MY FRIEND LOUISE

Today, March 19th is a sad day for me. In a few hours I will bury a friend. Louise Maddux was my friend. She was loved by her son, Ray Maddux and my daughter, Nita, loved her mother-in-law. Not only was Louise a part of my family she was my friend from many years past.

this was made 5-10-2009

When we were young mothers, wives, PTA members, etc. a popular activity was Canasta Club. We met once a month at someone's house and played the game until lunch time and then the hostess served a delicious lunch - not just soup and sandwich as so many do now, but meat a vegetable, salad, dessert and if we were lucky enough to be at Louise's house we got Home Made Rolls. Oh my, those glorious rolls. When you walked into her house you were met with the smell of homemade bread and it just started the day on a perfect note. Louise and Ed lived in a small, modest home on Skyview Drive and we had two card tables set up in the living room which took up most of the space. Do you think we thought we were crowded or bothered? My goodness, we loved it. The laughing the talking the coffee drinking and, sorry to say cigarette smoking, that went on in that crowded living room. Her boys, Ray and Ned, were small and I remember a little basketball goal at the top of one of the door frames in the hall where the boys could bounce their balls and shoot into this goal. I'm sure that Ed Maddux constructed it and installed it and those boys wore it out as they grew to the larger equipment in the back yard. When Louise moved to a larger house we continued to meet and everyone always commented on the space that we had and the lovely surroundings. Yes, we still had those home made rolls with our lunch. Point here is larger house and grown up children more material possessions and changes in lifestyle but some things just never change and Louise and the rolls were just that - unchangeable. She was always funny, happy, laughing and teasing and I loved her then and I love her today as I bid her goodbye to her earthly home and she is saying hello to her heavenly home where she is joined by her husband, Ed and her son, Ned. She had a good life here on earth but the life she has now is just too wonderful to describe. My heart is heavy and so is her son's heart and all of her grandchildren and great-children who will miss their Nonnie, but by having her our lives were made better and she is another example of God is good - all the time.

Here it is, Monday, March 15th and another gloomy, dark, rainy day. According to the TV the weather is quite a factor in every part of this U.S.A. I'm glad that it is not worse, but boy oh boy wouldn't a little sunshine be a treat? My daughter, Tracey, and her family are in Florida this week and I am so hoping that their weather is amenable to beach activities. I can remember many Spring Breaks in Florida when we would go to Panama City and I would sit by the pool wrapped up in a beach towel, drinking hot tea wondering what I was thinking of to be here spending all of the money I was spending and being as miserable as I was. However, my girls and their friends would strut up and down the beach in their cute little swim suits as though it was 90 degrees. They had fun and they have their memories (different from mine) so it was all worth the effort.

While I am thinking of things in the past I will go back even farther. I very seldom, almost never, read the comics in the newspaper but this morning one of the comic strips opposite the page I was reading caught my eye. It was Marvin and in the first picture he is smiling and says MMMM...next picture he says "there are a lot of great-smelling things in the world"....next picture he says "but nothing can compare to the aroma of a new box of crayons." Can you remember when you would get your school supplies and on the top of the list would be crayons? I just thought if I could have that box that had 16 crayons instead of 8 would be the gift of a lifetime. I loved the smell of those crayons and I must have passed in on to my daughter, Kim, because the thing she liked about school the most was shopping for school supplies. This love has continued for her until this day because if you could see her office at her house there is nothing left to be desired in the way of "stuff". I guess it seems strange that a woman my age would be writing about the smell of crayons as a child but smells can conjure up many memories such as getting up on Sunday morning and smelling chicken frying and green beans cooking for our Sunday Dinner. The chocolate pie or lemon pie (my mother alternated each week) would be sitting on the buffet waiting for me to swipe with a finger as I went by. When my brother and I would be studying during the school year Mother would make us fudge to eat as a treat and I can remember that delicious chocolate smell. Smells and music can put me in a place at a time in my life that cannot be erased. Of course the best memory of a smell is the one of one of my babies fresh from a bath with Johnson's Baby Powder, Lotion and Oil. Nothing can compare with that I can tell you. It is a shame that mothers this day and time are told not to use those products becaue of allergies or something so that is a memory they won't ever have and that is too bad.

My packing up the house in preparation to moving is seeing some progress thanks to my daughter, Corinne, who came Saturday with lunch, boxes and energy. We made a dent in my office by cleaning off the shelves. She took four boxes of books to the library and packed four boxes for me to take to my new home. She took bags to Goodwill and we had many bags of trash. I am ready today to finish the office where I have files and files that need to be gone through and organized. So, I must quit procrastinating and get up from here and get busy.

I'm sure that the weather will clear up soon and in the meantime I say to you "think Spring because - you know what comes next - God is good - all the time. Amen?

CLEO AND I HAVE SEEN BETTER DAYS

This morning I can hear my Aunt Ree's voice as she would say on very rare occasions for her "I don't have time to be sick". That is my cry today because I really do feel so very bad this morning. On Monday I saw a doctor and my condition was described as sinus infection, given an antibiotic and pills for the constant cough and told that if I wasn't better in a few days to come back. If it wasn't storming like crazy I probably would go back today because I'm sure not feeling a lot better. I'm in a huge mess here at my house - or rather the house that has been sold and I am renting. Tops of closets have been cleared and boxes of items are in the bedroom, the hall and now that some shelves have been emptied the dining room table is covered and most of the dining room floor. I have got to get boxes and put these things in boxes. One question - where do you put the boxes once they are packed?

