Chapel of Hope Stories

It could not have been a better day to go to the movies… rainy, windy outside… while inside … we were all totally engrossed in the talents and magic of Willie Wonka. ( that actor is amazing ! ) He follows a legend of famous actors who came before him in this role but I think Timothee Chalamet might have just put a whole new wonderful spin on the character.

When not watching the movie with family at the Citadel Mall or eating supper with Tommy and Kaitlyn at Waffle House… I loved the interval hours… just watching more old Christmas movies… can’t get enough!

And the nice staff here is making time for fun too!

The small intervals of time yesterday gave me just enough quiet time to thank God for my family… my life…the loves of my heart!

Take time to enjoy your respite intervals of time yourselves this week and then let your troubles go.

Sorry Dear Readers!

I plugged my today’s phone blog into a new circuit last night while Tommy and Kaitlyn tried to help me with a new Christmas device I got for Christmas and this morning It had not charged????

Then I got rattled and put down tomorrow’s date instead of today’s Wednesday????

” Hello Google” you really messed me up!

Sorry… until tomorrow!

Dear Reader:

After much anticipation Santa and Christmas have come and gone… the squeals of joy from children is already fading and parents and grandparents fall into naps exhausted by early risings.

It is time to go through all the family pictures taken and smile ! Time for a prayer of gratitude to God for the presence of some family members this year and more prayers in memory of those who are no longer here.

So come along with me as I go through my Christmas memories … Farewell to Christmas 2023.

Christmas Eve… Fun at Walsh and Mollie’s house… wonderful food , white elephant games, children making Christmas cookies, and beautiful decor!

Walsh and Mollie took me back to my happy place because the children wanted to see my sweet neighbor Ann …whom we all adore and she was so happy to see the grandchildren.

So until tomorrow… Santa has left but his message of giving and happiness remains in God’s everlasting love for us!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

*** Let’s please add a prayer for my ” bestie” Brooke who took herself to the ER yesterday with the congestion that is running rampart in our state-good thing -after X-Ray /doctor was able to give her antibiotics and other medications to hopefully ward off pneumonia or something else more serious…but he said she could not have waited any longer to come… so the Ya’s are all praying for a quick and complete recovery…

And we should all pray for so many friends who had to cancel family gatherings this year due to COVID and the FLU. ( SC is one of the two highest states in US with the influx of these two pulmonary diseases attacking! )

It is so nice to have five year old Eloise who still possesses the ” WONDER” of Christmas!

Dear Reader:

A few days ago I saw Mandy adding this linen towel when she came over… and immediately it struck me ” I really AM …IN MY HAPPY PLACE!” Curiously I asked her where it came from… should have known… Doodle’s Christmas bag to me!

When everything was happening so fast a few weeks ago, I was so bewildered, weak, puzzled, and honestly… scared!

And the thought of going to a hospice medical ” facility” sounded rather cold and so unfamiliar. But I was anxious to take the burden off Mandy and John since I was still mostly immobile and the Medicare nurses and therapists coming in several times a week was just one more adjustment for everyone!

But now in hindsight… God was leading me to my new “HAPPY PLACE. ”

For years on end I always ( in my posts) referred to my 40 year old home 🏡 on 100 Rainbow Road as my Happy Place. I loved my neighborhood, my street, my gardens, and most of all my neighbors… especially Vickie!

And then it all vanished… ( in an instant) and I was feeling so badly I didn’t have the energy to fully take it all in …while it was happening. I couldn’t sit up by myself without wobbling with dizziness. My ” children” were going with me to my oncologist visits which steadily went downhill and had to be followed by two hours of IV lab fluids pumping into me each visit. I was nauseated and repelled by even the idea of food or eating!

It was time to find a place for me and my one criteria was to be near them… Summerville was gone and looking for a place in Mt Pleasant brought Tommy and Walsh to The Palms. They told the guide that their mother loved gardens and flowers.

God Wink… the one apartment that was the only one readily available that day…was the apartment with the French Doors leading out to the beautiful open courtyard ( instead of an enclosed apartment with no openings ( just a wall) to the courtyard. Now what are the chances of that happening?

And the ” children” including their wonderful spouses ( my other children) set about decorating it to surprise me… I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and since then have made new friends including all the medical staff who come in, along with the wonderful gals who bring meals, take out trash and give me my medicine… never a dull moment.

So on this Christmas Day…while attending our family Christmas brunch gathering and gift giving to the grandkids … there is no doubt… God lead me to my new Happy Place with the extraordinary help from family and friends … including You!

Saturday night when we went to Seacoast as a family for the annual special Christmas Eve program… along with the beautiful Christmas music that we all sang along to… there was a short opportunity to light little crosses symbolic of laying down our burdens to GOD and His SON .

Rutledge nodded at me and holding hands we both did relinquish our doubts and burdens by lighting a cross. A very memorable moment from Christmas 2023.

So until tomorrow… a Christmas lesson learned this year… Wherever God leads us will be our Happy Place on Earth… just let go and follow!

