RICK HERRICK
508-693-8065
The Vineyard said goodbye to the Reverend Jim Kidd on Tuesday August 7. A service of remembrance was held at the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury with the Reverend Cathlin Baker presiding. Jim died on May 19 after a short illness.
Jim was remembered as a gifted preacher and compassionate minister, receiving an honorary Doctor of Divinity for his work from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1969. He was a devoted husband to Joann for 58 years. Reverend Baker praised him as a great mentor. Bob Blacklow characterized his life as defined by pure joy, which he spread around with his belly laugh and big hugs.
Jim both wrote the service and had the last word. At the end of the service a tape of Jim’s last sermon at Asylum Hill Congregational Church entitled Remember Me was played. In the sermon Jim asked the congregation to remember him, but more important, he pointed out that if you do good while you’re here on earth, God will remember you.
There’s no way his many friends on East Chop will ever forget his disarming smile and his sportsmanship on the tennis court. Regulars at Union Chapel will long remember his dedicated work there. As was clear from the service at West Tisbury, we were saying goodbye to a very good and decent man.
On another matter, I spoke recently with Wendy Reagan after work and after she had spent the afternoon at the beach club. She had logged onto her computer early that morning to handle some quality control issues for Neighborhood Health Plan, an HMO in Boston. Wendy is a senior data analyst for Neighborhood Health.
Our topic for discussion was the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk on July 27 through 29. Wendy participated in the walk for the sixth time, along with her mother, Carol Traenkle, and her daughter, Tori.
There were several mother/daughter teams at the walk, but only one team spanning three generations. Of the more than 1,000 participants in the walk, 24 women were singled out for special roles in the opening and closing ceremonies. Wendy, Carol, and Tori were part of that elite group.
“It was an emotional three days and a lot of hard work,” Wendy said. “You walk 20 miles on each of the three days. We started in Framingham on Friday, wound our way around several suburbs of Boston on Saturday, and ended up at UMass Boston for the closing ceremony on Sunday.
“We all did fine. Mom and I started training for the event in March. Tori winged the training part a bit, but she has young legs. Her only problem was a few blisters.”
I asked her how you spend your time on a 20-mile walk.
“You talk about everything under the sun — your children, cancer survivors you know, research the Komen Foundation is funding. Mom and I enjoyed reconnecting with women from earlier walks.
“We spent two nights in two-person pup tents. It’s touching to sleep among 500 pink tents. Everything went well until the rain on Saturday night. But we survived and, more important, we raised $3.2 million for the Komen Foundation. The foundation invests a lot of money in breast cancer research, but they also have an important focus on education. Their goal is to see that every woman in the country is screened. Early detection has led to huge progress in breast cancer survival. I am proud to have played a small part in this effort, and all three of us are grateful for the generous donations from our East Chop friends. They too played a role in this important cause.”
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