Love, Lucy

Dear Pollywogs,

   On Friday afternoon, July 17, our sweet, sweet Lucy left for Doggy Heaven. Rachel was holding her in her arms, sitting in the shade in the back yard, and petting her gently. She told Lucy that her family understood she was not well and needed to go where she could run and play. Lucy thought about this for a few moments and then let go. We will miss her terribly but can laugh when we remember all the great times we shared with her over the past 14 years.

   A few weeks ago, Lucy asked me to help her write a letter to you. Leighton was teaching her to read, but she was having trouble with writing. None of the pencils quite fit her doggy paws. She loved all of you and wanted to say goodbye.

To my eight Pollywogs and assorted family members,

  

   Fourteen years ago, I was born in Opp, Alabama. I didn’t start out as an only dog but soon became the only dog for a family who needed me. They didn’t know it at the time, but I would bring joy, laughter, and unconditional love to them, their children, and their grandchildren. They were lucky to have me.

  

   Now it is time to say goodbye. I’ve lived longer, traveled farther, eaten more junk food, partied more often, and worn more costumes than most fur friends. Life has been good.

   

   Well, except for the time Rachel drove me through the car wash.

   

   Pollywogs, I’m going to miss so many things. Your birthday parties and especially the cake. Wynn plastering me with band-aids. Wearing costumes for Halloween. Starring in Anna Lauren’s and Leighton’s Christmas cards. Sharing your secrets.

    

   I loved riding on the front of the boat while my curly-haired ears blew in the breeze and going to restaurants on the lake where everyone wanted to love on me.

   

   My favorite fun time was chasing little Pollywogs for treats. Oh, how I loved the cookies, cereal, and crackers! And Tyler, yes, I do remember the time you opened my jaws to pull out your cookie. I couldn’t believe you actually ate the gooey thing.

   

   I won’t miss any of you sitting on me.

   

   I’ve chased squirrels and ducks, birds and geese, cats and dogs, lizards and frogs. I still don’t understand why I never caught anything but a wasp that left his stinger in my mouth. Once a cat scratched my eye for no reason.

   

   Of course, there have been a few unfortunate incidences. I’ve stepped on all kinds of things as well as stepped in all kinds of things.

   

   A word of warning, if you roll in deer poo, you have to get a bath. If you swim in Lake Lanier, you have to get a bath. If you scratch your back on the gravel, you have to get a bath. If you run away from home because you’re scared of the fireworks and step in a vat of sap, you have to get a bath. If you have the itch, you have to get a bath. A small fortune has been spent on shampoo.

   

   BJ, I am sorry that my small, inconspicuous lump exploded during your Christmas party. Thanks for not making me clean up the mess. It was AWFUL!

   

   And while I am apologizing, I suppose I should tell Rachel I’m sorry my snoring kept her up nights.   

   

   Jennifer, I didn’t really think you looked like a bird. Jeremy, I’m sorry I jumped on you every time you came over, but I wanted to lick your face.

   

   Evan, Krissy, Keegan, and Aiden, I know I never came for a visit, but I didn’t want to ride in a crate in the cargo section of the plane. Brrrrrr! And scary!!!

    

   Uncle Ted, thank you for not screaming like a little girl when you woke up starring at my nostrils.       

   

   Aunt Shelley, I didn’t know all those ticks were stuck to my fur when I climbed up on your bed. Oops!

   

   I must apologize to everyone for wiping my drool on you and the unsightly eye boogers. At least my freckles were cute.

   

   When I get to Heaven, I’ll spend the first few days finding my old friends: Darby, Lou, Chunk, and Rigsby.  When I see Darby, my very best friend, I’ll give her wet kisses from Bryan and Shelley. Surely, she’s got those legs all going in the same direction by now.

   

   Lou may be difficult to find. He’s probably waiting for BJ somewhere in Colorado, sitting in the back seat of a Jeep. I’ve never been out west, but I guess I can give it a go. Lou will be glad to know I’m older and don’t really want to play much anymore.

   

   Rachel, I’ve heard that the food in Heaven is really healthy, so Chunk may have lost weight. Don’t worry. I’ll just look for a beautiful white cat with a big notch in his ear. I’ll lie when I tell Chunk how good Al has been and how much he misses him.

  

 I’ll get around to Rigsby when I finally have time. Anna Lauren, I’m sure he’s just fine, but you know how much he likes to hide.

   

I know Gran isn’t in Doggy Heaven, but I bet he comes over every now and then to visit Bounce and Charlie. He probably has some kind of regular visitation schedule worked out with them. Maybe he’ll take us to Piccadilly. I hope he’s learned his lesson about sausage by now.

   

I wish I had the time to watch all of you grow up. It will be quite an incredible journey for each of you. Bryan will create costumes for Indiana Jones movies; Tyler will perform soccer tricks in Placa Reial; Anna Lauren will be a world-famous story teller; Keegan’s singing career will take her to Broadway; Wynn will be creating cartoons for Disney; Aiden will own a tractor factory; Leighton will start a company to teach shy girls how to be assertive; and Blakely, I wish we had had more time together.

