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 David
Benjamin Bauman
August 28, 1919 - May 23, 2007
In June 2006, Dad and Mom retired from 35
years of service as missionaries in India, and settled into a small home next to
cousins outside Lorain, Ohio. Dad did some
part-time pastoral work for a while. Their lives filled up with church
commitments, civic groups, the regional astronomical club, lots of volunteer
work, and time with colleagues and friends. Their home was set in the midst of
orchards (peach, apple, and some other fruits) and they spent countless hours
tending the trees and benefiting from the harvest; Mom put up thousands of
jars of fruit jam and preserves over the years.
Over the next 20 years, Mom and Dad took 8
trips back to India, some lasting only a couple weeks and some as long as
several months in duration. They had the pleasure of witnessing, over the years,
the fruits of their years of service. Many of the current leaders of the Gujarat
Methodist Church were at one time children in schools or boarding homes or
churches in which they worked or visited or were otherwise engaged. Much of the
work they began years ago - both educational and economic development - has now
taken on a life of its own, and is being carried further than they could.
Throughout the 21 years they lived in
Ohio, Dad remained healthy and vigorous. In the late 1990s he helped
me build a brick sidewalk leading to our back deck, a rather bigger project than
I had planned. It took us a couple days, but, not surprisingly, he outlasted me in the
tiring work. In the summer of 2006, however, Dad unexpectedly lost his energy
and began losing weight. A
checkup confirmed that he had stomach
cancer. While he seemed resigned to the terminal diagnosis, we the family
convinced him to have surgery even if it was only palliative in effect. Dad was
so looking forward to a scheduled family vacation in Acadia National Park,
Maine, in late June
2007, with the whole family, both ours and Marks. It was a place we had
described to him, but he had never visited; he decided for the surgery, setting
a goal of being strong enough to travel by the time of the trip. Following the surgery, he recovered
very slowly for a week, but on May 21 suffered a heart attack, and two days
later on Wednesday, May 23, 2007, he took the final step from this life into the next.
His last moments were spent surrounded by his family, who sang and prayed him on
his journey. It was a moment of indescribable grief, beauty and love.
I often find myself thinking of Dad, and
his presence was especially strong during my trip to Jerusalem, particularly
at the
Mount
of the Beatitudes. A month following his death, we took the trip to Acadia
anyhow, a wonderful week with the entire family together. He would have loved
it.
In Memoriam
Mark and I each gave a reflection at Dad's memorial service, which you can read
here:
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