Straight From The Hart

  When My Name’s In The Paper, What Then? Our calendars are full, appointments to keep We're too busy to eat, and there's no time to sleep We barely get to bed when we hear the alarm beep But when our name's in the paper, what then? Reunions and weddings and vacation plans We've gardens to harvest, green beans to be canned We’ll never get caught up with all life's demands But when our name’s in the paper, what then? There are bills to be paid and groceries to buy Meals to be planned for, we must make that pie With our busy lifestyles, we've just no time to die, But when our name's in the paper, what then? To do lists won't matter, many things left undone. We had time to do everything under the sun But there'll come a time when our life's race is run And our name's in the paper, what then? What then of the many opportunities we missed? What then of the prayers left unsaid on our list? What then when our souls fade away into mist? What then, bu...

 You will notice this is dated in 2012. Facebook sent it to me this morning to remind me what I had written back then. Although I have often referred to Kay's death in my writings, this one goes into detail about what happened that night but also sets forth how and why our family handled it and other tragedies we have had, including a word study on happiness contrasted with joy. On the  Tuesday night before Thanksgiving in 1964, just a week after Milan and I had celebrated our first wedding anniversary, we were at the Taylor Avenue Church of God practicing with the youth for our Thanksgiving service to be held the next night. We received a phone call at the church for Milan and me to go immediately to my grandmother’s home because something had happened to my youngest sister, Darella Kay Rowden, then 16 years of age and a junior at LHS. We arrived only minutes before Dorsey Howe, who sadly informed us that Kay had been killed in an automobile accident out on East Hwy 3...