Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I was up and out at six am talking to my gardens… warning the flowers it was going to be a hot one… conserve their water supply and I would see them later in the evening.

This week will definitely be a survival test for animals and plants alike. And as luck would have it… my cable is out… so I definitely have no excuses not to catch up on correspondence and reading. The earliest the cable man can arrive is Friday afternoon… ( and have a good day)

But… like the title picture says…only I can handle my attitude and I choose happy. So here we go readers… our game today… How Hot is it? ( Please feel free to send in your ” hot ” responses! )

IT’S SO HOT. …………………………!

A squirrel was seen picking up nuts with a pot holder

A funeral procession was spotted pulling through the Dairy Queen

One can wash and dry their clothes at the same time

My thermostat read” Are You Kidding Me?”

I bought a loaf of bread and before I got home… it was toast!

The Statue of Liberty was asked to lower her arm

The construction market is slammed with people willing to work for shade

And what got me in such a good mood… Jo Dufford … she arrived yesterday morning with a new butterfly garden flag for the garden so now there will always be ” Jo’s Butterflies ” in my garden.

Thank you Jo for your friendship… your mentorship when I needed it the most as a rookie teacher in the seventies! Below Jo is holding one of Honey’s bowls for hope and feeding hunger for an Ukraine fundraiser that she brought this past weekend! So talented!

So until tomorrow… ” Happiness is not readymade, it comes from your own actions!”

Don’t forget today is Flag Day ( Old Glory is 245 years old) AND if we want to see our flag continue to fly over a democracy… get out and vote today wherever primaries are being held. Too many American have sacrificed the ultimate price …for us not to…

Today is my favorite day- Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Have you ever considered that the symbolism of personal paths (that take us back to God’s Home) just doesn’t apply to human ” everyone’s ” but to everything God created?

All we have to do is watch a few nature documentaries and we see that every single creature God placed on this earth has a path to follow but man is the only one who gets to accept or reject their given path.

Saturday, at Winnie’s funeral, Anne and I found a pew together… while waiting for the service to start Anne commented on a necklace I was wearing … the symbol on it looked Celtic and she wondered if Tommy and Kaitlyn had brought it back from Ireland. I told her ” no” but later remembered I got it when we went to Ireland several years ago.

It symbolizes a secret Christian greeting to identify oneself for safety reasons. On the back it reads: Jesus loves me. I either wear it or take it with me to every oncology check-up.

In particular the Irish and Native-American cultures recognize that the path of life is traveled by everyone and everything… on the ground, on the seas and in the oceans and the skies.

The famous Celtic knot is revered in Ireland encircled by three spirals -life, death, and rebirth. When it comes to knowledge and wisdom the spirals tell us to learn names, causes, and their influence…and leave this knowledge behind to help others on their paths.

Native-Americans worshipped the Sun God who brought life to the world everyday…they revered animals and nature. The ” Path of Life” was symbolized by the Hopi tribe called ” The Man of the Maze.” ( It shows a man entering the maze which represents birth and he must follow his Path of Life -filled with happiness, sadness, obstacles and adventures )

If one has ” beautified ” the path you walked and left the world a better place for your existence in it …if your memories of good acts are completed… then the memories act as stepping stones for those who come behind you to follow and the Creator blesses you and brings you into the next world.

So until tomorrow… ” It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” Albert Einstein

Unfortunately the deer or a deer found a path to my moon flower trellis and ate the middle of the abundantly-covered moonflower vines and leaves.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Pardon the grandmother BooBoo Bragging Corner but Walsh took Rutledge to Charlotte to play in another Lacrosse competition including a team from Texas this weekend while Mollie held down the fort with Lachlan and Eloise.

The Lowcountry team won every game concluding with the final -the Championship and Rutledge was named MVP of the tournament. So proud of you Rutledge!

Dear Reader:

Life Magazine, just recently, published a special edition on our First Ladies and their contributions during their presence in the White House. Leading the last 2014 poll , hands down, was Eleanor Roosevelt.

Overcoming a tragic and dysfunctional childhood, awkward and lonely as a youth, Eleanor would evolve into the ” towering figure who tweaked the conscience of a president-her husband Franklin-and of the entire nation.” It is among the most stirring underdog stories in our history.”

As I re-read one of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes, ” Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You’ll be criticized anyway” my thoughts turned to our elected representatives today and my wish that more have the courage to follow this advice.