On top of everything else, my darling cat, Cleo, had to have surgery yesterday. He is fine. It was just a little tumor that had to be removed and after the sedation wore off he is okay. He had a bath and looks quite super this morning. One funny thing, however, he seems to be hoarse because when he Meows it croaks. I laughed at him and told him that he and I were just a big old mess - me coughing and sneezing and him croaking and sleeping. Can't win for losing I told him.

Are you a "list maker"? I have a friend, Barbara, that used to make me fall over in laughter when we worked together because she would come into work with her yellow legal pad with her list. It would begin with eat breakfast, take shower, dress, drive to work, lunch, call so and so about whatever, and on and on until go to bed. She would include time for reading several chapters in a book or listening to a certain CD or just everything. She would refer to her list off and on during the day and for the most part followed it. I told her that she was suffering from dementia and this was her way of hiding it from others. We don't work together any more but the last time I was at her house there was that yellow pad with her day's list on it. Since I have started this moving activity I think that making lists must be a pretty good way of staying on course. I have always been a "do whatever needs to be done at the time" sort of gal, but with the month edging toward the end and the next month coming up that will be full of a busy schedule I am beginning to see the reason for making lists. Oh well, in a couple of months all of this turmoil that I hate will be over and as Nita says I will be on the "other side" of these issues. I can tell you that I welcome that day coming. I keep telling myself that it appears that God has orchestrated this whole selling-moving project and the smooth way that it has all gone makes me think it even more so I will just do the carpe diem thing and know that all will be well. After all isn't it I that keep saying "God is good - all the time"? Yeah.

SHARING SOME THOUGHTS

I looked at the previous post and realized how long it had been since I had written. Well, here I am and I have so much to tell you today. This is Thursday, March 4th, and between today and April 17th I will be making a new life for myself. My house sale is closed. The business part of the sale is completed. Now, for the part of packing up this place, and moving to my beautiful new home. I went by yesterday and as I drove in the complex I got very excited. However, I could not remember where my particular apartment was located. How's that for pitiful? Anyway, I found it, and rode around for a while and came away ready to get busy with the tasks that will be before me.

Last night I went to my Bible Study, "Breaking Free", which I have told you about and I really do feel that it was meant for me to be in this study at this time in my life. I suppose that God knew that I wasn't breaking free very well when I kept having these tearful "come-a-parts" each day as I was thinking about leaving this home that I have loved for so long. It was a lot like my mother and her house and her attachment to that little house on Rudolph Street. I would get so aggravated with her when she would go on and on about her "place" as she called it. When she went to Florida to stay with Ronald every time I called her she would not say "how are you?". She would say "have you been to my place and is everything okay"? I am not that bad but I can, at least, be a little more tolerant with her obsession with her home. A house is a house - it is the people that live there that make it a home and when Billy and Aunt Ree lived here and the children came and the grandchildren came that is what made it great. I'm confident that I will be okay with leaving when the time comes. In the meantime I have so much work to do that it just overwhelms me.

Today my East High Scholarship Committee met to study the 29 applications that we have received from students that are graduating this year from their respective high schools. We looked at each one and paid particular attention to the grades, extracurricular activities, their reasons for wanting the scholarship and the financial need of the family. I just wish we had the money to give an award to each one because each one is deserving. I am so proud to say that my Courtney applied and her credentials are excellent. I will have to excuse myself from the committee when the time comes to give the awards but I do think that Courtney is a good candidate.

I don't do Facebook, and I am probably the only person you know that doesn't, but Kim has a story of her luncheon today with Courtney and Patrick. Being a Senior, Courtney is allowed to leave campus for lunch and Kim and Patrick treated her to a lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I didn't get to go and I hated to miss it but they had a wonderful time. Kim has always thought of Courtney as her daughter because Courtney loves beautiful things, expensive things and all the "girly" things that Kim loves. I'm sure it was a delightful time for all of them. I think that we all want to claim some of Courtney's time because before we turn around twice she will be in her car on her way to Knoxville to enjoy all of the things that the University of Tennessee has to offer. Believe me, she will take advantage of everything!!! I am very proud of Courtney because she is, not only, a good student and athlete she is a lovely Christian woman who loves the Lord and has a wonderful testimony to that fact.

I was privileged last week to go to Greenbrier to see CPA play basketball and get to see Drew coach his team. Also, I got to spend some quality time with Tara, Emma and Ava. That was really a treat. Drew's team lost the game by 4 points and ended their season which made Emma dissolve into tears that only her daddy could stop. She rode back on the bus with him and I thought that was such a precious sight as they went hand in hand to the bus.

Enough of this rambling. If I would write more often I wouldn't write so much. I'm quite sure I will hear that statement from Corinne. I will try to do better, but in the meantime please indulge this tired, old woman as I drone on and on.