Legacy
They Won
This is the kind of story that never gets old. Daddy knew he needed to make a change. To get better. To save his life and ours. He moved all of us to a whole new life in another state. Far away from the drinking binges and the fighting and the rehab centers that didn’t…
Read MoreFull House
I’ll share what’s been on my mind all day, although I’m not sure it qualifies as Monday School. Yesterday, we celebrated Father’s Day with the grill going outside and the sound of the U.S. Open in the background on the inside. That’s the way we celebrated Father’s Day when Dad was here. I always thought…
Read MorePassed Down
I have a place in my home where old things are displayed. Worn books, my grandmother’s hurricane lamp, Dad’s horsehair drafting brush, eye glasses and a pipe, my other grandmother’s woven hand fan, and black and white photographs from long ago. All of it sits on an old wooden chest built by my great-grandfather. Things…
Read MoreGreen Thumb
My grandmother had a green thumb. I have bright memories of her, or maybe I remember someone else’s memories of her, in the yard with her long sleeves and sun hat, weeding her flower gardens, pruning her roses, or moving plants from one spot to another. She was an award winning rose gardener. According to…
Read MoreAgainst the Odds
My parents’ story is an “against the odds” kind of story. They were like the rest of us, trying to make it the best they knew how. Learning to make a life, raise kids, work their jobs, and have fun while doing it. They got it right sometimes but they got it wrong other times.…
Read MoreThe 2016 Rundown
I look forward to 2017 with even greater anticipation than I did 2016. And 2016 didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful year of growth and I did a lot of new things. In one of my January posts, titled Rising, I reflected on the amazing things I saw because I made a change and decided…
Read MoreHardy
These muscadine vines were planted by my dad. Years later we get to taste the fruits of this rugged plant that needs minimal attention. The vines thrive so well here in the hot and humid conditions of Alabama that we had to cut some of them back this summer. They were overtaking the nearby pear…
Read MoreStorms
It was unseasonably warm last night. The air was heavy and the sky dark because the moon and stars couldn’t shine through the thick clouds. The wind was wild and the rain came fast and hard. Then it calmed and the rain drops were big and slow. The news and sirens told us there were…
Read MoreSee it Through
In the mid 90s I watched my dad learn a total new way of doing his work. The company he worked for did what most companies did at that time and upgraded the way of doing things to computers and software and transmitting data through the Internet. He’d always used his mechanical pencils, triangular ruler, other…
Read MoreThe Edge
At the edge of my grandmother’s yard there was a rock wall that separated our yard from hers. My little sister and I jumped over those rocks a thousand times. We used the rock wall as a hurdle in the pretend race courses we created. “Run around the pecan tree and back to the…
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