Journal of a Living Lady #173

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

The honeymooners are back home safely. The only calamity was that Tori didn't get back to the states with  her driver's license. The last time she remembers seeing that square piece of plastic was while going through Bahamian customs. If you see a young, dark-skinned lady doing the limbo and claiming to be Tori, please make a citizen's arrest.  Tori has blue eyes and long blond hair.

 

Charlie and Tori live over the mountain about 50 miles away. It is close enough, but not too close. Strangely, they were hardly home 24 hours before surprising us in church, along with Bobby and his fiancée.

 

A year ago I would have guessed that cows would be flying over the moon before Bobby would be sitting on a church pew with us. For those who don't know or remember, Bobby is the foster son we adopted at age ten who became a prodigal.  Bobby is turning around now and headed upward.

 

A string of bad choices in late adolescence left him jobless, homeless, and penniless. Bobby even spent a few days in jail sleeping on the floor next to a dirty toilet. Seems there were more detainees than beds.

 

Bobby is quick to tell you that he found a new low to bottom. Bobby looked upward from wince came help. This maturing young man was finally ready for a new way of life. He called home and the rest is history.

 

While Buddy and I didn't have a fatted cow to offer, we have provided him some needed support, emotionally and financially. This time we see genuine change. Stay tuned. This is a real-life soap opera without commercials.  I choose to share the good and the bad in our lives. Pollyanna doesn't live at our house. Neither does Martha Stewart.

 

After church Sunday, Charlie, Tori, Bobby, fiancée and their toddler had lunch around our kitchen table. It was better than old times. It was the new, improved times.

 

In the meanwhile, the on-going battle with disease continues. My blood counts were low today and I'll have a transfusion Thursday. Even if I don't survive the cancer another year, at least I have lived to see Charlie happily married and Bobby with his head on straight. What more could I ask?

 

 

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nancyk@alltel.net

For publication (Sentinel Newspapers) July 18, 2002