Visiting Greatdaddy

Today was spent mostly on the road. There was a Blackburn Institute breakfast event featuring former HEW Cabinet Secretary David Matthews this morning at 7:30 AM, so we left Monroeville at the crack of dawn in order to make it to the event. Dr. Matthews' talks and discussion groups are always interesting, and this one proved to be no exception. He asked the group to describe and discuss our generation, and he asked very questions and took notes throughout the discussion. It was fascinating to hear to commentary of some of the Blackburn student fellows, many of whom were clearly more interested in sounding smart than in coming up with accurate descriptions and others of whom were sincerely trying to give thoughtful, well-reasoned responses. All-in-all, it was a very worthwhile hour and a half.

Following breakfast, we met my grandmother, Maw Maw, at Books-a-Million and preceded towards Birmingham for the real purpose of our trip north. I really wanted to be sure to see my great-grandfather, Greatdaddy, before going back to England. He is 93 and lives in an assisted living facility outside of Birmingham- but he was older than 90 when he moved there! For most of my life, Greatdaddy and his wife Nana lived together in their house in Eutaw, Alabama. He was in perfect health until she died a few years ago, after which he began to slowly lose his memory, though his physical health remains excellent. He knows who most of his relatives are but gets some of us confused with each other at this point. Thus, I decided it would probably be a good idea to ask Maw Maw, who is his daughter, to go with us to see him. She agreed and also invited her sister, Aunt Judy, and brother-in-law, Uncle Wayne to join us. They came and brought their young grandson, Holden, whom I had never met before. 

Though Greatdaddy was somewhat confused about who some of us were, he seemed to enjoy having us stop by. I took the Creative Memories digital wedding album that Mom made for my and showed it to him. He was at my wedding, but he doesn't remember it, and he liked seeing pictures of everyone. 

After completing our visit with him, the six of us (Maw Maw, Aunt Judy, Uncle Wayne, Holden, Will, and me) went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, after which Will, Maw Maw, and I headed back south.

Visiting Granna

Today we drove down from Monroeville to Gulf Shores to visit Granna. We had planned to leave Monroeville early enough to get to Gulf Shores in time for lunch; but we had a bit of a surprise this morning. As we were getting the car packed, we got a call from Dad, who called my phone and asked to speak to Amanda. I handed the phone over to her, and I went back to what I was doing, and a few minutes later she informed me that her Aunt Cydell was in town. Apparently, she showed up at MawMaw & PawPaw's hotel room this morning to go to MawMaw's doctor's appointment with her. After the appointment (where we got very good news), all six of us (MawMaw, PawPaw, Dad, Aunt Cydell, Amanda, and me) went to David's Catfish (one of the 100 Places in Alabama to Eat Before You Die; so far, I've been to nine, including David's). I was boring and got a cheeseburger; Amanda was equally boring and got a bowl of gumbo. Everyone else got something fish-related.

After finishing at David's, we hit the road to come down to Gulf Shores. We made it to Granna's about an hour before dinner, and are now camped out in her living room.

Visiting Cullman

After we checked out our brakes (the brake light was on, but it's apparently nothing serious), we headed north to Cullman this morning. We arrived around lunchtime. We've had a good visit so far, and we're planning to stay tonight and tomorrow night and then head back down to Monroeville on Saturday morning.

Nobody Likes a Funeral

Today was Grandmommy's funeral. Brother Mel did a very good job with it. It was sad.

After the funeral and the trip to the cemetery, we went back to Ethelsville Baptist Church for a reception. There was a lot of good food there. At the end, we went back to Grandmommy's house, where Amanda and I will spend the night. Tomorrow morning, we'll headed to Tuscaloosa for MawMaw's liver biopsy.

We did get a chance to meet Maranda's new boyfriend Cody tonight. He seems like a major improvement over the last few.

Getting There Is . . .

We left home at 7:40 pm GMT (1:30 pm CST) on Sunday, 18 January 2009. We arrived in Ethelesville at 12:15 pm CST (6:15 pm GMT) on Tuesday, 20 January 2009. It took us just under two days to make the trip, Exeter to London Paddington to Heathrow to Detroit to Atlanta to Monroeville to Ethelesville. The only time we weren't on the go was when we took six hours to sleep from midnight to 6 am on 20 January.

Christian Unity Sunday

Today was Christian Unity Sunday at church. As a result, Rev. Sails was off at another church, and we had an Anglican priest in his place. The priest is an Anglo-Catholic, which means he is an extremely high-church Anglican, much in the vein of Henry VIII (who was ardently Catholic in all but name, and just wanted to be in charge). He reported that he asked Rev. Sails "What order of service do you use?" and Rev. Sails replied, "Use whatever you like." The guy wasn't a huge fan of that answer. He was even less thrilled when he found out that he was expected to preach at 25-minute sermon in addition to planning the service. Apparently, he typically gives a 15-minute sermon, and isn't responsible for planning much, because he is Anglo-Catholic, and just opens a book, and *poof*, he knows what to do.

Much of the sermon was concerned with how much the Methodists and Anglicans need each other. Apparently, back in the 1970s, there was a movement to merge the two groups; however, the Anglicans voted against it. There seem to be some limited efforts to that effect in the works now; however, the broader effort is to promote understanding between the groups (as evidenced by groups like MethAng at the University of Exeter).

Pressed Flower Cards

Today, my schedule worked out so that I could finally make it to another meeting of Global Gathering, the group for wives of international students that I participated in some last term. I really enjoyed getting to see everyone again! Our activity of the day was making cards from pressed flowers. The flowers came from the garden of the group leader's father. Apparently, he loves pressing flower but never does anything with them afterwards. Last year, he gave her 11 telephone books full of pressed flowers, and she brought about four of those books to the table for us to use in card-making. Some of the flowers were absolutely gorgeous, and making the cards was both easy and fun. I plan to give mine to my mom, because she really likes pretty stationary.