Clinton Township Newsletter

2 a p r i l 2 0 2 1 W W W . C L I N T O N T W P N E W S L E T T E R . C O M SHADES | MOTORIZED SHADES | BLINDS | DRAPES | PLANTATION SHUTTERS You Deserve Them! 908.236.2688 14 Lebanon Plaza n WindowExpressionsNJ.net C U S T O M PA I N T F I N I S H Transformations for Your Cabinetry & Furniture • D E S I G N 9 0 8 . 8 3 2 . 6 0 3 2 T E W K S B U R Y Locally Owned and Operated by Phil & Diane Koury 185 Center St., Clinton | 908.735.4499 Wendy Maizel, the owner of Balic of Clinton, shared this very sweet card with me. They were handwritten and evidently mailed to every store owner in downtown Clinton from the staff at the Clinton United Methodist Church. "It moved me to tears!", said Wendy and, I must admit, it had the same effect on me as well. – JF It reads, "Dear friends, We are reaching out to say thank you for working so hard through this pandemic. We appreciate your determination to keep your business up and running. We encourage our congregation to shop local and to keep a positive outlook for our small town. Prayers of strength and blessings, Clinton UMC Staff If you're reading this column, it's because my "Expiration Date" has come and gone. Perhaps I'm in that big Newsletter office in the sky. However, given my religious persuasions, that is highly unlikely. At any rate, I've departed this earth for sure. I'll miss my precious family, my friends and my coworkers at HMC. I'll miss sitting on the porch enjoying the greening of Hunterdon County. I'll miss Edy's Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream. I'll certainly miss writing a monthly column for the CTNL and I hope you will miss reading it. Julie, bless her heart, will carry on in a way that both Fred and I would be proud. There's a heck of a lot I will miss. But living for too many months feeling lousy is no way to exist. And I've been ready (more than ready) to put an end to the sickness, pain and misery. I welcomed the end of all of that bad stuff. Death couldn't be as bad as my recent life has been. Life goes on and, although I've tried my best to convince everyone that I am indispensable, it's probably not so. I was hoping to live long enough to see a new President elected, but it wasn't meant to be. I intend to discuss this with St. Peter. So, remember that you may think you're telling life where to go, but it goes where it wants to. Farewell, loyal readers. It's been a blast! Ruth Keesing, with her second husband Fred, began the Clinton Township Newsletter in 1982. She was very prolific, and the opposite of a procrastinator, she would often hand me three columns at a time (I looked it up – according to www.english.stackexchange.com, "If to procrastinate is 'to put off doing something,' then its antonym is 'anticipate' — 'to deal with beforehand.' So you can say the opposite of procrastination is 'anticipation'. If you can live with more than one word, a clearer antonym of procrastination is 'being proactive'." Wow, that description fits Ruth perfectly and, to some extent, myself as well. When first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late 2018 or early 2019, she handed me this "One Last Column." I was very sad to have to accept it, and hoped it wouldn't be put to use for a long time. This April issue marks a full year since we ran it, so it seems only fitting to run it again. I sincerely hope that she is in "that big Newsletter in the sky", writing more columns and laughing with all of her loved ones. – JF

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