January 2005 - Tower - Page 12
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Historically Speaking
Louise Fox, Church Historian
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Although I usually write about our United Methodist history for this column, "Historically Speaking." I would like to deviate from that to tell a human interest story. It is about my friend, "Bootsie," whom I see on Fridays at the beauty parlor. She became a nonagenarian (a person whose age is in the nineties) this past October. (At age 85, I am an octogenarian.)
One would never guess that Bootsie is that old. She drives across the James River Bridge on Fridays to come to the beauty parlor in Newport News and she lives outside of Suffolk.
Our friendship has lasted now for about a decade, and I hope it will continue until I, too, am a nonagenarian. Bootsie, a widow, has only one child, a daughter, who now lives about ten miles from Bootsie's home. That daughter has a son who lives with Bootsie. But he works, and so therefore he is gone during the day. They have a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Samantha who is like a member of their family.
One day, recently, Bootsie went outside to walk Samantha. She was holding on to the leash when Samantha saw a squirrel. "She goes crazy when she sees a squirrel," Bootsie said. So the dog proceeded to abruptly pull away from her to run after the squirrel. In doing so, she pulled Bootsie to the ground. In the meantime, the squirrel got away, and Samantha turned around to find poor Bootsie lying on the ground. She ran over to her, and when she realized what had happened her whole body began to tremble as she started licking Bootsie's face.
Bootsie told Samantha to stand still while she would put her weight on her back to get herself up. The dog stood motionless while Bootsie placed her hands on Samantha's strong back and managed to pull herself up. Together they went into the house where Bootsie lay down in a chair while Samantha lay by her side, not budging an inch from her. What devotion! What love and caring!
Several money counters are needed to count the Sunday morning collections, and any other church function, day or night, that takes up a collection. We have seven money counting teams with three or four counters on each team. Each team counts for a one month period every seven months. We now have several vacancies on our teams, and we also need several alternates to fill in on short notice when a regular member cannot be there on Sunday morning.
Please contact either Jim Sandstrom, the Counters Coordinator, (on Saturdays or Sundays at 595-1051 or Joan Bonnett at the church office, 595-0383 for full details.
The new year is here and I hope everyone will experience many blessing during 2005.
Our XYZ group will meet Wednesday, January 26 for a covered-dish luncheon in the fellowship hall at 12:00 noon. Our speaker will be Kim Webster, speaking on our preschool program here.
Everyone is welcome to bring a covered dish and a friend or neighbor.
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Robert W.(Bob) McKitrick, thanks.
Last update: January 7, 2005
