski on but then I move to my indoor thermometer and see that it’s only 4 degrees with a possible 6 degrees high for the day. It’s an improvement from yesterday when the morning temperature was -6. It’s a good morning to catch up on my writing.

By this time in February, Larry and I would have been up to Wilmot to ski numerous times and we would be making plans to ski out West; but this winter is different. Not only are we still in a pandemic, but Larry has had lots of back pain. He continues to volunteer at Humble Design/Chicago and at Conference Point, a camp in Lake Geneva but he returns home with lots of pain. The good thing is that he is scheduled for back surgery on February 22nd. Hopefully lifewithlarry will be more exciting after the surgery. But Larry doesn’t complain and loves to cook and help the neighbors by snowplowing their driveways.

I’m excited about getting my first dose of the Covid 19 vaccine. Now, I will return to Good Shepherd Hospital not to play the piano yet, but to help with the vaccination program. I’m including my picture to show that it is safe and that I had no problems, not even a sore arm. If we want to put this pandemic behind us, we need herd immunity. I sure hope the vaccine will be available for you soon.

I remember Mom holding my hand while waiting in a long line at South Chicago Hospital for my polio vaccine. I would imagine that then like now there would have been many who were fearful of the vaccine but the results were wonderful—eradicating polio. Let’s do the same with Covid 19 so it will be unable to morphe into something even more deadly.

We have now been married over 50 years and Larry’s life of service to so many is something we can all seek to do as God inspires us. We have all been given gifts and talents. Larry is not only very adept in contracting but he is also a good writer. My talents are in the area of music, writing, and communication. Put a hammer in my hand and it will take me 12 times to pound it in. But true happiness exists as we seek to help our broken world. I had an opportunity to write about why my husband should be considered an everyday hero and this is what my neighbor and I said.

“We are living in our home right now because of the volunteer work Larry Schuerr has done for us,” said Karen of Fox River Grove. She has been battling with MS for over 40 years and was in need of redoing her house so she could keep herself from falling and still live in the neighborhood she loves. Larry put up ramps inside and out so she could get her scooter from room to room and to her van. He enlarged her bathroom door so her scooter could roll in easily.  He gathered a group of friends to pour cement in outside openings to prevent groundhogs from hibernating under their home. This is just one-person Larry has helped.

During the flooding on the Fox River, he helped the Holt’s fortify their home on the river from flooding their basement by sandbagging around their house.  He also poured cement for the Venetian Garden’s club house and provided a ramp. A young woman in a wheelchair wanted to know who put up the ramp so now she could easily make her way into the club house.

For years he collected bicycles and refurbished them for local kids in need of one. He began a program with Dean Jim Kelly, from Cary-Grove High School.  CG’s Interact students repaired and donated bicycles for children in the city. While teaching at Dundee Crown as an Industrial Arts teacher, his students worked with Habitat for Humanity in their Carpentry 3 program. On Saturday’s Schuerr would gather family, friends and students to work on homes where families were experiencing hardship and lack of finances to repair their homes. He continued to work with Habitat and various church organizations after retirement.  

Larry, an avid skier and former ski instructor, also worked with Adaptive Adventure, a group that taught skiing to the handicapped using various devises. His favorite memory was teaching a little girl how to ski with one leg. She was born with a leg that only grew to the knee. The joy he saw on her face when she was able to make turns down a hill made him cry.

Currently, Larry and I have both been volunteering at Humble Design Chicago where our daughter Julie Schuerr Dickinson is the director. This organization is being used to help so many in the inner city. More information is at jdhumbledesign.org/chicago@humblechitown.

Volunteering has been a way of life for Schuerr who grew up in humble circumstances and never forgot what it meant to get a package from the VFW on Christmas. “Now that I have the means to help others, I joyfully do it,” said Larry who worked as a contractor and teacher.

“Larry lives the Christ-like life by helping those around him in need. That is where his joy in life comes from,” said Karen of Fox River Grove.