Back in School

I feel like I have accomplished something every year when we get the first full week of school behind us. The weeks leading up to the start of school in my job is a lot like the Christmas shopping season for a retailer or tax season for a CPA. The same can be said for Vicki as she gears up for the regular “school year” activities at church. Now, hopefully, life can find its normal rhythm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. My 48th birthday rolled around back on Wednesday. My birthday dinner was originally planned for Friday night, but, as you’ll read below, it wound up getting pushed back to yesterday evening. Vicki and Jenna got their heads together and planned what was practically a Thanksgiving style feast! We were as full as ticks and too miserable to move now.

GOODBYE DAVID LEE. I have lost another first cousin. David Lee Thompson passed away at his home a little before 7:30 pm on Wednesday (my birthday). He was 84. I say I “lost another” because David’s sister, Marijo, passed away eight years ago.

You can find David’s obituary here.

David suffered from kidney failure. His wife, Betty Jo (Tuttie), called me back on July 13 (it was the Sunday afternoon before VBS started) to let me know David was on Hospice care. I got to visit him about a week or so ago. David didn’t feel like talking much, but he did retell a few old stories, like the time our great grandmother met Frank and Jesse James.

David spent a lot of his time as a boy at our grandparents’ home. He would always refer to Mr. Caner and Mrs. Jo Ella as “Father” and “Mama” just like our aunts and uncles did. He and Betty Jo lived in my house when they were first married. Their daughter, Emaly, was born while they were living here. Soon after that they moved to Nashville where David wound up becoming a police officer for Metro. He was a detective by the time he retired 31 years later. He then served as Chief Deputy for Robertson County before retiring again, this time to farming.

When he and Betty Jo left Nashville they restored an old tenant farmer’s house on Baggett Road. They had a wonderfully large yard with a creek running through it and would host the best Easter Egg hunts for the family. We also enjoyed many pleasant evenings playing croquet with them by the creek.

I really enjoyed my visits with them as they are both delightful people. I have one of those visits on video tape. It was May 8, 1989, and they consented to my filming and they reminisced about life. The interview lasted about 90 minutes. The tape is full of all sorts of stories about life around Mamma and Father’s house as well as other family anecdotes. This visit and a Reader’s Digest article inspired me to interview other relatives and eventually edit the best stories into a documentary film that I gave to the family one Christmas (1993, I think).

We have no way of knowing what the afterlife is like, but I like to imagine that David is now reminiscing with the folks in heaven about those of us who are still here on earth, catching them up on all that has been going on here. He would be a good one for that.

Joe