Chapel of Hope Stories

Dear Reader:

Ben and I are in the process of going from one medical referral to the next since his move to Charleston from Conway. It almost becomes comical… at a certain age … the question is: How many doctors does it take to put ” Humpty Dumpty ” back together again ?

It seems like every doctor’s visit ends with a referral to another doctor-we lucked up with his heart specialist who put in his pacemaker-since he practices in Conway and Charleston but then Ben needed a regular cardiologist for availability if his heart acts up again and a neurologist to treat his vascular dementia which today’s doctor is referring us to-to update brain scans.

In the meantime I got a call from Conway for Ben’s semi-annual eye check-up-now they have to refer us to a ophthalmologist in Charleston and at lunch Ben was complaining with a sensitive tooth so might as well add a dentist to the mix.

Eventually Wellmore can provide transportation but , as we all know, those initial visits involve filling out insurance and medical histories that go far beyond what Ben can do. ( Honestly speaking some offices require so much information I spend more time in the paperwork than the doctor visit-I always look around and think ” Here I am a college graduate with a master’s degree and I am struggling-is everyone else in the waiting room ” faking it?”)

If I whisper to Ben that I don’t even know what half the medical abbreviations stand for-he calmly says ” Oh WE got this! ”

I don’t know whether to laugh or thump him on the head! He is happily leaving all the paperwork up to me to decipher and cutting up with the receptionists.

As I started in with him, when called yesterday, the nurse asked if the desk had checked my temperature too … told her ” no”-she sighed since the line waiting to be checked in was long-I assured her I always had a reptile temperature and had even gotten my booster-Ben quips ” If it isn’t Saturday night she is good to go.” It took the nurse a second to get it and then burst into laughter-Saturday Night Fever! Ben does a John Travolta move and in we go-maybe we need to take our act on the road! 🤣

At this stage in life-all we can do is laugh. Ever since returning from Vietnam and later dealing with PTSD symptoms… Ben always uses ” We” when telling about any incident. It used to confuse me but now I recognize he was trained as a Marine to think of your team’s welfare first over one ‘s individual needs-everything in wartime is done for the ” common good.”

These days I think Ben uses ” We” in talking about incidents, that only involve him, because it makes him feel less isolated and alone.

I started thinking about this…How many times have we encouraged a family member or friend by saying ” You’ve got this” before an important interview or meeting… when wouldn’t it be more powerful if we added ” Go on now… we’ve got this.”

So until tomorrow… There is nothing more beautiful in the world, than a heart changing ”

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Happy Birthday to my favorite son-in-law John! My only son–in -law-but still my favorite! I love you John!

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I was so relieved to see that the blog post came out okay with no glaring grammatical errors… because it was the first time I didn’t have time to proofread it! Why?

An earthquake tremor! I had heard on the local news channel that the Lowcountry had experienced an earlier tremor around noon but I felt nothing and didn’t give it much thought.

But then… just as I was typing the last post line-I heard this strange roaring “pop” sound and then felt the house shake! I quickly jumped up and ran around the house looking for more cracks in the walls or ceilings and uttered a prayer of thanks when I found none.

I had taken a geological course on earthquakes for renewal teaching certification and knew Summerville was close to a fault line.

The last time Summerville experienced a big earthquake was August 31, 1868. I remember when I first moved to Summerville in 1973 I met a family who still had their Heirloom Grandfather clock frozen on 9:50 PM when the earthquake struck.

The Summerville area sustained more damage than Charleston and the tremors were felt in NYC and as far west as St. Louis, Mo. It left more than 100 people dead with hundreds of buildings destroyed. It was the largest recorded earthquake in the history of southeastern United States.

Soon after buildings and homes rebuilt with earthquake bolts to help keep structures secured.

Despite all the destruction and fear …some funny colorful stories emerged from this disaster.

The first one took place in Marion Square in downtown Charleston where residents had fled fearing more tremors and destruction.

During the night an elderly tiny little Gullah woman came to the square with the last two possessions she had left in the world-a cow and a chicken she was holding.

As dawn broke through-her voice could be heard shouting quite loudly to God in prayer and petition.

