Our deepest sympathies

As we left the house tonight, we ran into State Rep. Vicki Barnett, who informed us that former council person Mary Bush’s mother, Berdena – better known as “Tip,” passed away this past week, following a lengthy illness.

Mrs. Bush was the subject of a book, Tip’s Brother, published in 2001 by her beloved older brother, Hugh Schram, who preceded her in death. I thought it appropriate to share a bit of the foreword to that book, which is a delightful, meandering  journey from their childhood on through several decades of life:

Lacking the knowledge and wisdom to do so, I am not the one to make quotable pronouncements about laughing and weeping, loving and hating, living and dying, or any other of the numerous experiences common to human existence. Leave that to the poets, philosophers, clergymen and others who know what they know.

I have reached the age of maturity, however, and have “been around the block,” as some say, more than one time. And I remember very well what it was like to be a child in the 1920′s, a boy on the farm in the Depression ’30′s, a young man in the ’40′s, an adult since the days of der Fuehrer and Tojo. Most of it has been good; I shall tell you about some of it. I’ll tell you also about some of the really good people I have known. Life and people – God’s chief works, His greatest gifts to the world He created. What better subjects to write about?

Mr. Schram arrived at the Farmington Observer office when we were still on Grand River and delivered copies of his book for our review. He had donated copies to the library as well. I had the privilege of speaking with him and, at some point, asked him what he had learned about life, about the secret to a good life. To Mr. Schram, it was all about living a good, Christian life, raising your family, working hard and paying the bills. Not much more to it than that, he said.

He dedicated his book to his wife, daughter, a cousin and several friends, “and, of course, my sister, Tip, a good kid as long as I have known her these last 75 years.”

Our deepest condolences to Mary Bush, her siblings Susan, Kay (Ed Langlois), Jane and John (Diane) Bush and Becky (Dave) Rauser, and the rest of her family.

–Joni Hubred-Golden
Publisher, The Enterprise

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