Then my thoughts turned inward. My memory took me way back to my early teaching days and a certain student whose memory still remains with me.

From the first day he entered my classroom he appeared uncomfortable. He purposefully aggravated and initiated disturbances for no apparent reason. Every time I tried to talk to him one on one… he avoided looking at me and simply shrugged indifference to my questions concerning his peculiar behavior.

It all came to a head when a parent was called in …and along with a guidance counselor …we hoped to get to the root of the problem. As soon as the stepmother walked in… she sat and just stared at me as the list of problematic behaviors were described.

” I know what the problem is” she spoke softly and almost resignedly. You closely resemble his mother who deserted him several years ago. Even your mannerisms are similar. He loved her but was abandoned by her and has serious trust issues.

It was decided to bring his counselor (he was seeing) to the next conference and there the counselor recommended him remaining in my classroom so he would be forced to confront issues that needed confronting. I gulped and agreed to try it again but I felt really out of my comfort zone each day the class bell rang.

I wish I could say… we became close and trust was restored but sadly the emotional damage could not be eliminated that easily. We did make progress and the behavior improved slightly but all I could do was what felt right in my heart and try to keep extending the olive branch of peace and more importantly hope. . I still wonder what became of this troubled youth-he remains in my prayers and memories.

Eleanor Roosevelt provided hope and kindness during WWII to American servicemen.In 1942 she hosted a lawn party at the White House… including a group sing-along !

So until tomorrow… Your life unfolds in proportion to your courage!

And speaking of courage… a beautiful Luna moth has landed on the front porch window screen ( almost exact spot where the last moth landed) I wonder if this one will stay three days and then disappear like the last one? Time will tell. And guess what happened on the day it appears?

After reading up on the beautiful moth… my thoughts settled on the funeral I was attending for Mike Burrell’s mom and Honey’s mother-in law … for 47 years they had Miss Winnie in their lives! Both Mike and Honey spoke and told stories at the service… Winnie would have loved it.

I told Honey about the Luna Moth showing up today… it is considered one of the most spiritual and mystical of all the moths.

They are born, they transform, they love, they die, and then are reborn. Their cycles are short, as are our years. We are reminded to make the most of our moments-live and love to the fullest!

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Like many other people… O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi has always been one of my favorite Christmas stories-the kind that you must read or hear, once again, or something seems missing from the holiday festivities.

It is a good example of irony. In this classic tale, a man sells his watch to buy his wife a set of fancy combs for Christmas, while she sells her hair to buy him a watch chain. Though, not exactly comedic instantly… the bittersweet tale finally allows our smile to form , even as we shake our heads in dismay. As grandmother would conclude… ” Well their hearts were in the right places.”

Haven’t we all experienced some form of comedic irony in our own lives? One little boy I babysat for the first two years of his life was my complete joy. I would rush home from junior high school to see him… I felt like I was another mother to him .

His parents rented the other side of our duplex so I was a built-in babysitter… I experienced total love and acceptance from practically raising this child … that deep connection that was missing from the trials and tribulations of adolescence…insecurity at its worse!

The final day of school I finally got my braces… my dream come true to finally hide my Bucky beaver teeth!!!

I ran up to Gregory to proudly show him my braces with a gigantic smile… the little toddler’s eyes grew big and he began screaming in terror and hid himself in his mother’s skirt sobbing loudly. I was totally distraught!

Of course, eventually, he got over the initial reaction but I cried myself asleep for at least a week before that precious child finally stuck his chubby little fingers in my mouth-felt the braces… I popped my oral rubber band at him-he laughed and the crisis was over.

When I read the following selection on comedic irony… it, also, took place around Christmas… it is so hot and humid these days in the Lowcountry maybe I just need to mentally move to visions of cooler times! .

One woman learned how the best-laid plans can somehow go awry… only to bring laughter to the disaster.

One Christmas a woman found just the perfect gifts for everyone on her list. She also realized her busy schedule left her no time to wrap them so she paid extra to let the department store do it for her.

She took great pride in finishing ahead of time, only to discover on Christmas Eve that none of the gifts had name tags. Embarrassed it seemed like a terrible tragedy to her. Until… the family and friends gathered began opening their tangled gifts.

