Fred Schwink [1962-2010] -- Husband, Father, Nephew, Friend

Central Illinois; 29 September to 1 October, 2010 --

Sad news came to Grumpy's family, that Frederick Ward Schwink had passed away at the young age of 48. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and one son, all of whom live in Central Illinois. Our condolences and prayers of comfort go out to this young family.

Grumpy booked his flight to Chicago via Southwest Airlines without coordinating with the Kayaker Son, who booked his flight with United; both flights were scheduled to arrive Chicago at noon or a little after. All would have been well with this independence except that United flew into Chicago O'Hare and Southwest flew into Chicago Midway. Kayaker rented a car and found his way from O'Hare down to Midway where he had to wait half and hour or so for Grumpy to arrive.

Grumpy had lent Kayaker his Marine/Auto Garmin GPS for use in navigating the devious (and sometimes dangerous!) streets of Chicago. After picking up Grumpy at Midway, Kayaker allowed Grumpy to manage the pesky GPS -- which Grumpy promptly decided to ignore her plaintive pleadings to "turn right, turn right, turn right" -- all for the purpose of making a U-turn to get us going in the right direction for the shortest/fastest route to Champaign, our interim destination.



A "Tailgate Lunch" in a Chicago Suburb



Fortunately, Grumpy's misguided attempts to navigate a "better route" resulted in our coming upon a grocery store where a variety of edibles (well, most of it was edible!) were purchased for an immediate lunch and then bedtime snacks later on. We got some apples, some grape juice, some breakfast cereal, some rice cakes (hereinafter referred to as "Styrofoam"!) and some peanut butter. The last item was intended to be used in an attempt to make the Styrofoam "edible".

Rice Cake, with peanut butter

Putting peanut butter on a rice cake results in a "food" which chews exactly like one would expect of a clean piece of pure Styrofoam, and tastes exactly like one would expect of a table-knife full of peanut butter. With some trepidations concerning whether the Styrofoam would lurk in our digestive systems for a few decades -- Grumpy had read that Styrofoam bio-degrades ve-er-ry slowly! -- we each consumed a couple of these peanut butter-laced "treats". In fact, this item of our diet fulfilled one very useful function: we now felt full!

We arrived in Champaign about 5 p.m. and, after finding one of the three Indian cuisine restaurants, had a delicious dinner of some kind of chicken and a spinach dish with Roti paan.

Hickory Tree bark



Wednesday morning, we went for a short walk in a park, listening to crickets chirping, birds singing and scolding; squirrels complaining and freight trains hooting. A large, old hickory tree was fascinating, in that its loose, deeply-striated bark is very different from any trees we see out here on the Wet Coast.

 

Hickory Leaves and Nut (in husk)

The hickory nuts from this giant old tree are formed in a pithy husk which splits open to reveal the quarter-sized, three-corner shaped hickory nut inside (click on photo to right and note nut in partially-opened husk just left of center). Grumpy remembers breaking open a hickory nut when he was about 6-8 years old; the hickory nut was sent to us by our Grandfather in Illinois. Hickory nuts yield very little nut-meat with a great deal of effort; Grumpy would advise the readers not to waste their efforts.




A Blue Wild Flower

 

Grumpy spotted this brilliant blue flower, growing in amongst some tall weeds near the creek. Its brilliance contrasted with the sad purpose for which we were here: to memorialize my Nephew, and Jim's Cousin, Fred. This afternoon was spent in relative solitude, sharing sad and happy memories among Fred's family and relatives. Fred left a priceless legacy of pursuit of knowledge of the Germanic languages, which he tirelessly shared with graduate students at the University of Illinois. But he also left a legacy in the little family he loved and headed.

Interspersed with the grief was the pleasure we had in meeting many of Fred's friends and neighbors, not the least of which was the family who invited many of us to stay in their home, and who prepared a fine meal for us. The friendly hospitality and the meal, we especially enjoyed -- an incomparable relief from the previous day's lunch of "Styrofoam".