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Adventures in living a healthy, juicy life

by Cheryl Ragsdale

My friend and spiritual teacher, Leo E. Wesner, passed away earlier this week.

At the funeral held earlier today, his son, Thomas Wesner, told a story that reminded us all of why we love Leo.

This happened years ago, when Tom was in high school.

Cheryl Ragsdale and Leo Wesner

Leo got a flat tire. A couple stopped to help him change the tire.

To show his appreciation, the next day, after grocery shopping, he made a special trip to Montilio’s Bakery to get a nice cake to give to the couple.

Tom returned home from school to find his father swearing in the kitchen.

“What’s the matter?”

Leo – in complete frustration – explained that instead of dropping off the cake, he had given the couple the WRONG bag!

Turns out, he had given them the bag with the bananas instead of the bag with the cake.

He drove over to the couple’s home with the right bag in his hand. When he rang the bell, he heard the wife say, “It’s the Banana Man”.

The husband came to the door, greeted Leo, laughed with him and accepted Leo’s gift of appreciation.

The next day, the couple knocked on Leo’s door and presented him with a bag of bananas

Trust Leo to turn an upset over a flat tire into something funny and two new friends.

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What I Loved Most About Leo

What I loved most about him was his willingness to greet me as if I were the most important person in the world.

I thought it was just me that he greeted this way…

As it turns out, he greeted everyone that way.  People who spoke of Leo this week always mentioned his twinkling eyes, his warm smile and his delightful sense of humor.

Leo wore a hearing aid – he often didn’t hear what was going on, but that didn’t stop him when it was his turn to speak.

Most often, we were treated to the Latin – and the Greek – derivation of some interesting word that popped up in the conversation. I was constantly amazed at his ability to provide the root word, the original definition and his experience of what the word meant to him…at the drop of a hat.

Derivation of Leo from the Latin and the Greek:

Leo (Latin: leō) is the Latin word for lion from Wikipedia

Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190) (trans. Pearse) (Greek mythographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :
“Herakles did not wear the skin of the Nemean lion, but that of a certain Leon (Lion), one of the Gigantes killed by Herakles whom he had challenged to single combat.” source

Guess I’ll have to get my Latin fix on-line now.

Kathleen shared about Leo on her blog too.  To read her thoughts go to “Knowing Leo”

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Goodbye, my friend.

Leo E. Wesner

10 May 1927 – 25 April 2010

In loving memory

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Death is Nothing At All

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

_

Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral

source

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