Jewells of Thought

Two weeks of Church Homecomings. It’s a lot of preparation. Last week was my parents church and yesterday was my church at Pleasantville. Both were wonderful days.

We celebrated 205 years yesterday at the Pleasantville Community Church. They split from the Methodist Church due to the growing malfeasance by the Global and domestic church entity. I was looking at the photos from just 5 years ago right before Covid hit. After the celebration we took some family photos just outside the front doors of the church. The last ones with Aunt Carol. It was also the day before Dad had to go up to Indy for another heart procedure because he was in A-Fib again. Funny how I remember those details from a couple of photos.

Dad hasn’t had any of those troubles since his ablation procedures the second one made all the difference. That day though we had to go to bed early, because we had to be up by or before 5 am for his procedure first thing in the morning. Then I had to be the one driving home, because Dad had been put under anesthesia. It was a long 24 hours due to the fact if we heard this once we heard it a million times that he was under such stress it could potentially cause a stroke. So it always unnerved me and Mom.

Yesterday though, was such a beautiful day. Our family came out from Grandma. All but one Aunt was able to come for church. Including my Great-Uncle Jim and his wife which kind of surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. They were there for the 200th Homecoming too. I think I surprised him though as well as some others with my solo. I got a lot of reactions the first time I sang this song and this time more of my family was there to hear it. Plus other people I don’t know as well that my family knows who were there for the Homecoming. I was one of 4 soloists and just as I predicted Tuesday night Dayna’s song made me teary.

We both practiced our songs Tuesday night before the big Bebate. I got to sit with Dayna’s Mom while she was rehearsing with Brenda. When I realized what the song was she was singing I knew that might be a problem for me. “The Goodness Of God” is a tear-jerker for me and so I said uh if I sing after this I will be tearing up while I try to sing. So when I looked at the bulletin yesterday morning, I saw my solo was up first after the first choir songs. I had to smile she had actually taken it seriously, then I was having to finger off my tears when Dayna sat back down beside me and told her and said something like I told you so.

Then Sue Hale got up to sing. She sang a song that brought back some memories of another woman named Carol, another beautiful soprano voice. A woman taken from her family too soon from some illnesses. I actually have some of her music. I need to show Brenda some of them as well. Lastly but not the least Ms. Anjuli with the angelic voice who doesn’t need a microphone sang a beautifully planned out melody of hymn and contemporary songs. Daddy was even asked if he would sing the last two choir songs with us. So Brenda and Grandma were mighty happy because of that. As I said yesterday was a wonderful day musically speaking and for the people the homecoming brought back to the church.

The food was also pretty amazing. My broccoli and cauliflower casserole was pretty much gone. The chicken from Baeslers was delicious. There was a slight problem with the cake though. Brenda told us she went to pick it up and it wasn’t there. They made a snafu. So instead of having 205th Homecoming written on a cake with Happy Birthday to my Grandma, Pastor Adams, and Pastor Dwight the minister since they all have September birthdays she got a gift card to get whatever they already had made for free. They were giving her $40 dollars worth and ended up spending a bit more than that, like $60 something. Anyhow we had a really good time it was quite an experience.

The only let down for me was that my right ankle has been swelling up a bit. I wore a pair of Aunt Carol’s shoes because they matched my blue dress. Once church was over I ditched them and walked barefoot and no one asked me one question about it. I didn’t have to explain it at all I was kind of surprised, but was in awe no one made a stink about it. Maybe it helped that I was one of the singers!