* I want to leave a beautiful thought Jo Dufford left with me on the phone yesterday…

Remember: ” You will never look into the eyes of anyone whom God doesn’t love… but then after doing so… go yourself to your mirror and take a deep glance saying to yourself… ” YOU are LOVED!”

Dear Reader:

Christmas Eve… When the Magic of Christmas Begins to Manifest itself through the music and storytelling of the original Christmas Story…

And yes… there is always room for Santa Claus whom I consider one of God’s most special ” angels.” Long-awaited every year by children around the world!

The Magic of Christmas Eve should be perpetuated by all of us … spreading the magic of excitement, anticipation, and gratefulness for the next generation to remember fondly of their childhood.

The real concept (that children should take into adulthood) is that Santa might only come once a year …BUT… God is with us from our first breath to our last… !!!

Several of you readers ( from other parts of the country) asked me what benne wafers were? It then dawned on me that benne wafers are a Lowcountry Gullah cuisine that came through the Colonial slave trade. No wonder you were clueless. Quick history lesson.

Benne ( the Bantu word for sesame was brought from Madagascar to W Africa and then through the Colonial Slave Trade Market to the Southern colonies.

Today it is quite the skilled baker ( Lassie) who can make the seemingly impossibly thin wafer in its time-honored tradition!

In Africa the benne plant was thought to bring Good Luck and to ward off evil! Thus African-American slaves grew it in their own gardens! Gullah people called it the ” Goodwill” Plant! ” Bon Appetite!”

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For Walsh’s birthday we first went to their church for the musical Christmas program re/telling the birth of Jesus… it is Seacoast Church in Mt Pleasant and the auditorium is as huge as an amphitheater …so the traditional candle lighting at the end looked like thousands of bobbing white lights on a dark ocean.

Eva Cate and I inside the church forum!

And then on to a Mexican restaurant… good food and fun! Happy Birthday Walsh… your birth brings back wonderful memories!

So until tomorrow…

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was filled with so many surprises I asked Mandy and Eva Cate (they came bearing bags of Christmas gifts) if they had decided to have Christmas at my ” home”.

There were two bags brimming over filled with every kind of thoughtful trinkets.memorabilia, and culinary delights.

Jo Dufford had sent her bag to Doodle, Doodle added her bag … I left a message with Jo that finally I know who Santa Claus is and another Sammy the Cardinal arrived to wish me Merry Christmas.

And Doodle gave me the second item ( like Lassie’s Benne Wafers) that means Christmas to me! It is nicknamed ” Trash” but it is completely the opposite…once one puts their hand in the jar … it stays there until it is empty!

I shared some goodies with all the staff coming in and out. Want to spread Christmas!

As Mandy and Eva Cate prepared to leave ( with Winnie in her Christmas sweater -with the word SPOILED on the back) someone knocked on the door smiling brightly and explaining she was to clean certain rooms.

The brightly smiling young woman introduced herself as Anna… she had an interesting accent coming from her warm demeanor. When I asked her where she was from, she replied she was Russian.

Now more interested than ever… I asked her how she landed here in Charleston and precisely here at the Palms … especially with the ongoing Russian assault on Ukraine.

” My family has been blessed” she said.

Her loving family all grew up in what was Russia at the time until borders changed… she married and moved with her husband to Ukraine.

As conditions worsened with part of her family caught up in Putin’s Russia family now…anxiety increased.

What saved them was that another brother ( two years earlier) before Putin began his assault, fled to the United States and joined the military.

So now he was allowed to bring immediate family into the US … Anna and her husband escaped just in the nick of time.

I listened with mouth agape … this young beautiful woman, cleaning rooms, was filled with an inner glow. When I asked her how she liked the US… she just started nodding vigorously and said ” We bless it every morning before we go to work. ”

See how impactful stories can follow and find us if we are open to communication. I sent her back home with gifts and goodies. She just kept shaking her head in delight!

And today is my middle ” child’s” -Walsh’s birthday -Kringle Dingle!

And I discovered the town of Summerville ( where all my children grew up) just celebrated its 176th birthday! Pretty cool!

Jackson called me and told me she had on ” ” Big Blue ” ( coat) because it was really freezing when her boys took her into Princeton NJ to eat out and enjoy the Christmas lights( She reminded me that it was Brooke who bought all the blue coats for us. Memory lapse but wow only Brooke could have known we would need them in the future-no matter where we were . Thank you Brookie…A lifesaver!

So until tomorrow…Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader!

God’s gifts to us in the form of the ” beauty of of the earth ” unveils the many God-given miracles bestowed upon mankind.

As I have watched the ” hidden treasures ” in Susan Swicegood’s planter … they are all “sneakily” blooming in their own domain.. not just three Big white Blooms ! ( soon to be five.) ) True Christmas miracles to me!

As much as I love this wonderful phrase ” Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us.“…I am finding little time to pause …undergoing new series of tests and procedures to try to figure out what my body is doing and what it’s not. Quite literally only God knows. And that’s fine with me.