” Oh Lawd help us all! My cow all dried up and my chicken ain’t lay no egg in ” tree” days!

Cum down Yer right now! …and God-Ya come ” youself” -Don’t send you Son-this ain’t no place for “chillun”!

In Porch Rocker Recollections this funny tale is told about the night of the great quake!

This story was regaled -about and around -the Mansfield house in Summerville …where at the time of the quake, two spinster sisters and their unmarried brother, Mr. Hamilton Mansfield, lived.

Mr. Mansfield was known and recognized around town by his proper manners and fastidious attire-including his black silk top hat and silver-headed cane.

However, apparently, in the fright and confusion that night Mr. Mansfield forgot to put on any other attire-except for his top hat 🎩 and cane!

He was walking around stark naked tipping his hat politely to all the ladies. Of course the wide-eyed children were laughing their heads off and for some-it would be all they remembered of the great quake!

One lesson was learned by many of the mothers in the crowd-from that time on every family member had to lay out their clothes for the next morning at the foot of the bed before going to sleep!

So until tomorrow… let us all remember the Girl Scout motto: ” Be Prepared!”

Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Yesterday… I answered my last question for StoryWorth. It asked: ” What is one final message you want to leave for your grandchildren and great grandchildren?”

My response was personal and meant for the generations coming after me but I did use the message in the title stone photo. It is so true that ” Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

More and more I hear mother’s words and expressions coming out of my mouth. When I look in the mirror sometimes I catch a glimpse of mother looking back. We are our mothers’ daughters.

We always hope our children and grandchildren will take the best we had to offer or at least the funniest and interweave it into their own unique personalities.

If I had to choose one physical attribute for them to use daily-it would be a smile. A smile can do more to turn a day around than anything else… not just to the person smiling but to colleagues and strangers alike.

As a young teacher I heard a motivational speaker tell a room full of first year educators that the most important ” tool ” a teacher possesses is a smile.

A teacher might not realize that certain students sitting in his or her class come from dysfunctional-even abusive homes-and that a teacher’s smile might be the only smile they receive all day.

I never forgot that message. I normally smile a lot but I remembered to produce, at least one, in every class every day… no matter how challenging.

Mollie told me I needed to send a picture for the cover of my album and suggested an early one when I was just starting out in life with my dreams still intact about my future life.

So I went back through yearbooks and found this picture! I had just finished student teaching and Brooke and I were going to room together in Charleston where we both got teaching jobs. ( in Summerville)

When I reflected on this photo it symbolized Hope …and excited expectations about the future.

So until tomorrow… “Sometimes grace is a ribbon of mountain air that gets in through the cracks.” – Anne Lamont’s

” Today is my favorite day!” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

One of my favorite times is the evening when the lights come on inside and out …when I look down in my den feeling so lucky that I have such a cozy home to live in. It has taken years to reach this point.

Yet, if I am brutally honest with myself ( don’t you hate those self-talks?) my home is a prime example of too many projects left alone and luck, glue, and scotch tape holding parts together.

Rugs hide warped floors, pictures conceal cracks in the walls, electrical and plumbing problems are a constant plague… if I really want to stay up all night, instead of counting sheep-I can count how much money it would take to fix everything up to the new housing codes these days.

It’s hard to know where to start-because one baby step will turn into a giant leap of building and construction problems. What’s a gal to do?

Take Carol Seavey’s advice on counting! She wrote in her birthday card to me…

” Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.”

So I stopped and took all the title photos of the birthday cards that have arrived this past week and smiled! Carol is so right… nothing has fallen on my head yet and my blessings just grow each year along with me! I needed to be reminded of that fact Carol! Thank you for doing so… and Dee ‘s card always leaves me laughing each year! Such a gift of humor!

My week of birth-daying has come to an end. A week ago I was heading to the mountains in the rain and fog… now beautiful fall weather prevails!

The ” children” took me out Saturday evening to eat at GRACE AND GRITS-delicious as usual… then Walsh snd Mollie had me over for Sunday brunch yesterday. Rutledge’s football game got switched at the last minute Saturday due to the Bridge Run but Rutledge saved the game at the last minute and was the hero of the day! I got to hear all about it re-enacted!

Eloise and her brother dancing partners entertained me at brunch!

