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Showing posts from September, 2013

Uncle Jack and God’s Grace

My Uncle Jack passed away at the age of 80 in May of 2009.  He was my father’s identical twin.  Unfortunately, Jack was born severely mentally handicapped due to a birth injury and spent the rest of his life under the care of my grandmother until her death, and then subsequently in a home for mentally retarded adults in Deland, Florida.  After my Dad’s death I became his legal guardian.   Jack unexpectedly developed a severe case of pneumonia. My mother, husband and I flew immediately to Florida to be with him in his final hours.  As guardian, I had to make the decision to take him off life support.  It’s a terrible position to be in even when you know you haven’t got a choice.  My mother couldn’t understand why I was in agony over it when the inevitable was going to happen within the next day or so.  All I could think of was, what if he doesn’t go to heaven???  It just suddenly seemed like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. My mother in her wisdom reassured my over and o

A Little History From a Non- History Buff

I thought it would be a good idea to include a little island history for the Outer Banks history buffs.  However, I’m not one, so I intend to spend as little time as possible quoting historical facts and figures.  Besides, I would hate to get something wrong and really offend serious historians! Other than Blackbeard the Pirate, who was supposedly beheaded on or near this island in 1718, no other event is as prominent as the sinking of the British ship HMT Bedfordshire off the coast of Ocracoke Island during WW2.  There are many other shipwrecks off the coast of the outer banks and some might be prominent, but I don’t know about them. There may have been some other really big historical events on Ocracoke, but I don’t know about them either!  (For more info on Blackbeard, just visit the island!) Just off the Silver Creek harbor is British Cemetery Road.  The road ends about a mile at the Sound (don’t quote me on that because I’m no good at judging distance). Or at least it seems li

Signs, Fenceposts, and Other Quaint Things

I can’t believe it’s been two months since I’ve posted! I almost forgot my password to log on to this thing!!  The summer has blown by like last year’s Derecho. We successfully launched the oldest daughter (the Teacher) into a brand new life and career 3 hours away. Ouch!!!  The youngest (the Future Event Planner) is moved and settled into college life for the 3rd year.  The nest is once again empty, quiet, peaceful, a little lonely, but now there’s more time with hubby (the Doer of All Things Well), thinking, writing, planning, and working on what God has in store for me for the next phase of life.  Now that our project on Ocracoke is finished, I don’t have as much to say about it in a blog.  I will certainly keep it updated, but perhaps not so often. And I’ll probably focus more on the Island in general. I have always had a thing for doors and windows and other architectural details. I have an entire album of doors and windows that I photographed on a trip a few years ago through F