Jo Ann 2/02/1942 - 2/09/2014

My sister - Jo Ann - I am 7 years her senior - when Bob and I married she was only 11...We remained in Covington for just one year - the balance of our life together we lived elsewhere - not close to mother and my two youngest siblings...The two years we were in San Jose, Ca. and the 13 years we lived in Chicago our visits with the family were few and far between... I believe JoAnn was only 15 years old when she married. She and Frank Smith had 7 children...6 boys and finally, the seventh was a girl!!!! Life was certainly not easy for them...they lost two of their children - one a teenager, the other a young adult - about 10 years ago she suffered a major heart attach that damaged over half of her heart and had lived with a disability every since. - Frank's mother was very ill for a long time and they took her into their home and cared for her. - JoAnn endured through many hardships - she endured with optimism and hopefulness..and I'm proud of her. She was always so tiny - most years did not weight 100 lbs..but she was one of the strongest persons that I've known. ..I'm grateful for the time last summer that she came to Alabama and spent a week with me !!! And I'm so thankful that I was able to go to Houston and spend a few days with her at the hospital before she died. When I think of her I will recall her "perkiness" and her forthrightness - and I will smile. She was always completely frank, without hesitation. I will celebrate her life with a toast and be thankful and proud that she was my sister. To her children -I pray that their sadness and great sense of loss will pass and that happy memories of their life together will be what remains. Her family was her life - her joy - what kept her going..now rest in peace little sister..I love you...

Kodak Moments

Kodak Moments My grands and greats....

Party Time at M3maw's and Pops

http://youtu.be/l_brW6Imjv8

All In The Day Of The Life Of......

I now have a new best friend...X A N A X ..

M R I  YESTERDAY AND I SIMPLY CANNOT GET INTO THAT TUBE AND STAY

FOR 30 OR SO MINUETS WITHOUT HAVING A PANIC ATTACH.....been
there, done that.....took 1mg hr. before and knew that wasn't
gonna do it so took another 1 mg. upon arrival...well, I slept
like a baby...after all was said and done Barb had to get 3 yr.
old Caramia, a "drugged me and my wheelchair into her Ford
Flex...I seem to recall a couple of kind people assisted her.
She had errands to run-we were hungry-she drove though a Chic Filet and we
were on our way...I slept and ate simultaneously...several times I was awaked by her lout voice
saying "Mama, Mama...don't go to sleep with food in your mouth
!!! You'll choke!"
Cara and I both continued to sleep in the car while she got some
things done...she was in and out of the car and I never knew
it...'was awake and able to walk by the time we arrived home.

Father and Son

Look Alikes

blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

 Alice Lee Erwin Thurmond Sasser. 1917-2005. Covington, TN

" ....Mrs. Sasser also was a pioneer... a former tax assessor of Tipton County...  first women to be elected to that office in the state... long-term member First United Methodist Church of Covington. .. first woman to serve on the Board of Stewards ..Sunday School teacher many years... . also involved in numerous book clubs and other civic associations.
The joys of Alice Lee's life were her family, her church, her friends, Tipton county and all the children of the world. She never met a young person, of any age, whom she did not love and for whom she did not have time. She touched many lives."

   one of those lives was mine...

 It was the summer of 1945...I was 10 years old...  my father was not the kind of man who could or "would" accept the responsibility of caring for his family...he had someone drive us..mother and  her five small children..from Houston to her  home town, Covington,Tennessee.. my grandmother took us in..520 West Liberty. It was the large, two-story house that my mother had grownup in...but at that time it had been turned into three apartments...2 on the lower level and one upstairs.  The 7 of us  (grandmother, mother and the five children) occupied two rooms and a small kitchen on the upper level)..I think the kitchen had, at one time, been a large closet..the ceiling sloping down on one side. There was a table, of sorts, a bench on the side of the table that had the low, sloping ceiling..(standing was not an option on that side of the room)...and wooden crates (boxes) turned upside down to use to sit on.... one cabinet on a wall and another closed-in area with shelves...Storage space was really not needed for we had nothing...There was an old gas stove for cooking but no running water...we would draw a bucket of water from the bathroom across the large hallway, carry it  to the kitchen to wash dishes in a tin dishpan.. I don't remember how our clothes were washed...maybe in the bathtub..The upstairs bathroom was shared with  tenants who also rented a bedroom and kitchen on the upper floor....an elderly couple....well, not sure how elderly they were...at the time, to me,  anyone over 50 was elderly :).
One of our two bedrooms was "Minnie's room"..She had a bed and dresser, a rocking chair and a card table ...I remember her working puzzles on that table...her only pleasure other than her church. She grew a garden in the back yard and raised chickens for us to eat.She was 70 years old when we moved in with her...what a hardship that must have been...
She was a tiny, frail looking lady but she was anything but frail!!! she lived another 22 years.
The second bedroom that was part of Minnie's apt. was occupied by mother and us five children (ages newborn to 12 yr.) ..there was one bed that the 3 oldest of us slept in..a "roll-away" bed that mother and Nickey (the baby) used for sleeping: a  walk-in type closet that had a cot in it where brother Ed slept.

Picture: the child was my mother..her mother and her grandmother... this is the home mother grew up in and where she and her five children lived for 10 years..

I write about this to show the comparison  between our home and life...and the home and life that was across the street...

Ms Alice Lee lived across the street....

hers was a small modest home...but one filled with "living" ...normal "family" activities.. meals being prepared, laundry being folded, clothes being ironed, her 3 children running in and out, laughter, someone playing on the piano...just the regular routine of "home"...but for me it was a God send.

I spent many hours just sitting watching her do her chores...she talked to me, encouraged me, and comforted me when Bob left for Germany, and she was always...always there for me sharing her life and family.

 a picture taken on one of our trips back to Tn...

