Joan is second of our seven children born to my husband and me while I was still in my teens and he only 4 years older. I had a lot to learn. But no parents of any age could have welcomed a more beautiful baby into the world nor cherished a child more.
Words and /or pictures are inadequate to tell how much each of our children fills my heart to overflow with love and how much Joan has a special place in my heart as she did in her Daddy's heart. She calls her blog, Daddy's Roses. There are all kinds of stories to tell about Joan as a child and as such an beautiful and outstanding adult.
Joan was a rising senior in High School when we uprooted her from Griffin High School, a small city school where her friends, including a “boy friend” lived. We moved to Ellijay, a small mountain town in North Georgia. If you have ever had to move a teen away from friends you know Joan was not a happy camper.
Ellijay was a town we had never heard of in 1958 when my husband, an ordained Itinerant Elder in the Methodist Church was sent to pastor a church there. The word, “itinerant“ in the Methodist Church then as now means “traveling” and pastors then even more than now were ask to “travel” to any place where the Bishop and Cabinet thought would best serve the overall church. Without much notice, but with committment to Christ and the church we were assigned to The Church in Ellijay.
As an aside, an old friend from Charles home town was a quaint never married nurse who was the epitomy of the Hollywood stereotype of “Old Maid. When our wonderful "Miss Weaver" heard we were moving to Ellijay she remarked, “I've heard they sure mash a lot of corn up there.”
The Annual North Georgia Conference moving day was a "fruit basket turn over" day. One pastor family moved out of a Methodist Parsonage and another moved in, sometimes just minutes apart. So with our moving van (actually a truck) following, we were finally on our way to a town we had never seen.
We had lived in Griffin four happy years so we had a week of sad good byes and “ going away parties” and packing and cleaning. Moving out of a parsonage and getting it ready for another family to move in immediately is work, work, work!
Words and /or pictures are inadequate to tell how much each of our children fills my heart to overflow with love and how much Joan has a special place in my heart as she did in her Daddy's heart. She calls her blog, Daddy's Roses. There are all kinds of stories to tell about Joan as a child and as such an beautiful and outstanding adult.
Joan was a rising senior in High School when we uprooted her from Griffin High School, a small city school where her friends, including a “boy friend” lived. We moved to Ellijay, a small mountain town in North Georgia. If you have ever had to move a teen away from friends you know Joan was not a happy camper.Ellijay was a town we had never heard of in 1958 when my husband, an ordained Itinerant Elder in the Methodist Church was sent to pastor a church there. The word, “itinerant“ in the Methodist Church then as now means “traveling” and pastors then even more than now were ask to “travel” to any place where the Bishop and Cabinet thought would best serve the overall church. Without much notice, but with committment to Christ and the church we were assigned to The Church in Ellijay.
As an aside, an old friend from Charles home town was a quaint never married nurse who was the epitomy of the Hollywood stereotype of “Old Maid. When our wonderful "Miss Weaver" heard we were moving to Ellijay she remarked, “I've heard they sure mash a lot of corn up there.”The Annual North Georgia Conference moving day was a "fruit basket turn over" day. One pastor family moved out of a Methodist Parsonage and another moved in, sometimes just minutes apart. So with our moving van (actually a truck) following, we were finally on our way to a town we had never seen.
We had lived in Griffin four happy years so we had a week of sad good byes and “ going away parties” and packing and cleaning. Moving out of a parsonage and getting it ready for another family to move in immediately is work, work, work!
So Charles and I, committed to the Itinerancy, were happy to finally be on our way. The younger children were excited about “moving to the mountains and kept saying things like, “Mama, are those our mountains” as we drove nearer and nearer to a place which did finally become "our mountains and our home town."
Finally we got to the Ellijay city limits. Charles, in his own exuberant way said, “The population of Ellijay has now increased by nine.“ Joan, who had been very quiet finally spoke, “It has probably doubled.”
But Joan adjusted great to her last year of High School there, was elected treasurer of her Senior Class and even had the fun being on the Homecoming Court and a cheer leader for Gilmer High. She , along with all of us made life long friends with some of the finest people this world ever produced.
Finally we got to the Ellijay city limits. Charles, in his own exuberant way said, “The population of Ellijay has now increased by nine.“ Joan, who had been very quiet finally spoke, “It has probably doubled.”But Joan adjusted great to her last year of High School there, was elected treasurer of her Senior Class and even had the fun being on the Homecoming Court and a cheer leader for Gilmer High. She , along with all of us made life long friends with some of the finest people this world ever produced.
1 comment:
Happy, Happy birthday to Joan. She is a very special person and I am proud to call her cuz!
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