Mothers Day 2008?

Benny brought brisket, beans and potato salad

Alecia and Matt brought pork ribs and three bottles of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, it's wonderful.

Shirley paid for my very first pedicare. I've kept my toe nails 'ice blue' ever since.

A friend asked me about my 'Mothers Day,' I told her all that.

“Oh, your family is so good to you!”

I had appreciated it all but I am so ashamed of myself for not already thinking that,

"My family is so good to me."

Protracted Camp Meetings were held a long time ago. You come in your wagon, maybe leading a cow and and chickens in a coop. They lasted maybe three weeks. There were no stores around. The Baptists wanted to be baptised. It was mostly in the Brazos River, unless it was up. Then there was usually a good big tank. The Methodists would be sprinkled. There were no other churches or denominatons.

Papa Gill 'come forward,' one time but the Brazos was flooding, up real high.

'His preacher' died before the Brazos got low enough to 'baptize in.'

"Dad always said that if God had wanted him to be baptised--He wouldn't have let his preacher die."

Aunt Sude, Dad's sister always said, "The river never went down for Mote."

Thel's widowed sister, Sylvia was living with her son ,Ronnie in Muskogee. He was a nurse at the hospital there.

We were going to visit in Arkansas and stopped by to visit them. Thel noticed a reddish brown mole on the back of her neck. It was the size amd color of a cooked split red bean,"Syb, you ought to go and have the Doctor look at that." Sylvia said that Ronnie had been trying to get her to go.

She went later and it was cut off and she was having chemotherapy. The Doctor privately told Ronnie that he estimated that she would live 14 months, she did.

Every week, that she had chemotherapy, Thel and I drove to Muskogee and spend the night with them, to be with them on that day. She was not to eat before the chemotherapy. Ronnie took her to the hospital and she lay on a bed. I went along with them and we talked and visited. She never complained. There was an IV going into her arm and they would put extra medicine in it at times. She swallowed several pills.

A couple of hours and Ronnie took us back to his house. Thel had a good breakfast, hot and on the table. We quickly ate the good meal and Sylvia lay down.

Then she got sick. Because Thel cooked it and she got it quickly, she kept her food down. We went as long as she took that chemotherapy.

The next several months, she sometimes felt like she was chocking. The Doctors couldn't find anything to make her feel like that. She didn't have very much pain.

Her brother Lee died of lung cancer from smoking. He had a different looking spot on his chin. The Doctor kept saying, "Let's just watch it." One day Lee said, "I'm tired of watching it and I want you to cut it out." The Doctor did and they were surprised that it had long spreading roots. It never come back, in that location.

Lees son Bub had a brown spot on his nose.

Bub refused to go to the Doctor. Helen said she did everything to get him to go.

"I would have divorced him if it would have made him go to the Doctor. It wouldn't. I wanted to go to a judge and have him forced to go. They told me that I couldn't."

They drove to the reunion. Thel asked Bub, "What's that on your lip?"

Bub turned his head and brushed at his lip, "Leaf fell of the tree."

Bub had two kinds of cancer, the lung cancer was the worst. His two sons were at their house when he was so weak that he fell in the floor. They didn't stop with him, untill he was at the Doctors.

Kenny was Bub and Helen's son. He had a mole removed and it spread. He had chemo and radiation, before and after. They searched for the best Doctors and he come to M D Anderson in Houston. He had shoulder muscles and part of two ribs removed. He has been well for ten years now and can do anything.

Dear Imogene and Family,

Thel and I are doing good for 88 and 96. People can't believe it.

December 27, we will be married 70 years. I called Benny and wished him a happy 69th birthday. He said '”Thanks for the Happy Birthday. But you didn't have to remind me.” Benny is having trouble with his knees. Richard with his arms and shoulders.

One old lady at Bluegrass was 93, she got Thel's face in her hands, up close.“I just want to see someone who is as old as I am.” We both walk erect and we laugh a lot.

The summer was so long and hot, we stayed at home a lot. We ate what we wanted to; a lot of junk and fruit. I got down to 95 pounds. Then it cooled down and we started going to the Senior Citizens for dinner. Oh it was so good to get a good balanced meal, that I did not have to fix. Thel likes to go there and talk, it's not far, to drive. He is a good driver, never had a real accident. I point him which way to turn.

Mondays, Thel can play his guitar or mandolin to entertain; with another man, then we eat. Fridays we eat and then play bingo. Thel collects any kind of string or thread 'to fly his kite'. Thel won in bingo and walked to the table to pick out what he wanted for his prize. He chose a big hank of red wool crocheting thread. A woman come to him, "I need that thread, I crochet." Thel would not let her have it. "I need it to fly my kite." He made a big kite but he never flew it. He bought spools of sewing thread and all kinds of cord, some as big as my thumb, always planning to fly it.

Once we ate at a table of 'old women', Thel got to telling them stories. When Thel went to the restroom, I told him that the last story that he told was not true. They assured me that was all right, and they enjoyed all his stories. Were they thinking of their old husbands?

Thel will not play in public, by his self, I wish that he would. I played my tub and Thel his guitar, for a youth group. Next Wednesday we will take an AARP driving class there. It helps cut our insurance, and makes us remember to drive better.

My Brother, Stanley and his wife, Jackie, have a big ranch on the Colorado River in West Texas. They bought a nice brick home, here on the lake, a half mile from us. They stay in it part time. I have come to believe that they did it to help us, when we need it. They come here at least every ten days. He keeps the grass mowed and 'fancies up' around their house. They have helped a lot by setting and listening to Thel's stories, they are all good. Jackie cooks lots of good things that they share.

One day Thel was telling about flying to California in a real big airplane. He rushed up and set in the pilots lap, after he passed out, and landing the plane safely with 400 people on it. I was 'caught up' in his story and asked him why the pilots passed out. Thel said that they got their oxygen mixture wrong.

He said that he called the field at Mojave and got permission to land there.

His arm sure got tired of all those people shaking his hand as they got off the plane.

They promised him all kinds of honors and recognition. "You know, they hushed it all up and I never heard from them."

I told Stanley as he left-- that that didn't happen. Stanley said, “Yes, but Thel believes that it is true.” He has a lot of stories and some of them are real doozzies. None of the stories hurt any body and everyone is real kind to him, to listen. He remembers old things but only 30 seconds of what he is told now.

The problem is that I am not far behind him. We are so thankful for what we have.

Richards big old country home burned while they were on a trip to Colorado to see Rickey and his outfit, fly back in from Irac. 30 other homes burned in the wild fire.

It was on the east edge of Oklahoma City and turned and raced back, and got theirs last. They have all agreed that it is good that they were not there. The way it whipped back, they would have both been inside fighting it. They had good insurance. They are almost ready to move in, the pictures of it are beautiful.

We could not let Thel know. He would have started walking up there, to help Richard. Thel thinks he can do any thing that he ever could. Get in the motor home and travel, anywhere. He says, "Do you want me to go and light the refrigerator, so that we can get an early start to go to Carlsbad and Grand Canyon tomorrow?

We drive by some wooded land, he wants to buy 40 acres and build a house in the middle of it. "What's to stop us, haven't we built 3 houses?"

He has to get back on oxygen, just from walking to the mail box, sometimes.

But I started getting all the mail after he got the notice from the Azle Bank about the five thousand that is in savings there. "That's the money that I put in, after I sold my last airplane. I'll go and buy me another one."

A tottery woman helps around at the Senior center, she walks with her cane hooked over her arm. She wears a T shirt “I did what-- last night?”