Suddenly everyone was laughing as her 18 year-old nephew opened the box containing a sexy silk nightgown and her grandmother got football shoulder pads. They all ended up agreeing that nameless tags were a lot more fun!

So until tomorrow… Take a moment to reflect on how seeing the absurdity in a situation is much more fun than perceiving a mistake as tragic. I bet everyone can think of such an ironic incident in their lives.

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

Sunday afternoon was Eloise’s dance recital … I think the whole Dingle family would agree we should have all received t-shirts that read ” I Survived Another Dance Recital.” We had to be there by 4:30 -an hour ahead to drop off Eloise and we left around 8 :45-I got back to Summerville at 10:00!

Of course Eloise was our star and we wouldn’t have missed her one debut appearance for anything but one can’t help but wonder if little dancers get cloned backstage because it seems like they just keep coming and coming.

On the way back from the recital the sun was sinking in the west-absolutely breathtaking and a special thank you to Walsh for ordering hamburgers for us all and feeding two hungry brothers before they ” starved to death.” Comedic irony!

Dear Reader:

The subject of making time for contemplation in our daily lives continuously reappears in my posts as I grow older. Overall I am a ” people person” and love social situations, especially family gatherings and friendship endeavors, along with daily or weekly neighborhood encounters.

Still… equally important is my ” alone” time each day when I take stock of the path I am on and double check to make sure I haven’t strayed too far off the given path…especially to the point I can’t find my way back.

One of the best kept secrets about aging is when you reach that mysterious, invisible time-line benchmark …when the realization (hits you full face) that you have arrived at the place of whom and where you always wanted to be.

It starts with finding your passion-what is it that makes you happy… what is it that becomes so entangled into your true essence that you can no longer separate your passion from yourself. For me… storytelling. I am a storyteller.

Nothing makes me happier than telling a personal anecdote ( funny or serious) but a life lesson that helped me grow and see my path more clearly. -a story, hopefully the reader can relate to…)

As mentioned earlier I was not a happy camper when mother told me I had to get a teaching degree if I majored in history because ” What in the world can you do with just history when it comes to making a living?”

The magic moment that changed my life was the day I realized that good teaching is storytelling because everyone loves a story when simultaneously everyone hates learning cold, unconnected historical facts.

The best thing about having a teacher format in which to story tell…I even had a ” captive” audience. Since we all have to teach within our personalities I knew I could never be one of those teachers who had a class where silence reigned and one look could send a student melting into their desk. ( some days I was quite envious of them) so I knew I had to make the stories so interesting and student participation in historical re-enactments so engaging …they learned in spite of those crazy hormones bouncing around.

I remember calling my Uncle Harlette ( very expensive long distance call back then) and asking him to re-tell those Swamp Fox ( Revolutionary hero -Francis Marion) escapades and other SC historical stories. Soon it was Uncle Harlette calling me asking how the students liked the story… and he had another one for me!

And my favorite quote written on the blackboard from day one to the last day of school? ” If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

Storytelling, to date, has never not been a part of my life… even when I ” retired” from teaching… Carol Poole, ( Berkeley County Social Studies Coordinator) and I worked for the State Department of Education teaching teachers how to engage their students in history through stories and then supplying them with packets of our own history storytelling lesson plans.

After ” little c” appeared uninvited to my body… in 2008 -I once again-returned to my original passion story telling, initiated by my encounter of St Jude’s Chapel of Hope in Trust, NC … thanks to two of my dearest friends-Honey and Mike Burrell. Two weeks after my epiphany there… the Chapel of Hope Stories blog post started August 7, 2008

I will tell you, truthfully, of all the standardized and exploratory medicines and treatments given to me over the past years … striving to keep my metastatic cancer ” at bay” I know it is the Chapel of Hope stories that awaken me each morning

,,,to discover what event, thought, conversation, movie, quote, book excerpt will be the impetus for the day’s post. What an exciting challenge!!! The best medicine in the world!!!

So until tomorrow…From the first post until now … ( next year will be the 15th anniversary) storytelling is still my passion… and I am exactly who I wanted to be-a storyteller.

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

Eloise’s dance recital flower bouquet from her proud Boo Boo!

Dear Reader:

In the title picture ( from Alice Through the Looking Glass) Alice and Humpty are discussing play-on-word games. Alice remarks: ” The question is, whether you make words mean so many different things.”

