Nothing Like Family

We have had another busy day in Greenville.  Of course, busy is relative, depending on your age.  My mother is 87 and moves very slowly and tires quickly.  Perhaps I should say we had a full day since it took all day to get a few things done.  It’s all fun, though, and the longer it takes the more we get to enjoy it.

We woke up to rain this morning.  It wasn’t a surprise since rain has been in the forecast for several days.  It was actually the rain that prompted us to go for our walk about downtown yesterday.

My mom and her younger brother, Carl

Not wanting to be out in the messy weather, we stayed inside and spent the time visiting, catching up with what’s been going on with each other, and telling stories and tall tales of childhood and past adventures.

Our time here is up and we’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.  We’ve had a good visit with my uncle.  He’s 84 himself, but still quite active.  He’s been living in the Greenville area for over 50 years and has been a real asset to the community.  He is a retired psychologist and has preached for many of the area Churches of Christ since his graduation from Lipscomb back in the dark ages.

He has also been very active with several mission groups, primarily Health Talents International and Olive Branch Ministries.  Both of these groups are similar to Doctors without Borders in that they provide health services for poor communities in various countries.  Now that he’s retired, it’s hard to keep up with him.  It seems like he’s always out of the country somewhere doing good for others.  He’s leaving Saturday for a week or so in Peru.

This is the man who actually got me into hiking.  I came over to Greenville in the early 1980s for a weekend.  He took me, along with his dog, Spook, to Table Rock in Pisgah National Forest.  After hiking up and having our lunch of pimento cheese sandwiches, which Spook had sat on in the car and squished the cheese out around the edges, we headed back to the car.  Carl has always been one for a shortcut.  He found what looked like a quicker route to the car and stepped off the trail; I followed.  It wasn’t long before I fell down and slid what seemed like most of the way down the mountain.  Spook was more fond of riding than walking, so he jumped in my lap and down and down we went.  To this day, I keep my feet firmly planted in the trail.

Ahh, the family memories--there’s nothing quite like them.  Speaking of family, I’m missing Gene, so I’ll be glad to be heading home tomorrow.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.