Walking My Dad Home

We are all here for just a little while …to walk each other home

This week I had the honor of going on a bit of a hero’s journey with dad today along with 15 file boxes filled with carefully taken notes from his 20 years service at the American Friends Service Committee.

I woke early and watched an eclipse of the full moon.?It was of course Election Day.?And dad is one of the most politically minded people on the planet. Somehow it seemed like the right day to go on this journey.?

We set out along a familiar path on the mass pike, 84 all the way to New York, down the Saw Mill, across GW, and down the NJ Turnpike in our van.?

Memories floated up for dad.?Going to hold Quaker meeting inside Danbury prison for the Berrigan brothers during the Vietnam War, all the many trips down the Saw Mill particularly during our years in Amherst, staying in Manhattan at our friend Penelope’s loft when Will and I were boys to see Mount Python live, the farm in?Crosswicks (literally abutting the NJ turnpike) where his mom was born and his uncle Ed and aunt Hannah kept the family farming tradition alive, the prison where Hannah taught inmates non-violence, Moorestown where he was born and grew up and dad’s parents lived their entire adult lives, Medford Leas the retirement community where both his parents passed away, and finally into Philadelphia and Friends’ Center which was the very epicenter of dad’s working life.?

I don’t ever remember a time when dad was not involved in AFSC, headquartered at Friend’s Center, from the time I was a little boy even as far back as when we lived in Ithaca.?His formal role was the second half of his professional life but it was always his passion.?Making a difference in the world based on Quaker faith and practice, even when that was hard, inconvenient, or very dangerous.? (See a summary of his career here, and read his account of being the first Western into Phnom Penh after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, " "Journey?Into?Nightmare," here starting on page 7)

The AFSC archivist Don Davis met us with open arms and a warm smile saying how very happy they were to have these records.?I made them poise for pictures and took a little video.?

We pulled out just a few blocks from Independence Hall where another Matlack was the scribe for the Declaration of Independence.? I could tell dad was happy, deeply gratified, that his life’s work had found a suitable final resting place.?

As we made it back across the GW bridge and back toward home it got dark and soon the moon, one day past full, rose on the horizon.?

I love you dad.?And admire how many people you helped through your tireless service.?Well done.

Tom?

One of the items in the files was a picture book recording a trip taken by rail in 1899 by Philadelphia Quakers to the West Coast which included my great great grandmother.?I include a few of those pictures here.?