It might seem too simplified , but words are a major influence on our actions. Author Vernon Howard tells about a man who wrote down what he called beautiful words in a small notebook. They included such words as joy, love, Crystal, blossom, sparkle.

Every morning this man would read about a dozen or so words from his list. When the opportunity arose throughout the day, he would use them in conversation. He told a friend, ” Because I looked at the world only through rose-colored words, I became rose-colored myself.”

Try this: Read the following words slowly to yourself:

Upset, unhappy, tears, depressed, gloom, sullen, dark, morose, sad, dismal hopeless, bleak, sorrow, misery, somber, despair

Take a moment to reflect on your feelings. Now read the following:

Joyful mirthful joking giggle happy laughter glad silly cheerful amusement merriment delightful fun jovial jolly hilarious

Pause… examine your feelings. A new perspective on ” We are what we think.” Even putting a humorous nickname on an aggravating situation…like a television on its last leg -called ” Old Fadeful” or my personal name for my old computer ” Kaput”er! …really helps lighten the mood.

Anne and I met at Oscars for our monthly lunch gathering yesterday and as luck would have it… we got Mitch… our favorite waiter.. the warm camaraderie and friendly banter always lifts everyone’s spirits and adds so much to the day.

While we were eating Anne mentioned something interesting she had read or seen about the latest tragedy surrounding the on-going debate on gun control and a type of wordplay that certainly made one stop and contemplate. Originally she thought it was a poll but when she located it again… it was a poem.

When I received it late yesterday afternoon ( after the ” granddaddy” of all thunderstorms-lost power) had passed …the play on words in the poem felt like a ” gut punch.”

*** It wasn’t just the message but the fact that this poem ( written by a British poet -Brian Bilstop) was written SIX years ago… 2016- not six days ago. A wordplay on associating feelings/ thoughts with countries

America is a Gun

England is a Cup of Tea France, a wheel of ripened Brie. Greece, a short squat olive tree… America is a gun

Brazil is a football on the sand. Argentina , Maradona’s hand. Germany, an oompah band… America is a gun.

Holland is a wooden shoe. Hungry, a goo lash stew. Australia, a kangaroo. America is a gun

Japan is a thermal spring. Scotland is a highland fling. Oh better to be anything… than America as a gun.

So until tomorrow… If we are what we think… our country needs to re-think the role of guns and figure out what happened to America… freedom. America… democracy or how about simply America… baseball!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

I am thinking… Eloise… princess dancer-today I will attend Eloise’s end of year dance recital with family! Go get’em my little ballet baby!!

Dear Reader:

When things get tough and life appears to go wrong, don’t we have a tendency to think something is the matter with us… we must be doing something wrong? Another example of why we shouldn’t jump so fast to conclusions…

In the title picture my first hibiscus bloomed from a plant by my front driveway. The poor hibiscus has been attacked by all kinds of natural enemies who have eaten holes in the leaves and discolored the others. Two trips to Ace Hardware with three different kinds of plant pesticides have proven ineffective.

YET… in spite of this on-going hardship the plant is covered in potential buds… the first popping out yesterday-as big as a moonflower and just plain arrestingly beautiful! It is doing something right in spite… of the hardships and challenges around it. It still believes in itself and bringing beauty to the world.

Think about it. If we don’t care about what is happening to our country, or feel sadness for those families caught in terrible life-altering unimaginable tragedies … and do nothing because it hadn’t affected us or anybody we know yet… if we just go about our daily lives ignoring everything around us… hey… life can be easy.

We can just turn over these ” other people problems” to others… and believe that a bunch of ” someone’s” will eventually figure it all out. Yet if history hasn’t taught us anything else… it is that clinging to ” That’s not my problem” only buys time before life, as we know it, unravels.

Should we look to superheroes… maybe but only if they look like … perhaps this…our understaffed poll worker volunteers!

We the people have got to reach down and pull up the fundamental virtues we were taught as children… putting others first so ” We” stand ” united” in a country built on opportunities for all. Lady Liberty doesn’t say she welcomes the rich and powerful but the poor and downtrodden too.

Will this be hard? Oh yeah… but we will know in our hearts we are right and one day our precious children will know it too!

So until tomorrow… In a recent Ted Talk… I loved this thought. Don’t we owe all of our children a world in which their contemplative lives are valued and supported? Don’t we owe it to ourselves?

