BAND

Times gone by ... HISTORICAL TRIVIA
Brightman, a shining light
Pick
your
BRAIN
And win a prize!
What was this?
Photo courtesy of Jim Jozwiak
If you think you know the answer, e-mail
frank@gaylordheraldtimes.com, or send it to P.O. Box 598,
Gaylord, MI, 49734. Those submitting a correct answer will
be entered into a drawing for a $20 gift certificate for BJ’s
Restaurant from the Gaylord Herald Times. When you write,
please include your name, address and telephone number.
Limit one win per person every six months.
LAST MONTH’S ANSWER:
Lem Noirot correctly identified this photo of his band playing at Snow
Valley (now Beaver Creek Resort), a popular ski resort in the 1960s.
“John Wynn stands at the left with his clarinet, Larry Givens sits at
the piano, there I am with my trumpet, and Don (can’t remember
his last name) at the drums. We all were wearing red hunting gear,”
remembered Noirot.
Each month I go out and interview
people and sort out my notes and
write a story based on the information
I’ve been given. I have the
opportunity to meet a lot of interesting
people with interesting stories
to tell, and I always manage to
learn something.
And every so often I meet someone
who leaves a lasting impression,
someone who prompts me
to take a closer look, to ask more
questions. This month I met someone
like that.
His name is Charlie Brightman,
and he is remarkable, not so much
because of what he does, but
because of what he thinks and how he feels
about what he does. Charlie volunteers
at the Otsego County Food Pantry, and
although there are many great volunteers at
the pantry, it is perhaps Charlie’s spirit that
sets him apart.
You see, Charlie has terminal cancer. He
has known this for four years, and if doctors
had been right, he would have been
gone two years ago. But he is still here, and
he spends much of his time thinking about
ways to make life better for everyone.
I met with Charlie to talk about his work
at pantry, but instead Charlie veered off
to talk about his theories on more efficient
forms of energy, and about his relationship
with God, about quality of life, and about
life after death. Yes, said Charlie, there must
be a conscious existence after death. If not,
then nothing we are doing here now would
matter anyway.
And Charlie believes everything matters
– everything we do, everything we say, and
every act of humanity we perform. It all
matters. Charlie worries about the energy
crisis, and about how people are going to
live, and how they are going to eat, and
Julie Kettlewell
will they freeze to death because they can’t
buy fuel, or will they die because they
must choose heat over needed medications.
Charlie truly worries about those things and
about the welfare of others.
So there I was, sitting down
with Charlie to talk about his volunteer
work at the Food Pantry,
and Charlie talked more about his
relationship with God. I wondered
at one point how I would sort out
all of the different thoughts in order
to write the story that I set out to
write. Charlie and I seemed to be
focused on two different things.
Then later, as I read over my
notes, I realized Charlie and I were
not talking about two different things at all.
To Charlie, his work at the pantry and his
passionate faith are one in the same.
I thought pretty hard about my meeting
with Charlie. He had gotten my attention.
While the rest of us are running around complaining
about our lives or our jobs, screaming
about gas prices and crying about our
problems, Charlie’s trying to find solutions
to the problems. Here he is, a man with terminal
cancer living on a fixed income, his
illness robbing him of vital energy, and on
any given day wondering how many more
days he will have.
Yet still he spends his own dollars to
drive into town to help ensure the shelves
at the Food Pantry are well stocked. He is
worried about the people with whom he
shares this life, and he won’t have them
going hungry.
So Charlie Brightman will help to fill
empty tummies because that, as he so gently
reminded me, is what Jesus did when he
was here. And that, Charlie told me, is what
he will do while he is here.
Like I said, some people make a lasting
impression.
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4 • June 2008 • PrimeTimes A Gaylord Herald Times publication