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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, the prompts are being provided by Alex J. Cavanaugh and are posted by Elephant's Child.
The words this week are
war
alien
tomorrow
metal
dragon
and/or
suspects
quest
fury
winter
darkness
He'd been feeling poorly, and finally was in serious pain and went to the hospital. Like knights on a QUEST, the doctors looked for SUSPECTS, checked kidney function, the areas of his back that had given him trouble for years, several other things.
Then came the word, it was WAR, and the battlefield was his body. An ALIEN called cancer had taken over with FURY, he wasn't guaranteed a TOMORROW.
In a very, very short time he went from cane to METAL walker, to wheelchair, to bed-bound. Before the end, when he could still get outside, he joyed in his cigars, like a DRAGON puffing out smoke rings.
Finally, though, on a cold WINTER morning in the DARKNESS, he quietly slipped away.
Mr. KW, husband of my client Ms. RW, went home to heaven yesterday morning. He deeply and profoundly loved Jesus, and knew where he was going. Ms. RW told me she gave him a kiss and went to make her coffee before the sun was even up, and when she and her daughter went back in the room a few minutes later, he was gone.
All of us who loved him are profoundly happy for him, and profoundly sad for us.
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Today is:
Day of Remembrance for Oleg the Prophet -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan
Four Chaplains Day -- US (by act of Congress, honoring the four chaplains of the Dorchester who gave their life jackets to others and went down with the ship on Feb. 3, 1943)
Fukuju no mai (Jimai) -- Sensouji Temple, Japan (dance of the seven gods of fortune)
Halfway Point of Winter/Summer -- which it is depends, of course, on your hemisphere; be glad that cold weather will warm soon, or that cooler temps will relieve your hot spells
Heroes' Day -- Mozambique
Magnolia and Fish Jubilee -- Fairy Calendar
Martyr's Day -- Sao Tome and Principe
National Carrot Cake Day
National Girls and Women in Sports Day -- US (This year's call to action is Lead Her Forward!)
Nuestra Señora de Suyapa -- Honduras (Festival of the Virgin of Suyapa, Patroness of Honduras)
Setsubun-sai (Bean-Throwing Festival) -- Japan/Shinto (many fests throughout Japan)
St. Anskar's Day (patron of Denmark, Scandinavia, Sweden; Bremen, Germany; Hamburg, Germany)
St. Blaise's Day/Blessing of Throats Day (Patron of animals, builders, carvers, healthy throats, stonecutters, veterinarians, wool-combers, wool weavers; Dalmatia; Anguillara Sabazia, Italy; Bovolone, Italy; Camastra, Sicily, Italy; Cassano allo Ionio, Italy; Castellania, Italy; Doues, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Militello, Sicily, Italy; Montecatini Val di Cecina, Italy; Palombara Sabina, Italy; Pietrasanta, Italy; Revello, Italy; Sacrofano, Italy; against coughs, goiters, throat diseases, whooping cough, wild beasts)
Takisanji Oni Matsuri -- Takisan-ji Temple, Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
The Day the Music Died -- anniversary of the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson)
Veterans' Day -- Thailand
Anniversaries Today:
Jean-Claude van Damme weds Darcy Lapier, 1994
Wake Forest University is established, 1834
Birthdays Today:
Isla Fisher, 1976
Maura Tierney, 1965
Keith Gordon, 1961
Thmas Calabro, 1959
Nathan Lane, 1956
Morgan Fairchild, 1950
Dave Davies, 1947
Blythe Danner, 1943
Fran Tarkenton, 1940
Shelley Berman, 1926
Joey Bishop, 1918
Simone Weil, 1909
James Michener, 1907
Norman Rockwell, 1894
Gertrude Stein, 1874
Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821
Horace Greeley, 1811
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Victor Borge Show"(TV), 1951
"The Three Caballeros"(Cartoon Film; US debut), 1945
"Face the Music"(Musical), 1932
"Le carnaval romain"(Berlioz, Op. 9), 1844
"Semiramide"(Opera, Rossini), 1823
Today in History
Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south, 1488
The first paper money in America is issued by the colony of Massachusetts, 1690
Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants, 1743
The Dutch States-General forbid the export of windmills, 1752
Spain recognizes US independence, 1783
The world's first commercial cheese factory is established in Switzerland, 1815
The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol, 1830
The Wisconsin Supreme Court declares the US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional,1855
Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan, 1867
The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing Black suffrage, is passed, 1870
Albert Spalding, with only $800, starts a sporting goods company, which eventually manufactured the first official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, and football (American style football), 1876
Circus owner P.T. Barnum buys Jumbo the elephant, 1882
The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, the income tax, is ratified, 1913
Canada's original Parliament building, in Ottowa, burns down, 1916
Percival Prattis becomes the first African-American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries, 1947
A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died, 1959
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation, 1960
The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon, 1966
In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress, 1969
New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption, 1971
John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth, 1984
Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 1995
The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17-14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history, 2008
Eric Holder becomes 82nd and 1st African American US Attoney General, 2009
Moscow has its heaviest snowfall in a day on record, killing one and bringing down 2,000 trees, 2018
Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on the first ever papal visit to the Arabian peninsula, 2019