Charles Columbus Shaw- May 21, 1919- Dec 3, 1986

IN LOVING MEMORY Charles Columbus Shaw- (May 21, 1919- Dec 3, 1986,) The photo to the right ( below )shows Charles as a four year old standing in front of his Dad, Grady Columbus Shaw His 15 months younger brother James Edward is standing in front of their mother Lillian Wilkerson Shaw.

The photo on the left is Charles at 18, just a year before he and I were married on August 5, 1938. I was three and a half years younger than he.

I thought it might be a good way to honor Charles today by following the lead of my daughter Joan in her Daddy's Roses Blog a few years ago. Joan helped me set up the Ruthlace Blog moniker back in 2005 and is a computer whiz as well as the the family expert in all thing English and Spanish.

Several years ago on Daddys' Roses, Joan wrote a great post , citing 13 differences in her and her DH. (Darling Husband). In honor of my Husband;s birthday, here is aare mine again:

1…. Movies. Charles loved movies, especially the old cowboy movies. I am not much of a movie fan. I have seen probably less than a half a dozen in a theater in the last 20 years and not many more on Television.

2.... Seafood. Charles and I both liked sea food. We both grew up eating fish caught fresh from the Yellow River.

3.... Sunday School. Like many pastors, he was not a regular in one Sunday School Class. I enjoyed very much being a part of a Sunday School Class from childhood on and have taught classes in all the churches where DH was pastor.

4.... Pets. Neither of us had much time for pets. We did have Hercules, a chihuahua when the children were small and later a German Shepherd who "followed David home" from school. David named the big dog "Rex" (the name of his Dad's childhood dog) as soon as they arrived home. Rex loved to swim in the large lake in the neighborhood in East Point.

5.... Vacation Spots. We both enjoyed camping and family gatherings. Charles also loved fishing and hunting and once caught an 18 inch Brown Trout in an Ellijay mountain stream much to the delight of our children and some of the neighbor children who were splashing in the water. He had the fish mounted by Rev. Bob Cagle, who had answered the call to preach and as a student and member of our UMC in Ellijay.

6.... Temperature. I am the cold-natured one who now wears long sleeves even in the Summer. This may be an old age thing.

7.... Time of Day. He was a night owl; I am an early bird. When he was in Seminary at Candler, he would stay up all night writing papers or studying for an exam. On the other hand, I went to Seminary after his death and would go to bed early and get up at 4 to write any paper that required creativity.

8.... Food. We both throughly enjoyed a dinner of fresh turnip greens and cornbread with a glass of buttermilk as a complete meal after all our children were out of the nest. A meal with dried beans cooked from scratch as the main course was also a welcomed meal to both of us. We failed in passing along the love of fresh greens and those wonderful dried beans protein source to our children?

9.... Family of Origin. I am the youngest of nine and the only one still living. Charles was the oldest of five boys. The last of his four brothers died in Janurary of this year at age 85. My father died when I was 9 but Charles and I both had strong family ties with parents and siblings.

10.... TV Shows. He enjoyed the old cowboy and war movies or shows like Gunsmoke and M.A.S.H. I prefer a situation comedy like Designing Women or Mattlock. . In recent years, I have lost interst in most of the TV offerings.

11.... Health. He had serious hearing and ear problem from World War II experiences. His first heart attack and by -pass surgery was at age 59 and his final one at age 67. Most of my health issues, except for painful TriGeminal neuralgia episodes from 1990 on have been after age 82.

12.... Religion. Both of us very serious, some might say "overly serious" Christians.

13.... Blog. I enjoy all forms of writing and still write as I live! I doubt that he would have gotten into blogging as he left much of the family writing (Christmas letters etc.) up to me. He was an outgoing and charismatic extrovert. I am more introverted. He would sometimes have me edit pastoral reports and letters while he made sick calls. However he read widely books of Theology and the Bible , was good in New Testament Greek , was gifted in Biblical preaching.