Dorothy “Jeannie” Coulter found a reminder of Christmases past in a file folder she received after her parents’ death in 1999.
“Mom kept odds and ends. And in a folder listed as ‘inspirational’ I found this poem,” said Coulter, the eldest of John and Dorothy Popa’s seven children, raised on the south end of Lake Leelanau in Bingham Township. “I don’t know who wrote it or where it came from. It was just one of the things mom had filed.”
The piece was the “The 12 Days of Christmas” Leelanau style, and includes references to local icons such as the piping plovers and a “robin in a cherry tree.” See complete lyrics below.’ Christmas was a busy time for the Popas and their seven children. In addition to Jeannie, there was John Popa, a road commissioner who died tragically in 2024, as well as siblings Paulette, Dale, David, Thad and Marie.