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Before I set the date and time for this post to publish ( June 8 – 6 am… hopefully) I think we must end with the wit of our homespun sage… Jo Dufford.

After reading about my early morning ” emergency ” meeting with my friend Anne-Jo said she would have gladly come over, but unlike Anne… she would have had to search for a bakery open at 6;30 and then when she arrived she would not have been able to solve the technology problem.

Jo concludes ” I am like the lady whose husband heard her shouting, ” James Lewis! Get away from that wheelbarrow! You know you know nothing about machinery! ”

Dear Reader:

Monday morning I set my mobile phone timer to go off at 6 am so I could check to see if my post ( I had written the evening before) had published… for some crazy reason when I set the date and time, as usual, it said ” Re-try” so I did… but nothing?

Luckily I located the post intact ( in another category ) but I couldn’t find the “publish now” selection to click on. Frustrated I glanced at the time- it was now around 6:30 and I was clueless what to do. ( When it comes to technology I know one way in and one way out… but don’t throw me a detour)!

Who would be up this early who could help me? Less than 30 seconds later… I knew-Anne! She literally gets up before ” the crack of dawn” so I tentatively sent this text.

Are you up? Problem with today’s post-need to see if ” two heads” are better than one.” Especially mine! 😉

Seconds later this response arrived.

Yes! I was baking earlier. I hope you like focaccia bread!

( I had never heard of it… but just the thought of the smell of warm bread on an early morn had my mouth watering. I replied…

OMG!!! Coming!

Sure enough when I entered Anne’s home the smell of fresh baked flat sourdough bread had me practically reeling in happiness! By the way Focaccia bread is Italian with garlic herbs,cheese, and black olives… so good!

Anne said she joined a group-on Facebook called ” Sourdough Geeks.” All I can say is that bread yesterday was the ” geekiest, goodest” bread I ever put in my mouth… since I was a child!

Anne is fearless when it comes to technology… she just starts hitting things until something works…I am always so afraid I am going to lose it or permanently mess up my new mobile phone or computer. Within seconds… she had gotten into ” Publish Now” -when I asked what she hit she said she just found three dots together and hit them… bingo !

I ate one slice of focaccia bread at Anne’s and brought two more home. As I munched happily away… the touch and smell of the bread took me far back in childhood memories.

Growing up in Fayetteville we had a Lebanese family who lived next to us. On special occasions and certain holidays Mrs Fidel would come over with hot, freshly baked flat unleavened bread. It smelled so good! ( She always cut up small pieces with her homemade butter/ fig dip for mother because of her one hand.)

But for the rest of us she spread newspaper across the kitchen table placing the mound of hot steaming bread in the middle… with a larger bowl of her butter/fig dip. Then she would stand back and watch as we kids tugged and pulled bites of bread straight from the loaf mound-dipping it in that amazing sauce! I think Mrs Fidel enjoyed the spectacle more than anyone as she laughed and laughed-we must have looked like three little pigs at the trough! It is one of my favorite memories from childhood.

Isn’t it strange how the senses of smell and taste can take us back to the past faster than other stimulants …where certain memories stay forever?

So until tomorrow…No doubt Jesus understood this when he demonstrated the breaking of the bread as a symbol of life…including his own…to be sacrificed for us… at the last supper.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

As I returned home the sun had just started splintering through the trees and landing on certain flowers in the garden! Oh what a beautiful morning!

Dear Reader:

When Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 she was excited and terrified simultaneously of her first weekly meeting with Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As a youth growing up during WWII she revered Churchill and like most Brit’s credited him with saving the world from terrorism and Nazism.

She should not have been anxious… within weeks their weekly meeting stretched from half an hour to three hours. No records were allowed so the conversations could flow from personal to top political secrets and future plans.

When Churchill died in 1965 Elizabeth was heart-broken and even broke protocol at his funeral by arriving first ( even before the family) instead of last as protocol demanded-this was done to show her highest respect and regard. ( She has since met with fifteen prime ministers.)

In 1955 when Churchill retired she wrote him a personal handwritten letter he kept the last decade before his passing. He had what he called ” near idolatry” for Elizabeth and the monarchy.

Elizabeth was well aware of Churchill’s sharp witticisms and retorts…from the laughter that rang out every week she enjoyed them immensely! They provided much needed relief from the Cold War nuclear age thrust upon the world.

