Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Leon was lunch companion and friend to my parents, John and Barbara Porterfield, at Maplewood Independent Living. My father passed away in February, and Leon provided Mom with a sense of constancy by lunching with her every day afterward ... until .... When the pandemic isolated the Maplewood residents to their individual apartments, Leon called Mom daily to check on her.
My husband, Jim, and I lunched at Maplewood pretty regularly, and we enjoyed sitting at table with Leon. I loved hearing his stories (he was a wonderful storyteller!) and we had fun swapping comments about the food. Jim is a retired x-ray tech, and he and Leon enjoyed comparing tales of their hospital experiences.
Shortly after Leon and I met, he proudly told me, "I can always remember your last name because I had a schoolteacher named Mrs. Snodgrass." I replied, "That’s a great way to remember. Just one thing - my name isn’t Snodgrass." We both laughed, and it was a joke between us ever after,
