What a wonderful evening

I had a wonderful day watching football, and at the Alabama half time a friend's mother who is 90 stopped by to visit. I have a soft spot for little old ladies because I see little girls who are still young at heart. What a wonderful time as I completely blew off the Alabama game which I heard was a great game, but the joy we shared to night was very special.

I found out at five years of age that her mother died and all four of the kids under eight years of age moved in with her maternal grandfather who was 70 and who was a professor, and her father got a job, but the great depression hit, he lost his job, and a year after losing his wife he had four orphaned children. The professor grandfather took the two girls, and an aunt who was younger took the two boys. The grandfather lived long enough to see both granddaughters through nursing school, and the aunt saw both boys become ministers. Family is such an important investment.

She still returns to her high school girlfriends for a breakfast each month where they used to be twenty ladies who are only five now, and she has lost her husband, and most of her friends when her and her husband had retired to Arizona. She has enjoyed her grandchildren and great grandchildren and accepts the aging process which makes her intelligence into almost an elegance of a child who faced great loss as a child, but was determined to live a happy life raising her family and doing her nursing. I would normally have stayed glued to the tv, but what a joyful evening celebrating the human spirit. It did not hurt a bit that the Bulls won and Ohio State won, but I will talk about that in the morning. This evening I celebrate the wonderful little girl who lost her mother at five and has lived a full and happy life.

I enjoyed that story... thank you.

Very nice!

She told the story that during the lead up to world war two she was part of a school group which was rewarded with attendance at a dance in the next town five miles over.   Three girls had been selected and she was about a junior in high school when the girls took the bus over to the next town for the dance.  Her small town had a small college and about three thousand people and a strict law that no black person could be in town after sunset.

Well the local college had a military training program and the personnel stayed in some of the college buildings.  One of those military personnel was a young black man.  I do not entirely understand this because I was under the impression that the military did not have integrated units even in training until later, but apparently some of these soldiers went over to the dance.

Well the girls danced with the soldiers and all three had danced with the black soldier as did other girls at the dance.  One of her three friends who had gone with her had a father who owned the local large factory which employed hundreds of town people.  Well needless to say, the rumors became rampant in the small town, and they held a meeting about the soldiers staying in town.  It was all innocent fun.

When she was called in to explain what had happened, she simply answered them that she is a Christian and that her grandfather who was a respected professor had taught her to treat all people fairly.  The Parent of the other girl still made a stink, but eventually it all passed, and after graduating from high school she went to the same neighboring town and was in nursing school.

This lady is the mother of one of my oldest friends where we met in fifth grade at an order of the arrow induction camping weekend in boy scouts.  Even though we went to different grade schools and junior highs, by high school we were in the same group of friends and he is one of those eight who I play poker with every Sunday of superbowl for the last 40 years.  His mother did a very good job, and so did his great grandfather.