So until tomorrow… Thank you Father for birthday blessings from Heaven! I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination! Thank you all for making my send-off on my annual trip around the sun so special!

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

One of my gifts was a ” Pinkie” replacement bath robe from Kaitlyn -beyond comfy and Mollie got me microwaveable bedroom slippers for warm toes!

Great work girls!! 👍

Dear Reader:

Friday’s night activities were yummy and delightful! Jake’s party was fun …just seeing everyone again!

The scent of fall is appearing-that cool crisp smell that replaces ( in the Lowcountry) hot humid, sticky summers. It is so refreshing.

Suddenly I have more energy than I have had in awhile-to the point that I started pulling out and decorating my house with pumpkins and fall wreaths!

I have decided that life is a lot like waiting on Fall. Sometimes we get caught in the humdrum monotony of day to day living-especially when going through unexpected crises that throw us off our routines and then suddenly the worst is over and the skies are bluer, the trees are more beautiful, colors abound, the air is cooler and we feel ” alive” again… and grateful and happy to be so…

So until tomorrow… Let me take a precious moment and thank all of you for the birthday cards, gifts, calls, texts, and emails… you have certainly made this ole’ gal feel very loved!

Loved the Clemson birthday text card! 😍

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

Remember how I told you I was welcomed from the entrance to Honey’s mountain home to every space around it- with birthday decorations-let me show you!

Birthday memories for a lifetime! Today Jake is celebrating his birthday with one surprise after another! School lets out early so he is going fishing and crabbing with his granddaddy … only to return to a family surprise party! His first ever! Happiness is…

There was one scene on the way to Trust this past Tuesday that has stood out in my memory. It was the first time the sun burst through the fog and drizzle.

The sun hit one part of a mountain where one patch of yellow -turned -leaves on the trees shone like a hidden diamond! For me it symbolized hope … by now I suspect more of the mountain has transformed into the beautiful fall foliage we dream about each fall season!

Donna Rae sent me a beautiful Jacquie Lawson e-card-it ended with a forgotten phrase I love and will write down to have near me!

To the world you just might be one person; but to one person you just might be the world!

This evening my grown children are taking me out to dinner-it is a most special day for me -not for my birthday -but because we can all complete sentences and thoughts ( without interruptions) 🤣 and reveal changes, dreams, and new aspirations! I treasure the time together!

So until tomorrow… To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sky.

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

Dear Reader:

I was so happy to be on top of Pinnacle Mountain when Mike surprised Honey with a watercolor landscape painting of their treasured mountain home! He had it commissioned and then made the frame surrounding it! Beautiful!

Mike decided a couple of years ago to sell his motorcycle and get a lawn tractor with the payment. The backyard has never looked more beautiful… he started from scratch and has been learning through each new endeavor! Mike and Honey are prime examples of lifetime learners! How gifted and talented they both are!

Since Honey knows how much I love history-especially local history and her family connection to the most famous inn that attracted Presidents and many celebrities … the Pine Forest Inn-look at the surprise I got for my birthday! A silver teapot with the initials of the inn engraved! I came home and filled it with garden flowers!

I started remembering Tuesday ( on the way to Trust) different ” secret” signs that showed we were nearing Trust and the Chapel of Hope!

The first memento left in 2010-Honey found the picture/me, Mandy and newborn Eva Cate!

Many of you who have gone to the chapel remember this cross-Sam and Donna even gave me a framed photo one Christmas!

The ” Plum Nilly” Civil War Home and pie bakery is still there-name given to the Barutio’s home and land-” Plum out of Asheville and nilly to Tennessee.”

So until tomorrow … May I never forget all the blessings bestowed upon me on my special birthday!

” Today is my (and Jake’s) favorite day! ” Winnie the Pooh

I think we should have Seven-Up Party-since Jake is seven and I am way”UP” past that- (but still have a 7 in my birthday +2!) 🤣

Dear Reader:

You could search the world over and never find anyone as giving or as hospitable as Honey… and Mike!

