Character Development

     Thadius (Thad) Babiak is an elderly man who has seen a lot of history. He has just turned 87 but feels much younger than a lot of his friends at the Senior Center. He is tall, but stooped, with white, thin hair, faded blue eyes behind his wire rim glasses, and a droop to one side of his smile. Thad has a deep tan, but not from playing golf. His dress is conservative, with good old Khakis, a button-down shirt that he has carefully tucked in, and a sweater that keeps him from getting chilled, even though it is early summer. Thad’s Velcro sneakers, a gift from his wife when he found he could no longer tie his lace-ups, are a brilliant white.

     Thad speaks English, with a hidden cache of Polish he picked up from his grandmother as a boy. He no longer has any reason to speak Polish; most of his family have passed away, leaving Thad without parents or siblings. But he has a wealth of younger generations carrying his lineage, and he loves family events because he basks in the warmth of knowing his family name will continue. He worries sometimes about his youngest family members and the state of the country and its freedoms, such as the freedom to choose whether you are a man or a woman, even when God has already picked one for you. This idea doesn’t make sense to Thad.

     Thadius takes great pride in his standing in the community. Conservative to the end, he does not believe in the concept of gray. Things are either black or white, and for Thad, that perception always works. Except lately, he dislikes the news programs on TV and he sticks with the most conservative viewpoint he can find on cable: Fox News. Even so, he sees liberal issues sneaking into Fox as well. It’s better for Thad to mute the parts he doesn’t like. In fact, he is happier with no news about the country, or the world, and the nest he and his wife have created is a perfect filtering device and Thad can control it all easily.

     Thad has never signed up for university studies. He has learned all his marketable skills from the USMC and the US Forest Service. He loves being outside during the warm weather. The Forest Service allowed him to do that until his retirement. Now, Thad gets to sit outside and enjoy nature at home and putter around his small vegetable garden. He loves going to the garden when the great grandkids come to visit, explaining all the different planting rules for each vegetable, and letting the kids pick the ones that are ready. It is a remarkable thing to pick a vegetable and then have his wife cook it up and let the kids eat it, teaching them an important fact about where food really comes from. His father taught him about this cycle, however, during Thad’s working years, there was never time for a garden to teach his own sons.

     Gardening can be a lifesaver. Thad was born during the Great Depression. He was only three when things started to get better. The vegetable garden had provided many soup dinners. Even so, the event changed his own parents so much that everything they did after that had its roots in that miserable, scary time.  According to his father, no other occupation had the staying power or the benefits, or the security that enlisting would provide. That is the main reason Thad enlisted; he loved the military and its strict regimentation. Boundaries were important. He knew he could excel in an environment in which he knew exactly what the military expected of him.

     Along with his siblings, most of Thad’s friends had already passed away. Thad felt lucky that he and his wife remained together. His wife was his greatest comfort. She had been his biggest supporter. Even through the worst time of his life, when their smallest child had drowned in the drainage pond on their small farm. Lilah was the sweetest little girl. Tiny and angel-like with blue eyes and blond curls, she had wandered down to the water to get some mud. Thad’s wife had turned her attention to other things, and it didn’t take long for their lives to change. It was the most horrible day of his life. Thad wondered often what type of person she would have become, and how many grandkids he was potentially missing. Thad’s grandkids and great grandkids were the most important things in his life.

     At first, Thad felt consumed with laying the blame for Lilah’s death on his wife. But after a while, he had only to look deeply into her eyes to know the pain she was in too. Feeling his own pain, he surmised that it was still not as heavy as the woman who gave birth to the child and combined with the guilt of the tragedy she carried, it was something Thad couldn’t fathom. They agreed they could not stay at the farm, and sold it, moving into town into a huge home in a small neighborhood. This home served their purpose perfectly with a house full of kids, but lately, he and his wife had been noticing that no matter how hard they worked, it was impossible to keep it clean and in good repair. Thad knew that he and his wife had a decision to make about downsizing to a smaller home. The kids, the grandkids, and the great grandkids were quite a tribe. Where would they put everyone at Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving?