And God, via Marcia Temple , sent me a precious little guardian angel in the most original Christmas card that arrived yesterday.

And speaking of arriving… Susan Cadwell came for a visit after a root canal yesterday-tough love! But we had a great visit and Susan left so many goodies -and shared memories and family photos.

One more day and then the real craziness begins… Christmas music with the family at Walsh and Mollie’s church Saturday and following that… the 23rd is also Walsh’s birthday! ” Kringle Dingle!” Happy Birthday time. ( Tommy’s birthday follows on December 29th ( ” Deduction” Dingle.) Bad timing and Mom has no one to blame but herself… 😂

So until tomorrow…

Dear Reader:

This old GuidePost story popped up on my phone yesterday and it seemed so familiar for women and the challenges they face with aging and night driving.

How familiar is this phrase/ excuse heard by aging female friends …women start hearing their friends and themselves saying to night party invitations or get-togethers. ” I would love to attend but I don’t drive at night anymore.”

From the lack of today’s new technology directions for car drivers in this story…it must be dated several years back… because the author starts off saying” No GPS. No phone…. No one to help. Only a light.“

Apparently the author had accepted a Christmas Eve Celebration with close friends-had a great time singing carols and sipping eggnog.

She had stayed longer than she should have but had gotten caught up in the fun time with friends.

It was now around midnight and all was well until she got to the familiar freeway exit and saw a sign: Closed for Night Construction! Take Alternate Route!

Panicking she thought what alternate route? She only knew 55 Freeway… in growing anxiety she took the next exit… Big Mistake! She found herself in a deserted, empty parking lot. She needed a Christmas Miracle!

Suddenly a bright light shone on her-the Star of Bethlehem?

Then to her disappointment as she got closer … she discovered it was just street light on top of a pole. Still she felt herself drawn to it like a moth to a light bulb. Maybe there was a night watchman .

No night watchman but there was something that made her believe in Christmas miracles again.

Attached to the light pole was a sign:

55 Freeway: Straight Ahead.

The Way Back Home

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I am still experiencing my own Christmas Miracles ( God Winks) as you see here!

Yesterday ( December 21-was Winter Solstice Day… longest night of year and shortest day! More light now and longer days… Yeah!

But… did you also know December 21 was also World Gratitude Day! My neighbor Ann and I decided to attend the Hot Chocolate Festival here and share and make new friendships with others… in gratitude for our families, friends and …feeling loved by so many of you readers who lifted me up during my darkest days!

New friends and hot hot chocolate-delicious!

Dear Reader:

For you long-term readers … you might recall the picture with all four of my Ya Ya friends from Erskine College ( Brooke, Jackson, Tima ( Libby) and myself wearing this same ” Big Blue” coat we purchased together one cold February winter retreat at Pawleys Island.

The coats had all been marked way down in a special sale … perfect timing when a similar freeze hit Pawleys that year and we were literally all freezing … thus the four similar costs.

When Tommy and I went back to 100 Rainbow Road… my old home last Saturday… I remembered I had not brought ” Big Blue” with me and grabbed it at the last second… surely that was a God Wink for what was to come. Literally freezing temperatures. Last night in the low 20’s and 30’s this morning.

So yesterday it was my ” sister” ( in-law) Lassie and her husband Steve, who surprised me bringing Christmas early… ( Lassie had made her traditional Benne Wafers) that literally melt in your mouth. No one makes them better than Lassie… I was thrilled ! Christmas is drawing nigh!

Steve hadn’t seen my new home and loved it… like me. Lassie took my picture wearing Big Blue to cross the courtyard! ( title photo) It brought back such memories!

And surprise! Look what bloomed yesterday on the first freezing cold day!

Look what was in her surprise package I received and opened from Honey yesterday afternoon!

Honey’s father bought the famous inn in the 1900’s and offered a private boys’ live- in school that housed students from all over… but the creation of the new interstate took drivers away from Summerville en route to Charleston and sadly the magnificent historical inn eventually had to be torn down.

Pine Forest Inn

Eva Cate came over and like a good elf… wrapped all the surprise gifts/ ( white elephant) for Mollie’s Christmas Eve celebration!

Dear Reader:

If this year has taught me nothing else… it is recognizing the fact that just having the ” Presence” of the people we love together and sharing kindness and joy, laughter, and gratitude is the most important component of Christmas while recognizing/ feeling God’s Presence with us also.

I truly didn’t know if I would be ” present” for Christmas just a few weeks ago…at the lowest point when I was too weak to stand and too dizzy to think clearly.

But after turning it over to God and trusting in Him to lead me in the direction He had chosen…. my physical and mental health slowly started returning… for how long I don’t know but so appreciate each moment of every day. The craziness of pre-Christmas busyness is always trying to intrude… more so for my adult children and grandchildren.

Recent happenings…

And finally…guess ” who” … sent me a card and package of morning glories-Sammy the Cardinal! Air Flight!

So until tomorrow… Let the magic of Christmas continue… every day has the possibility of joy and kindness… and precious memories!