Mother did the best that she could under the circumstances and I  certainly admire her as well...but her life at that time and many years to follow was bleak, cheerless, dismal and needy...it's very hard to give any kind of joy to others, even your children, when there is NO joy in our own life.

 Mother   1914 - 1993

 

  

Something New...Vintage Photo Friday

This photo is of my fathers' mother,  Martha Evangeline Bagwell Stallings; the baby in her arms was my father, Edward Verious Stallings  1914-1965, and the little boy is his brother Walter Bryant Stallings... Later there were two additional children born to Martha: Earl Stallings and  Margaret  Stallings Beam.
they resided in North Carolina.

Re: my Uncle Earl:
The Reverend Earl Stallings was an American Baptist minister and activist in the U.S. civil rights movement. Earl Stallings was born March 20, 1916 in Durham, North Carolina. He died when he was 89 in his retirement home in Lakeland, Florida on February 23. 2005.
 The Rev. Earl Stallings was a  prominent Baptist pastor in Birmingham, Ala., who in 1963 risked the rejection of his own white congregation, and worse, by seating African-American worshipers among them at his Easter service and urging reconciliation amid the city's erupting racial antagonism.
Reverend  Stallings was one of eight signers of the open letter "A Call For Unity," which precipitated a critical response from Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Despite this, Stallings was the only clergy whom King praised by name in his letter, given that Stallings had opened the doors of his church to black worshipers. This same action angered members of his white congregation. One of the blacks allowed in was the civil rights leader Andrew Young. As a result of his moderate stance, Stallings became a target of both conservative segregationists and liberal integrationists. Tension over the issue so divided the church that it eventually split over the issue, following Stallings' departure.



Rev. Earl Stallings                                                                              Edward Verious Stalling 1944

 

 

A Message To My Children

a message for my children on this mothers-day eve:

I'm getting older...thank you for having patience with me as I age...

When I repeat myself...thank you for listening anyway..when you were young and wanted something you would sometimes ask over and over
I remember and treasure those memories.

As my body weakens...thank you for not minding that I walk slow,lag behind and slow down your progress... sometimes needing  help from my wheelchair or cane... I remember and treasure the memories of when each of you earned to walk!

Thank you for your assistance in doing all the  "routine" things that I find hard to do for myself..
I can smile as I remember helping you open a bottle or tie your shoes..

I realize that you  understand  I'm alone and lonely most of the time and I'm grateful for how much of your precious-little spare time that you give to me.
For those four of you who live far away...thank you for using your time and resources to see me..it's a long way from Hazel Green, Al. to Dallas and Chicago..

Thank you for my precious grand-and great-grand children..they bring me joy..

As I continually grieve over the loss of your father...thank you for understanding ...each of you suffer the loss of him also.

and when the time comes for me to leave you please don't be too sad...I will be reuniting with the love of my life and I will be with our creator..and I will ask Him to watch over and bless each of you..

because I love you very much.
 



Laura Beth

This little girl is graduating from college;;;

The video is from her high school graduation luncheon that her church honored the graduates with...

Weekend trip to Dallas 4/15/2012 - 4/17/2012

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2012

'Half way through January already...my youngest child has reached 50 !...Barbara will be 55 tomorrow...!!!  and we celebrated my 77th. birthday on the 10th...Laura was here for 3 days!!! What a blessing my children are to me!


The three of us went to a Spirited Art class.  Impressionest art is not my favorite thing but it was very nice being able to do something together.

Laura bought me a new computer desk and file cart..and she even got to assemble it herself .. :)

The file cart had to be shipped from the factory ...it arrived after she went back home so I have the pleasure of putting it together...

work in progress as we speak...

The pieces are very heavy and I have to sit in the floor to do it...so progress has been slow...today for sure, tho..

Family Weekend in the mountains at Gatlinburg

Huntsville-Chattanooga-Knoxville-Gatlinburg...420miles -12people-3 vechiles


FAMILY TIME AT GATLINBURG DEC 2011

Seasons Greetings

daughter Nicki and her Christmas hat...

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Veterans Day

This morning Thomas and I put flags on his PaPa Peete's grave.

Veterans Day Program

Yesterday at Thomas and Coopers school (Lynn Fanning Elementary)  a program was presented honoring veterans.  The students were encouraged to bring a picture of a relative who was, or had been, a veteran.  The pictures were displayed in the hall.  During the program all the names of the vets were called. Each student was given a balloon that was later released. It was a moving experience...I was not the only one who had to dry their eyes.

CaraMia Day

Why God made little girls

God made the world with its towering trees,
majestic mountains and restless seas,
then paused and said, 'It needs one more thing.'
Someone to laugh and dance and sing,
to walk in the woods and gather flowers,
to commune with nature in quiet hours.
So God made little girls
with laughing eyes and bouncing curls,
with joyful hearts, and beautiful smiles,
enchanting ways and feminine wiles.
And when He'd completed the task He'd begun,
he was pleased and proud of the job He'd done.
For the world when seen through a little girl's eyes
greatly resembles paradise.

Morgan Doe

Keeping up the tradition...

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A very special grandmother

Barbara is so good to her grandchildren...in fact, she's so good to everyone..Those four little ones are truly blessed to be part of her.  On what little time she has off from work and taking care of her business ..on her day off ..she takes care of them...all four...and she finds time to do  something special with them.. EVERY week. Last week after taking them to the orchard and then preparing supper for eveyone, (which she does at least one day a week) .. she stayed up 'til midnight making "apple cake pops" ...loaded them in three pretty baskets for the boys to take to school the next day..which happened to be "Johnny Appleseed Day"...
...and I get to make videos with the pictures that she takes...:)

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

I Need You