End of the Day

I left the house this evening while it was still daylight. We had a rain this afternoon and there were still lingering clouds of blue and gray. I looked to the south and thought it was clear. Then I noticed that the moon, a week away from full, had a hazy look about her. There was a thin layer of clouds veiling her face.

When I turned west, I saw that the veils of the moon had earth-bound kin. The road was covered with a thin fog seeping into the trees. As I picked up speed, the damp, cool air swirled into the warmth of the car. Up ahead, the sun appeared to have fallen into a well of clouds, illuminating the side walls of his captor. I never saw the sun before it disappeared below the horizon, taking the light with it.

What a beautiful end to a wonderful day. And tomorrow will be even better.

Makes Me Wonder

I got a small package in the mail yesterday. It was from the funeral home. It contained 7... I'll call them oversize bookmarks for lack of a better term. They are pretty, I guess. The front has several pink roses and the Twenty-Third Psalm. That was the verse Dr. T based the message on. That is all okay. I turn it over and there is my mother's obituary write-up. I find that a bit strange. Why would I want that? Maybe it's a tradition thing. Going through some of my mother's things, I have found laminated copies of several family members' obituaries. I wondered why she had them. If she'd had this nifty bookmark thing, she'd have appreciated it. Somehow, I just don't get it. They will go into the big green zipper envelope with the cards, registry, and other papers from the funeral home and be discovered by my children when they go through my stuff.

One Trip Down

M is back from her trip. She brought me back a really cool T-shirt, a CD and some DVDs. It was her first summer trip with our youth group. L leaves tomorrow to go to Kid's camp. She comes back Sunday. Then it's our turn. We leave Monday morning. I bought food that should be pretty easy for them to fix.

Our freezer is on the fritz again. I think this happens every year before Mr. H and I leave. Last year it was the leaking roof and the oven not working. We'll figure it out when we get back. There are some traits of my mother's that I choose not to embrace, and one of them is worrying about everything and thinking that everything bad happens to me. It's just a thang and thangs happen.

L is watching "The Empire Strikes Back." Having just seen the latest Indiana Jones this past weekend, it's neat to see Harrison Ford 25 years in the past.

More than a Thousand Words

This is the picture of Mom that we chose to appear in the paper. I'm so glad we did. A friend of mine who moved to the Jackson area several years ago saw the picture in the paper that morning and decided she needed to read more about this lady. When she got to the last paragraph, she was surprised to see my name. When I got to the funeral home Thursday, this friend was there waiting for me, all because she saw Mom the way my brother and I wanted to remember her.

A picture can be worth so much more than a thousand words.

A Call from Camp

The phone just rang. I recognized the name on the caller ID as the name of the resort where M's camp is being held. I answered it. It was Lanny Donoho. I knew that name. He is the driving force behind so many of the neat things happening in children's and student ministries. Big Stuf Camps is one of his things. The first thing he said was that M wasn't in trouble, she was fine, she was standing with him in front of 1500 people that wanted to say "Hello" to me. There was a roar in the background. Then he told M to say, "Hey, Mom" which she did. (M was probably a deep shade of red at this point.)

Then he told me why he was calling. Apparently, they get the campers to write letters about people back home who they think are special. Now, I don't believe that that many kids would pick me without some prompting from someone, but I guess someone prompted! I asked what sort of stuff they wrote that would make him call me. Lanny said they wrote that I worked at the church and gave the pastors more help than they deserved (Dusty, our youth pastor, must have written that). They had written about my loosing my mom and that's why I wasn't there with them. Then Lanny told me that they were sending, by M, a CD of the songs they were doing, a DVD of the worship, and a T shirt from camp. They yelled "Good-bye, Misty!" 1500 strong. Lanny said they prayed for me tonight. Then he said he hopes I get to come next year and to introduce myself to him. Wow! I am blown away... Not by the call from, in my book, a famous person, but by the fact that kids I know thought enough about me to write such nice things about me. I'll be on cloud nine for quite some time.

I'm happy...I just hope M survived being singled out in front of that many people.

A Day of Normalcy

I looked at the calendar yesterday and wondered what happened to June. I think the last normal day I had was May 29th. That was Mr. H and my 26th anniversary. We went out for dinner and I left the next morning to go see Mom in the hospital in Rankin County. The next 35 days are a blur. Now it's time to get my world back into focus.

I think today will be a day of "normal"things. First of all, there is a TON of laundry to do. M has to pack, which I know means wash first, because she leaves tomorrow for Panama City Beach and Big Stuf Camp. We plan on going to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." I'll probably cook something for the first time in weeks. (unbelievable!!)

As soon as M gets back from camp, it's L's turn. She is going to Kid's Camp with our children's ministry. Gary Permenter and Curt Hale are leading this year. I love both those guys. I was supposed to be going on both camp trips as a chaperon, but I canceled because I thought I'd be home with Mom. Right now, I'm glad I did. I'm going to go to Cincinnati with Mr. H on the 14th. We'll leave here Monday morning and ride his bike up to Tupelo to catch the Natchez Trace up to Nashville, then on to Ohio. I can't wait for this trip. We need to reconnect after the past month. He's got a new dry-bag for the computers, so we can stay connected and post pictures along the way. He is busy mapping out routes and planning stops for sights along the way. I'm just along for the ride this time.

Old Friends

I grew up on Hanging Moss Circle. Next door to us was a family with 5 boys. The youngest was my age and the next oldest was just one year older. They all played baseball, ran track, were all good athletes. Sam & Thomas & I were buddies from the time I was 3 years old until we went off to separate colleges. Their dad always scared me when I was little. I don't know why.

Tonight, I noticed 2 men come in together. They stood off to the side and every time I looked their way, they were looking at me. I went over to them and the tallest told me his name. It was my old buddy Sam. I picked the wrong older brother's name, but I had never been really close to any of the older 3 when I was a kid. We had been talking a few minutes, when I recognized their dad coming in with Thomas, who is one year older than me. Those 2 I picked out right away. I spent just about the rest of the night talking to these men from my past. We remembered so many of the same events from our childhoods.

On the way to the funeral home this afternoon, I had started to feel sick. I was dreading this ordeal. But the reality was so different. I got to see my uncles, probably for the last time after tomorrow. They live so far away and now have no one to bring them back here. I reconnected with the first friends I ever had and hadn't seen in over 25 years. I feel much better about facing tomorrow.