I found them! As mentioned in the posting below, I was in search of photos of Timmy with Rachel H., who, with her mom, is making a pilgrimage to visit Timmy's gravesite. As you can see, this was taken on Christmas Eve, 1996. He seems to be enjoying the telephone, much like his mama! The next morning we flew to WI to celebrate with our families.
This is the two of them a few years later at Vacation Bible School. Cropped from this photo are June Hanvey and Julie Harris, the leaders for this age group.It was just on the news, a reporter comparing the trial downstate as being like 'a reality show, like "Jersey Shore"'. That is just great, a wonderful reflection once more on this state. Why must all the weird stuff happen here, and the tragic stuff, too? I guess 'all' might be an overstatement but still...I wonder if the murder trial of the man who is accused of killing the little girl from Orange Park will receive the same media scrutiny.
Last night I got the most moving phone call from my friend, Judy H., who used to go to church at GS. Her daughter and she are in town for a brief visit, Rachel now being a licensed driver to help with the driving. The younger daughter, Maddie, "Miss Independent" is at Bible camp this week, freeing Judy and Rachel for a road trip. They moved several years ago to TN where Dale works for a marina and I have not seen them since they left here. Rachel, according to Judy, wants desperately to put some flowers at her friend, Timmy's, grave so we are meeting there in order for her to do this. Judy informed me that Rachel insisted on stopping there one of the first stops when they pulled into town and wants to go back once more before they leave.
I got so choked up, not only hearing Judy's voice again but the suggestion for the meeting place. I keep up with them via Facebook but to actually touch them once more will be fantastic. Rachel told me on one occasion that she thinks about Timmy every day, which is hard to believe, but now, I think I do. According to Judy, she has periodic episodes where she weeps about her lost friend...I have somewhere a photo of Rachel and Timmy as toddlers, Rachel being about a year older than him, but I cannot lay my hands on it right now. Worthy of a search though!
One memory I have of Rachel is quite special to me: at the funeral, we had a viewing before the service began. I was seated on a stool, sort of a high one because my surgery site was quite tender and it hurt to bend and stretch. When Judy and family came up, Rachel walked over to me and just buried her face in my lap, crying. And she stayed there and stayed there. She was not hysterical, just crying. Judy looked at me to see if she should come to take her away, and I signaled it was okay, let her cry. How hard that must have been for Rachel, and for her mama to see her so heartbroken.
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Okay, let's change topics: Tuesday I had a 'conversation' with my upstairs neighbor via FB regarding a posting he had made that I knew the answer to. He was introducing the topic of the first 'depression' in the 1920's and I knew the reason why it was not in the history books. (If you do not remember or never heard, the Administration at the time decreased gov't. spending dramatically, reduced taxation, and prevented the economy from going into/staying in, the tank) I asked him if he had read a certain book and invited him to browse my collection. Randy sent me a message, "Put your clothes on, I'm coming down" which made me laugh.
He is a Marine (no such thing as former or retired Marines) who works in computers at the base. For some reason he has been around during the day since I got back from WI, not sure why. Anyway, Randy is quite blunt and rather talks like a Marine, and did so during his visit to my home. One of the first things he did was look at my curio cabinet to see "what kinda crap you collect..." and I explained, emphasis added, that the 'crap' was clay pieces my kids made in school. Many of the angels were gifts to me after my son died so after I mentioned that, he dialed back a bit.
He is a wealth of historical knowledge and as I described him to Justin, Randy is the Marine version of David Barton. If anyone has heard the historian, Barton, expound, you know how he can simply blow you away with information that rolls off his tongue. Wow! Randy told me so much stuff that my head was spinning trying to absorb it all, things I probably should have known about but either forgot or never learned. Cortez and his occupation of Mexico; another explorer who walked across North America from Pensacola to the baja of CA; a story about the Trojan war, and so on. Wow again!
He is funny as well as being abrupt. One example was last fall, he came to the table on the sundeck bearing cheese, crackers, and grapes, declaring to the wine drinkers "y'all are heathens!' for drinking wine without food. That just made me laugh, calling them heathens because they did not wish to ruin their dinners. He loves to cook and loves to entertain, and he certainly does entertain! As I walked him out, he was showing me photos of his grandchildren and his son's family. I told him my ears had taken quite an assault in his visit with me, but am not sure he knew exactly what I meant. My brain did too, with all the history he poured out on me, mixed with what he calls 'horse#&*$!
