That Thanksgiving Day twenty years ago is one I will never forget. My mother tells us that God’s grace was with our family that weekend because we did so many things right - not knowing that that Thanksgiving would forever be etched in our memories.
Twenty years ago, RT and I had just moved to Nashville, and we invited my whole family to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us. I’m one of seven siblings - so it was no small event. There were about 25 people staying at our home for three days. My parents and all but one of my siblings, along with their own families, were here. Every bed was full, and we had people sleeping on the floors. We set up a meal schedule and a clean-up schedule.
The three days were packed. Besides all the family Thanksgiving activities, we visited the monthly Flea Market at the state fairgrounds and we attended the Grand Ole Opry. All the grandkids had a great time playing together.
Saturday morning came, my parents said their good-byes and started out of the driveway. My nephew, Andrew, stopped them. He’d just gotten a new camera and wanted to take some pictures. So Mother and Daddy pulled the car back up to the house, came back inside and posed for pictures. Everyone who had a camera took pictures. One photo is of Daddy sitting in a chair with Mother standing behind them, and with grandkids in their arms and clustered around them. When all the shutterbugs were fully satisfied, they left again amidst all the goodbyes and waves. Soon everyone else was also on their way back to their homes. That was Saturday morning.
The next Saturday, it was all over. Daddy died that Wednesday - sudden heart failure. One minute he was eating oatmeal with Mother and chatting about their Christmas plans, and the next minute he was dead. One Friday we were visiting the Flea Market and going to the Grand Ole Opry, and the next Friday we were gathering around his grave, weeping for the loss of our beloved father.
You never know which time will be the last time.
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November 22nd, 2006 at 10:18 am
I see you have a few “sibs” of your own - good looking bunch.
Happy Thanksgiving.
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Our Troops Rock…
UPDATE: November 22, 2006
IÂ’m BAAAACCCCCKKKKKKKKÂ…..
As anyone who every comes by here knows IÂ’ve been out of bandwidth. I let the blog stay down a week and finally broke down and got some more bandwidth….
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Carol, that is such a sweet post. You are right, you never know when it will be your last. I will never forget the last time we saw Jack. We had been at my mother’s sister’s house all together. Mama, Daddy and I left at the same time Jack did. We followed him down the road to a stop light. He was turning left and we were turning right. He threw up his hand and waved and so did we. A few days later we were called to the hospital in Atlanta and seven days later he was gone. We should all treasure each minute we have with our loved ones.
BTW, you are more than welcome to the graphic from my T13. I have been having fun making them.
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:41 am
Thursday Thirteen #3…
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thirteen Things I am Thankful For
1, My Beloved Curmudgeon. In spite of his curmudgeonly ways (seriously!), he is a good man who I know would do anything for me.
2. All of my wonderful children. My Soldier Son, my Dear Daughter, …
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:59 am
It is hard to believe it has been twenty years since that Thanksgiving. How I miss Daddy! There are not many days that I do not think of something I wish I could tell him, or show him.
We talked about that Thanksgiving yesterday and Andrew commented that he had read your blog and hadn’t remembered that he was the one who asked Daddy to come back for photos. Andrew wanted some photos to enter in a PTA photo contest, the them of which was “Young and Old.” I now don’t remember if he even entered the photos. Surely if he had won something, I would remember? Maybe.
See you later today.