St. Tikhon’s Monastery 2006 - 108.jpg, originally uploaded by neepeople.

This is Fr. Nicodemus, a monk who gave us a tour of the monastery church, it’s history, the icons and relics, etc. He also gave us a tour of the ancient icon house and the monastery museum. I don’t recall him looking any of us in the eye, out of humility I presume. Last time I saw him he was either recovering from or about to have knee surgery. Walking looked to be quite painful for him.

It was on this last trip that the car my godson and I had rented broke down, about 15 miles from the monastery. We left before everyone else, thank God. We somehow managed to get a cellphone signal and called the monastery for a ride. The closest rental facility was about four hours away, and although we spent a good part of the afternoon at a gas station in BFN (pardon me) Pennsylvania, eventually some friends showed up with room enough for two. My poor godson… I did not handle that situation very well.