Going Home
I leave in the morning to return to Kentucky to visit my elderly parents. My mom will turn 91 at the end of July. Dad will be 93 in September. Mom just recently spent over a week in the hospital and was finally diagnosed with colitis. She told me this evening Dad is getting "tottery." Dad gave up his hay crop this summer and put his hay equipment up for sale. He still preaches every Sunday morning. Mom drives him the 45-minute drive to the little country church. Hatler's Chapel Church of Christ near Dresden TN, when 90% of the membership is related. They are country folks, with hearts of gold. They keep my parents supplied with ham and sausage, and with fresh vegetables in the summer. Not that my parents need vegetables in the summer, as they still plant their own garden. And Dad still cuts down trees and splits his own firewood. It's getting harder for him to carry the wood to the basement of his house, so he gets some help with that. They heat their log house mostly with a wood stove located in the basement. It works VERY well.
Dad will get up early in the morning and turn on the radio to catch the local news. He'll turn the volume up very high, because he can't hear, even with the hearing aid (even when he puts it in his ear!). I'll catch the time from one of the several grandfather clocks that will chime, one after the other. No matter what time I get up, he will think I have slept half the day away. Mom will at some point make home-made rolls. She still makes the best rolls I have ever tasted. She's famous for those. Those and her home-made donuts. When my daughter gets there, they'll make donuts together. We may get some fresh strawberries and have some of the family out for homemade ice cream. Our family is known for that.
I have a few friends I don't get to see often enough that I will visit with and we'll catch up on each other's lives, and rehash old times.
It will be a time of refreshing for me. And a time of sadness. One of my uncles died recently. He won't be there. An aunt doesn't have much longer. A cousin isn't well. And I never know now if this visit will be the last one with my parents.
The house is not one I ever lived in. But it is still home, because it's where my parents are. The town nearby is where I lived for 12 years, where my grandparents (on both sides) lived for many years, where my daughter was born, and where many of my ancestors lived and are buried. My husband says I'm related to half the county - and he's not far from right. My mom and dad both graduated from high school in that county. Their parents are buried there. Their siblings live there, or are buried there. It's home. There's only one place better.
John 14:1-6: "Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many homes. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also. Where I go, you know, and you know the way." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
June 9, 2006
Dad will get up early in the morning and turn on the radio to catch the local news. He'll turn the volume up very high, because he can't hear, even with the hearing aid (even when he puts it in his ear!). I'll catch the time from one of the several grandfather clocks that will chime, one after the other. No matter what time I get up, he will think I have slept half the day away. Mom will at some point make home-made rolls. She still makes the best rolls I have ever tasted. She's famous for those. Those and her home-made donuts. When my daughter gets there, they'll make donuts together. We may get some fresh strawberries and have some of the family out for homemade ice cream. Our family is known for that.
I have a few friends I don't get to see often enough that I will visit with and we'll catch up on each other's lives, and rehash old times.
It will be a time of refreshing for me. And a time of sadness. One of my uncles died recently. He won't be there. An aunt doesn't have much longer. A cousin isn't well. And I never know now if this visit will be the last one with my parents.
The house is not one I ever lived in. But it is still home, because it's where my parents are. The town nearby is where I lived for 12 years, where my grandparents (on both sides) lived for many years, where my daughter was born, and where many of my ancestors lived and are buried. My husband says I'm related to half the county - and he's not far from right. My mom and dad both graduated from high school in that county. Their parents are buried there. Their siblings live there, or are buried there. It's home. There's only one place better.
John 14:1-6: "Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many homes. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also. Where I go, you know, and you know the way." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
June 9, 2006
posted by pawatson at
6/09/2006 08:51:00 PM