   

My life was magical. My family made it so.

Love,

Lucy 

     

Silver Dimes

Silver Dimes

From Stuff with Stories

   As the familiar music signaled the start of the processional, Couple 14 quickly stepped to the back of the line. Families and friends twisted in their seats as each pair triumphantly made their way down the aisle. This was no ordinary wedding, and these were no ordinary couples.

   For ten years, each couple celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary with the other thirteen. On this night, 400 years of marital bliss took center stage at Holmes Street United Methodist Church in Huntsville, AL.

   Huntsville had been a traditional, sleepy Southern town until German scientists arrived after WWII to jump start the country’s space program. Overnight, Huntsville became something of a metropolitan mix and embraced its place in history.

   Holmes Street’s Fellowship Sunday School class reflected Huntsville’s new normal. It was an eclectic mix of several groups: church members from childhood (my mother), those who moved to town after WWII to escape the farm (my dad), and those with ties to Redstone Arsenal and NASA. Where they started didn’t matter nearly as much as where they finished—as members of a Sunday School class eagerly celebrating life.

   I played the piano as my dear friend, Linda Bailey, beautifully sang the customary wedding songs. We then took our seats to watch our parents and their friends stand, once again, before God and renew their vows.

   At the reception, my parents received the group’s usual gift of twenty-five silver dimes arranged as 25 in a silver frame. This would become a sweet and tender remembrance in later years.

   When Tim and I celebrated our twenty fifth anniversary years later, my dad framed 25 dimes from his silver coin collection. Mother died years earlier, leaving Daddy to love her “Always”.

   Today, Ted and Shelley are celebrating their 25^th anniversary. And what did Tim and I give them? Twenty-five silver dimes first framed in 1972 and given to Couple 14 by their beloved friends.

July 23, 2019

  Two Little Girls 

  Sailing on the

  Disney Fantasy

  Two little girls, cousins and friends,

  Can’t wait ‘til the magic begins.

  Hidden Mickeys and Napkin Hats!

  In the atrium, they’ll find bats.

  Ride the waves or dig in the sand,

  Castaway Cay will be quite grand.

  Giggle and wiggle, twirl around,

  Lots of Princesses can be found.

  Mickey and Minnie are the stars

  But the daily rule--Mickey Bars.

  Scary, spooky, this Disney cruise

  For little girls who never snooze.

  The Pumpkin Tree and Mousequerade,

  Halloween memories to be made.

Christmas at the Lake

By

Anna Lauren Lull

‘Twas the night before Christmas Eve

And all thru the place,

Not a person was stirring

Not a single face.

The dogs were asleep,

Snoring, Oh, quite loudly.

Everyone was asleep,

Dreaming, Oh, quite gladly.

Grammy and Papa

Were snug in their bed,

While we ran downstairs

With a tired head.

We waited and waited

For Santa to arrive.

He didn’t,

So we started to cry.

Then we realized

It was Christmas Eve.

I guess we have to wait

Another night to see!

Experiencing Christmas

Woolen socks warmed the feet of the WWII soldier stationed in Kodiak Island, Alaska and, later, served as his children’s Christmas stockings. Each year oranges filled the toes beneath new underwear and socks. Nuts scattered among the empty spaces.The small Christmas tree, cut with a hatchet at the family farm, provided a cover for gifts and a backdrop for ornaments. In the South, no one dreamed of a white Christmas, but everyone knew all the verses to all the carols. Christmas was simply magical for my brother and me.

Where do we find Christmas today? Volunteering for the live manger scene at your church. Visiting Aunt Sarah on Christmas morning, because she loved you so when you were young. Baking cookies for the school’s lunchroom ladies. Slipping into the back of a church in Salzburg where Silent Night was first performed and listening reverently as it is played once again. Hanging the family pets’ ornaments on the tree with your grandchildren. Reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to children too excited to sleep. Tiptoeing to your parents’ bedroom to whisper “Thanks” as soon as Santa goes up the chimney. Getting a puppy on Christmas Eve. Sending a Christmas card with a “real” family photo.

Christmas isn’t found on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. It was never meant to leave us broke, haggard, exhausted, or disappointed. Christmas is that once-a-year time when we have permission to seek the very best of ourselves and others. Where do we look? Christmas is waiting amid the season’s simply magical experiences.

With love from our family,

      Gay and Tim

      Jeremy, Jennifer, Anna Lauren (10) and Leighton (5)

      Evan, Krissy, Keegan (16) and Aiden (5)

      Rachel, BJ, Tyler (12), Wynn (6) and Blakely (3)

      Ted, Shelley and Bryan (13)

Veterans’ Day

Like other men of the Greatest Generation, my dad was an ordinary man who never understood that he did an extraordinary thing.  

