When Neil Creter retired, he found wood.
Or maybe it was the wood that found him.
Whatever happened, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Woodworking has become a calling. It has brought him great joy, and he has passed that joy to others through his handiwork.
He loves the shape and feel of wood between his fingers. He cuts and carves along its grain. He smooths the rough edges and rounds them into shape. He is an artist with a blank canvas.
The wood begins life as northern basswood from the forests of Minnesota. It is resurrected in a collection of Santa Clauses inside a woodshop 1,400 miles away.
Neil is 77 years old, so he is approaching redwood status himself. He retired 12 years ago after spending 33 years in accounting at GEICO and eight years as a city detective.
He had planned to build a dark room for photography in the basement of his home at Barrington Hall. But he changed his mind and transformed it into a woodworking shop.
He now spends his retirement years keeping an eye on old movies while whittling away at his craft. Even when he’s not working on a project, you usually can find him at the bottom of the steps.
“Sometimes I like to go down there just to smell the sawdust,’’ he said, laughing.
His biggest projects are cabinets and furniture. He makes bowls and crosses. Marsha, his wife of 50 years, said there is no task too large or small for him to tackle.
He’s not in any hurry, either.
“I’m not all that interested in seeing how fast I can get something done,’’ Neil said.
As part of the American Association of Woodturners, he participates in the “Beads of Courage” program for children with serious illnesses. As a member of the Middle Georgia Woodworkers Association, he is active in making more than 200 wooden toys every Christmas for Native American children on Indian reservations.
Like an elf in a workshop, he devotes six months every year getting ready for the holidays. He makes mangers, sleds, reindeer, crosses and other iconic symbols of the season.
His Santas are his signature creation. Every Christmas, he brings them to life from blocks of wood 9 inches long, 4 inches wide and 2 inches thick.
“When I first started making these, I had done almost no carving at all,’’ he said. “I didn’t know if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Then I got hooked.’’
Each year the Santa is has a special trademark. He is carrying something different — a lantern, wreath, toy sack, gingerbread man, candy cane and other traditions of the season.
There are no price tags. The Santas are gifts to more than four dozen friends and family members. And the list grows every year.
“I couldn’t sell them for what I have in them, so I would rather give them away to people who appreciate them,’’ he said.
He also makes hundreds of small, wooden crosses. Many of them go to his church, Martha Bowman United Methodist, for outreach and ministry.
Neil sent a box of crosses to his brother-in-law, Steve Middlebrooks, in Franklin, Tenn., for use in a hospice ministry.
Middlebrooks gave one of the wooden crosses to a hospice patient a few weeks before the man died.
“He was holding it in his hand when he died, and it literally had to be pried from his grasp,’’ Middlebrooks said.
On Saturday, Dec. 8, the man’s only daughter will attend a candlelight memorial service at the hospice facility. The service is for family members of patients who died during the year.
“We will share memories that make us smile and some that will honor their lives,’’ Middlebrooks said. “Each family member who attends will receive one of Neil’s crosses. It’s a wonderful testimony to a man in a workshop in Macon touching lives in Franklin, Tenn.’’
Ed Grisamore teaches journalism at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears on Sundays in The Telegraph.
This story was originally published December 09, 2018 12:00 AM.