Buddy/friend… Playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote to Churchill.

Dear Mr. Churchill,

Enclosed are two tickets to my new play, which opens Thursday night. Please come and bring a friend, if you have one.

To which Sir Winston replied:

I am sorry. I have a previous engagement and cannot attend your opening. However, I will come to the second performance, if there is one.

During Churchill’s last year in office, he attended an official ceremony. While there, he overheard two men behind him whispering ” That’s Winston Churchill. They say he is getting senile. They say he should step aside and leave the running of the nation to more dynamic and capable men.” When the ceremony was finished, Churchill slowly turned around and said “Gentlemen, they also say he is deaf.” ( I think President Biden would love that anecdote)

Humor and levity is much needed these days in politics… there is a direct correlation proven between quick wit and IQ… maybe the lack of witticisms in politics today… overshadowed by angry .negative name-calling and whining …is a sign of the ” dumbing” of American politics… and what happened to smiling … frowning and pouting are poor substitutes?

So until tomorrow… ” There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter-the first two are beyond our total comprehension-so we must do what we can with the third.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

I figure I might as well put out the welcome signs for wildlife to come partake of the garden-at 8:00 yesterday morning a friendly little fox watched me pull weeds and then merrily trotted away…

Dear Reader:

Some of you are already aware that after returning home from their ( Tommy and Kaitlyn) ” Covid” fifth wedding anniversary in Ireland… there was a prolonged respite as it took Tommy a couple of more weeks to totally recover.

Then last week, out of the blue. their one bathroom ” john” wouldn’t flush and started backing up… what they thought was a few hours plumber job has turned into a team of specialized plumbers who have to break up twenty feet of concrete, take apart lower cabinets and countertops, remove sink, garbage disposal and replace a hundred feet of piping… they have to move out and inform vacation renters ( on the other side) everything is closed now until further notice. ) And we won’t even bring up total expenses…. too scary and continuously subject to change.

All of the family has watched in dismay as each day brings seemingly more obstacles…

But then yesterday I came across two different items of interest… one was the following story… I think God is winking…in the midst of this seemingly horrible catastrophe.

There is a man who has a farm, and his whole livelihood depends on his horse to plow the field. One day he is out plowing and suddenly the horse drops dead. The people of the town say, ” That’s very unfortunate.” And the man says ” We’ll see.”

A few days later somebody feels sorry for him and gives him a horse for a gift. The townspeople say, ” You’re a lucky man.” And the man says ” We’ll see.”

A couple of days later the horse runs away and everybody says, “You poor guy.” And the man says, ” We’ll see.”

A few more days go by, and the horse returns with another horse, and everybody says, ” What a lucky guy!” And the man says ” We’ll see.”

The man had never had two horses before, so he and his son decide to go riding and the boy falls off one of the horses and breaks a leg. The townspeople say, “Poor kid.” And the man says ” We’ll see.”

The next day the militia comes into town grabbing young men for the army, but they leave the boy behind because he has a broken leg. Everybody says,” What a lucky kid.” And the man says ” We’ll see..”

So until tomorrow… ” One of the great secrets known to internists but still hidden from the general public ,” says author/educator Lewis Thomas, ” is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning.”

Even though this particular family situation doesn’t fall under ” allowing nature to take its course” I feel, however, that given time, hindsight will reveal some positive unknowns that will give back in unexpected ways. I guess… ” We’ll see.” Faith! Faith!

Today is my favorite day -Winnie the Pooh

Mollie and the kids came to play with Boo! Hurrah!

All the kids finished up school with great grades and award certificates … so proud of each one of them! 💗💗💗

*** Remember I had two God Winks yesterday… going through some saved folders? One was the ” We’ll See” story and the other was a picture of Libby’s mother, known affectionately throughout the Lowcountry as ” Granny Grits!” ( Summerville Journal-Scene) .

In this old article/ photo… ” Miss Nell ” was retiring from heading up the nationally known ” Grits Festival” in St. George , SC. for decades. The article talked about her own personal grit and determination. ***And I find this particular article on Libby’s birthday… I sent Libby the picture and told her I thought ” Miss Nell” wanted me to wish Libby Happy Birthday from her! And her gift-that same grit and determination she passed down to Libby so she could face these latest health challenges! Moms are like that…

Now here is a gal who can wear a fascinator! Work it Eloise!