After enlisting in the Alabama National Guard, he was sent to Alaska, never before having even been outside Madison County. He slept in a tent surrounded by snow until barracks could be built. He spent three years on Kodiak Island before going to France for another year of service. As a medic, he tended to German prisoners of war as well as Allied soldiers. When he finally returned home, he seldom spoke of the war, preferring to let the memories bury themselves. At the end of his life, he spoke of little else.

Daddy wasn’t an anomaly. He was a poor farm boy from Alabama and an American patriot. His idea of protesting the injustice of Nazi Germany and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was to do what he could to make things right. He was not alone. American Veterans have for decades been the guardians of the world, an often thankless task both at home and abroad.

Veterans have ensured every American’s right to protest, but protest alone and without positive action is futile.  Whether it is refusing to stand for the national anthem or screaming at the sky, protest as a single act accomplishes little. The valor comes in the hard work that renders the protest no longer necessary.

Will today’s protester, upon reaching the end of life, realize that change required donating the millions to a worthwhile cause, working with principled organizations, or joining the military to protect everyone’s rights? Realization followed by regret? Perhaps then would be the time to scream at the sky.

Traveling—

The Easy Way or the Hard Way

Dear Leighton,

Thank you for joining our Canada trip. I truly admire your determination to get yourself on the trip at the eleventh hour. When you threatened Bryan with “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” I didn’t realize the warning extended to the rest of us. Nevertheless, everyone loved your last-minute surprise that enabled us to hone our mountain-moving and hoop-jumping skills.

Papa and I were at dinner with Uncle Ted and Aunt Shelley when we learned the news. Bryan and Tyler were almost as surprised as we were. I returned to the airport hotel to call Delta about a ticket for you and was still on hold with them two hours later when you finally arrived.

Upon reflection, your dad dodged a bullet (figuratively and perhaps literally) when he knocked on the guestroom door at the wrong hotel.  Luckily, the man who answered at 10 pm wasn’t armed.  Your dad really should pay more attention to my texts.

Speaking of your dad, I doubt he even remembers that he had already paid for a seat on the 7:30 am flight to Boston and had to spend your college fund for those ridiculously expensive last-minute tickets.  I’m sure he didn’t mind sprinting to every gate in the Atlanta Airport for 12-hours trying to fly standby. What a bonding experience the two of you had in that Delta Lounge! And the picture of you asleep in your lunch plate was just too cute.

I regret that you didn’t get to Boston in time to join us at the Union Oyster House. It is a famous old seafood restaurant, and your sister ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. By the way, you would have loved walking through the globe at the Mary Baker Eddy Library. Someone will probably take you back to Boston one day.

You were very mature when you learned Anna Lauren was going to the Paul Revere House, and you had to go to the USS Constitution with me. Of course, most 5-year-olds don’t know who Paul Revere is. Or the horse he rode in on.

Your behavior on the cruise couldn’t have been better. I do, however, apologize for Uncle Ted. Other cruise ships allow shorts in the main dining room on embarkation day. Your dad’s salmon would have tasted better had it been served during in the first hour we were in the dining room, but you were finished with your kids’ meal by the time the two of you left for the buffet.

I’m glad you enjoyed the ventriloquist show. I had no idea dummies wanted to be called “Mannequin-Americans”. I learn something new every day.

Did you notice that you didn’t really get a headache when I made you to go the kids’ club?

Those two girls who sat next to you on the back seat of Ollie’s Trolley in Bar Harbor were just plain rude. No one should pay good money for a tour and then talk over the guide. I was pleased and relieved that you didn’t offer them the easy way or the hard way.

The picture of you next to the Big Fiddle in Sydney, Nova Scotia turned out quite well.

As for an update on Papa, swallowing the hearing aid battery instead of the sea sickness pill hasn’t produced any harmful symptoms. I’m not sure if it was more embarrassing than getting himself locked in the bathroom of the gelato shop in Malaga, Spain, but you could ask him.

Thank you for following, and exceeding, our one rule of cruising. Eating ice cream every day.

I  wanted all the kids to see Quebec City. We would have been on time to meet Duncan, the tour guide, if only I’d realized that the funicular was so close by. The walk to the summit was a killer. Uncle Ted was just to about to forgive me for the three-hour jungle hike last summer. Maybe next year.

I’m glad you enjoyed Niagara Falls even though you were too young to ride the zipline with Bryan, Tyler, and Anna Lauren. Thank Aunt Shelley for the trip to Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I went because I felt guilty sending her by herself with so many kids. Those nightmares you are experiencing after seeing the shrunken heads, the three-legged man, and the woman with the discs in her lips should subside soon.

And while you are at it, thank Aunt Shelley for that bubble bath. We were all praying that she would be able to find you under there. Fortunately, her hair calmed down and no longer looks like a bad perm.

Also, thank Tyler for the piggy-back rides and Bryan for cooperating during big-brother week. The boys decided to take the easy way.

Leighton Belle, you are one of a kind.