By the time I had already pulled into their front yard and seen the gate welcoming me… I had already passed the entrance with pumpkins, mums, and a birthday balloon! In the front garden were more flowers and balloons… by the time I got to the guest bedroom another beautiful birthday balloon was merrily swaying over my bed! Talk about making a girl feel birthday remembered?… unbelievable! So lovable!

I will add these decorative pictures in posts coming up later this week! And don’t even getting me started on the dinners-Monday night we had Thanksgiving dinner-the whole nine yards-turkey, dressing, tomato pie, squash casserole butter beans… it went on and on. I have never been so ” thankful” for a meal except maybe Tuesday night when Mike grilled out steaks, baked potatoes, salad, asparagus and more luscious tomato pie! With birthday chocolate cake. What’s a girl to do? EAT and bless it over and over!

Tuesday morning was ” The Day” … the Chapel of Hope was waiting and we were on our way. As I showed you yesterday the sun burst through halfway there and suddenly blue skies, shining fields of yellow and purple wildflowers gathered on both sides of the winding road to Trust. (I felt like I was back in Provence!)

Then we went around a curve and there was the chapel-we first dropped in the Trust General Store before heading to the chapel-where the God Winks awaited!

My first impression was that the little chapel seemed even smaller than before. Then Honey and I figured out it was the rhododendron bush-it was a giant now and somewhat dwarfing the entrance but to our amazement Honey found one bud had just opened. Gorgeous!

I walked over to the rock by the stream and sat down-with all the rains lately it was no longer a babbling brook but a rushing river creek flowing by.

Once again when I went inside the chapel an overwhelming sense of homecoming consumed me! I just threw my arms out in an embrace and went to open the door for Honey!

Today I am just going to share the first ” wink” inside the chapel with you! I placed my ” love” note (in an envelope) on the altar and went to place the glass cross alongside another trinket left behind by someone. But then when I went to take a photo of it-the sun burst through the stained glass of Gabriel, the angel located above the entrance door-it reflected in my photo and inexplicably the outline of the chapel framed the photo! Honey and I just stared at the photo in disbelief. ” Clearly ” the chapel and the cross, with Gabriel’s blessings, all immersed into one photographic scene.

So until tomorrow… more pictures and adventures in Trust… flowing throughout future posts as rapidly as mountain springs!

” Today is my favorite day.”

Dear Reader:

Yesterday started out raining raining raining! It looked like the trip to Trust would be a wash-out. Instead the rain mysteriously became a light drizzle and ten miles before we arrived at Trust-the sun began appearing as the clouds mysteriously parted letting the light in.

We decided to go to the Trust Store and Cafe first-right outside was a rainbow man-made-a puddle and gasoline … it looked like a beautiful piece of abstract art!

Then just as we got to the chapel the sun broke through overhead lighting the top of the chapel!

Fields and woodlands broke out in bright sun and we didn’t see any rain again until we got back to Mike and Honey’s!

And tomorrow you will see all the amazing mini-miracles that defy logic! We experienced it all!!!

The best birthday ever!!!! And I haven’t even had it yet! 🤣

So until tomorrow… stay tuned to share in all the adventures!

Today is my favorite day!

Last evening the fog returned… eerie but beautiful!

Dear Reader:

I thought for quite awhile about what I would take to leave at St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope … a memento to thank the chapel for being the miraculous catalyst that changed my life from that first visit eleven years ago.

I found it when the grandchildren Sunday started going through drawers and boxes in my house … always looking for treasures.

Their favorite box is the Winnie the Pooh box that Jo and Colby gave me a couple of years ago.

After they left I was putting the lid back on and there was the glass cross! It symbolized how clear my mission in life was-writing the blog post-after my first visit to the chapel in July of 2010.

Normally when I think of the cross I conjure up images of the ” Old rugged cross” or a wooden cross but a clear cross leads us to finally be able to ” see” through the miracle of sacrifice-a sacrifice that allows each of us to discover our own treasures to share with each other.

In this creative church structure in southern Indiana clear glass paneling is found at the top of geometrically designed stained glass panels. The symbolism is ” clear.”

Visitors and worshippers remain aware of a constantly changing world outside, while being surrounded by unchanging symbols of faith inside.

So under tomorrow… just know that Honey and I are exploring and discovering new secrets inside my chapel that will be shared upon my return.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh