July 2002 -- It is late Sunday night and I have just returned home to Houston from a weekend of very special blessing in Athens, Alabama where I grew up and where my ancestors had lived since about 1805. The occasion was the 40th year reunion on Saturday night of the Athens Bible School graduating class of 1962. All 17 members of our class are still living and 13 were present for this occasion, plus several others who were part of our class somewhere along the way. Four decades have sobered our foolishness, whitened our hair, produced a host of grandchildren and at least one … [Read more...]
TWO PHOTOS
One of our family's cherished photos, taken 29 years ago, portrays three women and a baby girl. The infant is our weeks-old daughter Melanie, held by my wife Sara Faye (then in her 20's), accompanied by Sara Faye's mother Celia and Celia's then-aged mother whom we called Tata. On this Mother's Day 2002, we took another photograph to place beside that one. Celia is the 90-year-old in this picture and the infant is our granddaughter Julia. Between them are Sara Faye and Melanie, now herself a mother. This morning also included Julia's dedication service at our church, an event during which … [Read more...]
GRANDPA’S FAITH AND FEAR
As I write this on a Sunday afternoon in early April 2002, our first grandbaby Julia remains in the special care nursery at the hospital where she was born five long days ago. Her parents, Melanie and Michael, are staying at the hospital, although Melanie has been officially discharged as a patient. It seems that Julia's temperature is lower than normal and her heart beat is slower than usual. The neonatologist says this is cause for concern and caution but not necessarily for alarm. We hope to hear from a pediatric cardiologist tomorrow when tests are analyzed. We grasp at positive … [Read more...]
MORTALITY
As I write these words in 2001, I face a small and treasured family picture on my desk. Melanie appears to be four or five years old, Jeremy about two. Both are now grown and married. Where did those years go? Can I really turn 57 this year? The folks I once knew as grownups are now either old or dead. My contemporaries are showing their own years. The youths are taking over the world. Thus it has been from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. And -- we might add, before saying "Amen" -- thus it ought to be, as well. A preacher in the New Testament once remarked concerning King David, … [Read more...]
FAMILY ROOTS & BRANCHES
June 2001 -- This weekend Sara Faye, Grandma Locke and I, with both our children and their spouses (all from Texas), enjoyed a Fudge family reunion at beautiful, wooded, Doublehead Resort on Wilson Lake in North Alabama (www.doublehead.com). My brothers from California and Florida werethere, as well as two brothers and a sister from Alabama and our mother from Ohio. Plus dozens of other Fudge-related kin covering about four generations. You will understand when I say that the event was both restful and tiring. Along the way, we visited the little stone house in Franklin, Tenn. where Sara … [Read more...]
FAMILY MATTERS
July 2000 -- This past Thursday through Sunday, Sara Faye and I attended a reunion of the extended family of my maternal grandparents, Will and Delia (O'Neal) Short, who themselves went to Africa in 1921 as missionaries and served Christ there for more than 60 years. About 100 Shorts, O'Neals, Fudges, Ewings, Mansurs and decendants came from across the United States, England, Holland and (recently) Africa to the beautiful Roman Nose State Park Resort in northern Oklahoma. There we variously made new acquaintances and renewed old ones, golfed, swam, picnicked, played, rode horseback, and … [Read more...]
A DAUGHTER’S REFLECTIONS
My wife Sara Faye and I are honored to have her mother Celia live with us in her declining years. The two of them just made a trip to check on the family homeplace in Middle Tennessee. I thank Sara Faye for allowing me to share the following personal reflections with you which she jotted down one evening during that visit in 1999. (Edward) * * * She sits on the bed surrounded by piles of photographs. The frustration and agitation are evident on her face as she gropes for a name, a place, a memory -- searching through the mists which have come to her 87-year-old mind. She brightens at a … [Read more...]
SOUL-LONGING FOR A WORLD TO COME
July 1997 -- We took my wife's 85-year-old widowed mother home last week, to a little stone house in Tennessee which Granddad built for her 57 years ago and in which she has lived ever since. Sara Faye carried her by car to experience the transition, then stayed the remainder of the week to help her get readjusted. I flew to Nashville Saturday afternoon, and drove back to Houston with Sara Faye on Saturday night and Sunday. Back in Franklin, Tenn., we visited Granddad's grave, beside both of Grandma's parents, and next to a plot where Grandma will rest one day if Jesus doesn't come first. … [Read more...]
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS PROTECTION
Last week (June 1997), son Jeremy left our driveway in suburban Houston to drive to Colorado for the summer, where he hoped to find work near a young lady who lately has become special in his life. It had not been 21 days since we watched him graduate from Baylor University with high honors, "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," as my own Mother used to say (a squirrely expression if I ever heard one), with plans to attend the University of Texas Law School come September. As the familiar '87 Chevy Blazer left our driveway, Jeremy also left standing there two parents, a Grandma and an older sister … [Read more...]