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     Missouri is one of the most beautiful states in America. That is why Thadius and his wife chose rural Missouri to raise a family. But two of his four children moved away after graduating college, and visits were but a few times a year. They came at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 4th of July, which is always a spectacle in the midwest. The other two of his children lived in nearby cities to promote their careers. The small farm they sold had been a few miles from town, so when they moved to the big house in a neighborhood, they had to learn to get along with the neighbors. Thadius did his best to make sure that the neighbors would have nothing to complain about. He had built a white picket fence that surrounded his property so there were never any boundary problems or disputed issues.

     The big house in the Springfield suburbs is the tidiest home on the block. Thad takes pride in his yard. His driveway and garage are spotless. On the drive into town for his weekly grocery trip, he is amazed at the lush greenery and beautiful properties that he passes. Often, he takes the old route so he can check out the height of the Little Sac River and then on to his favorite fishing spot at Fellows Lake. He likes to keep tabs on who is fishing, and where, and uses this information to map out his favorite spots for the next weekend. Summer is so short in Missouri, but that is the price you pay for living somewhere this beautiful.

      In the winter months, Thad does his best to limit his exposure to the weather. He sometimes feels antsy when he is waiting out a snowstorm, but then there is the moment he opens his garage to turn on the snowblower, one of his favorite toys. But for that little bit of fun, Thad would be a sad man. He has a theory that winter depression probably happens because when the world freezes, none of your senses work. Your hands are cold and can’t feel, your nose is cold and nothing smells. Everything is gray and white, leaving your eyesight unstimulated. In winter, Thad uses a candle that smells like cut grass just so he can survive.

     It is a short trip into town to the local Walmart, where Thad buys supplies listed on a big Post-it in his wife’s handwriting. She likes to make things easy for him by listing items in the order he will travel from the entrance to checkout. He often bumps into some of his fellow Masons, who often joke about Walmart’s alliance to the Illuminati, and they make cracks about where they stashed the Grail. It doesn’t matter to Thad who the Illuminati are, as long as his retirement check isn’t used up every month for the bare necessities. Thad has a hefty annuity, and he should be living well in a country that honors duty and service. There is a local firm that takes care of all of Thad’s financial matters and investments, and deals conclude with a handshake. 

     Thad loves living in a suburban community on the outskirts of Springfield. It has proven to be exactly what he had hoped. His neighborhood is close enough to grab a movie on a Saturday night, but far enough away from the city so as to discourage unkempt youth from targeting the residents with trouble and graffiti. Thad and his wife attend the First Presbyterian Church two blocks away. It takes about 30 minutes for them to walk to Sunday morning services throughout the summer. Sometimes, in the winter, Thad signs up for the church bus and they ride the two blocks. Most of the members are elderly, and Thad enjoys the comradery with its members. There are two or three younger couples with children that attend, but when they do, one of the senior deacons’ wives must forgo the service and sit in the nursery or Sunday School class and keep the kids quiet. They color printed copies of Jesus and memorize a Bible verse. The wives don’t complain, but it bugs Thad that they don’t hire a part-time high school girl to cover the classes when the young families show up.

     One of the most awe-inspiring sights in the town is the local Catholic church. Built around 1850, the workmanship on the building transcends anything built nowadays. The stained glass on three sides of the building can transfix you the whole time you should be listening to the priest. Thad went there one Sunday when his wife was ill just to see who was Catholic. He was surprised when many of the business owners and leaders of the community were there. He was unprepared for the beautiful sound of the choir and wished his church would have something like that. Thad was uncomfortable with the communion that took place, and he was unsure if he should join or politely decline. Thad decided to slip out when everyone filed into the line to receive the body and blood of Christ. On his walk home, Thad was distressed thinking about the victims of sex abuse at the hands of the priests and wondered, which boys were being handled in such a manner? He was pretty sure they all were. Thad seethed with anger at the thought of a man of God using children in that way. Children were blessings!

     Thad and his wife had a decision to make. His heart ached thinking about leaving his home for a scaled down version in a retirement community. His eldest son and eldest daughter had come to his home to discuss how he and their mother felt about moving into the Golden Meadow Town Homes for Seniors. They had done their homework and had addressed every concern they voiced save one: their mother had repeatedly verbalized her intent to host the family holidays despite losing half of the square footage of living space in the new place. That was one issue their children could not solve, and the kids settled the argument by promising to work out this one detail that meant so much to their mom. The kids said they would figure out how to make it happen one way or another.