I met Mr. & Mrs. Yevin because of Suzanne's work as a minister of Communion to the homebound. Every few weeks, she is assigned a list of people who are shut in to their homes, usually elderly, to take Communion to them after Mass and visit with them.

One time last summer, she took them Communion when a water main had ruptured in Granite, leaving us under a boil order. Noting that they didn't have any water stored up, she made it a point that we picked up several gallon jugs of water and take them by their house before we left town for our family brunch. For good measure, we took them a couple coolers full of extra meat from barbecuing the night before and other assorted leftovers we thought they might enjoy.

Several months ago, she was with them and talking about our family, and they inquired whether I could come by later that afternoon to look at a few things around their house.

Mr. Yevin's eyesight had slowly gone, and he was nearly blind, and they simply needed a new under-cabinet tube light fixture installed in their kitchen to help them see - the old one had gone out.

And so I found myself, on a Sunday afternoon, helping the Yevins at their house and spending some wonderful time visiting with a wonderful couple. I came to learn that several mutual friends from church also stopped by and helped them from time to time.

In that afternoon, and in subsequent visits - they would call from time to time, designating me their official "on call maintenance man" - I learned the value and meaning of community. I saw the reality of Christian love and care and compassion played out in the stories of those in our church who had helped them on moments' notice when they needed things.

They also told me how Jerry Roderick - of Jerry's Cafeteria (for which I did a glowing Yelp review a few years back) saw to it that every week, one of his drivers would drop off a week's worth of food for them to enjoy. Yet another example of love and community.

And they had stories. Great stories. Mrs. Yevin was a home economics teacher at Granite City High School in an era when there was always a full-time "home economist" in every home. Mr. Yevin had served in the military - a World War II Army Air Corps veteran - and worked at the Nestle plant in Granite City as head of maintenance. 

Sometimes I would feel a bit guilty leaving their house, looking at the clock, realizing how long I had sat and listened, amazed at their tales of times gone by, gazing at the oil on canvas paintings of their children, now grown professionals, looking just like children of today on their living room wall.

I admired how they chose to stay there in their home, growing old together, bravely facing the challenges that life alone at that age can bring.

From what I had heard - second or third hand - the last time some of the family members came into town in the last several weeks (none of the family lived here anymore), they decided it was time to put Mr. and Mrs. Yevin into a nursing home.

In fact, we only found out two Sundays ago when they were on Suzanne's list to take Communion to again. When she showed up and knocked at their door, there was no answer, and the woman across the street told her that they had just been moved into assisted living.

Suzanne and I talked about what a shame that was. Last weekend, when his name was announced at Mass in the prayers for those who had passed away, Suzanne wept.  We talked - and smiled - about how he might not have been able to bear the nursing home after all of those years of Mrs. Yevin's good home cooking and Jerry's delivered to the door.

Later that day, sitting in my office. I wept. I remembered a good man that I had the fortune to meet and get to know a bit about. A man I will always remember, look up to, and assimilate into the kind of man I want to continue to grow into being.

This Friday, Mr. & Mrs. Yevin would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. If anything speaks volumes about the kind of man I want to be, it is this dedication to his covenant with his wife and God.