Three Words

My Mother wrote an e-mail to her children today reminiscing about her courtship and marriage to our Daddy. It spurred me to reply with this letter:

Dear Mother (and offspring) 

I loved reading your e-mail this afternoon.

I was day-dreaming just this morning about trying to spur my mother and my siblings with some of the prompts that Donald Davis used with us at the storytelling workshop I attended from July 9-16.  Mother has a great one here; we can use it instead: How about each of us sharing how we came to be mated as we are/were? I have warm memories of the courtships and weddings, and early marriages of Janice & Joan, and Carol especially. Less so of my younger siblings since I was already married and less often around to witness y’all’s goings-on.

Donald challenged us to pick a trip to tell about. I could write about my trip from Ellijay to Atlanta to Chattanooga and up and over Fort Mountain and back to Ellijay with a young Gilbert Crouse. Or the trip Joan and I took the week of her wedding to rescue her groom from Wartburg, Tennessee. But I’ll save those for another time.

I wrote about how Sheila and I got together just recently, and all of you have heard the story, but I’ll link that to this e-mail.

http://aloneonalimb.blogspot.com/2017/08/judgment-decision-promise.html

But I’ll add a little here and use our “YoungTales” trick of saying, “Y’all tell us a little “about” how you met, became engaged, ended up married, etc. In other words no completed work of art is necessary… just a little “about" it. 

Sheila and I dated several times my senior year at Asbury College and were sorta “going together” at the time of my graduation — at least in my mind. Y’all will remember that I had just got out of 15 days of quarantine for the mumps, flat of my back in the college clinic where Sheila visited me faithfully, talking with me from the door to a room she was not allowed to enter. I particularly remember, in light of Mother’s recounting of Mama Shaw’s comments about Julia, how taken Mama Shaw was with Sheila when she came up for the graduation in 1969. She thought we made a good pair. She reminded me of that many times after Sheila and I were married. So, unlike my Daddy, I married the one Mama Shaw approved of! (Just kidding, Mama!)

After the adventure of our reunion in the fall of 1970, I kept the road from Putnam County, WV to Wilmore warm. At Christmas we visited together at Mother & Daddy’s (Skyland) and after Christmas I drove to Tallahassee for the New Year. Sheila’s parents bought new furniture for Jimmy’s room to put me up. I learned that I would eat well at my in-laws should our relationship work out as I hoped it would. There is no better fried chicken. I found the silence of Jay (James Clarence) Matthews, Sheila’s Daddy, a little intimidating, but her mother, Esther Mavis Snell Matthews (Mavis, but Mrs. Matthews to me) couldn’t have been more warm and welcoming.

Annie Belle Brannon Snell, Sheila’s brilliant, kind, and wise Granny celebrated her 86th on New Year’s Eve and I was there to meet the huge greater Snell family at their annual combination birthday party/reunion — outdoors on December 31st! With absolute ease I was welcomed and fed my new favorite dessert - Granny’s Butter Rolls. I found I already loved the five Snell sisters (Ethel, Mavis, Dot, Rose, and Inez) and their Momma. 

Later that evening Sheila and I celebrated the New Year twice, once east of the Appalachicola and a second time an hour later across the river in Blountstown with Sheila’s best friend and later bridesmaid Judy Chastain (Cox) and Gary. Again I felt accepted like an instant part of a long-standing club. Back on Highland Avenue in the wee hours I stopped the Opel Cadette I had named “Sam" (in Sheila’s honor — Sheila Ann Matthews) long enough for a good night kiss and, screwing my courage to the sticking place, uttered the magic three words I’d never used before in a romantic setting. She reciprocated. I wonder how many times she and I have swapped that message since. Only a few of those times have the the three words been followed by a “but”.

Less than a month later I officially proposed. I’ll tell that story another time. 

Who’s next? Let’s take some time to share stories.

Terrell Shaw

706-346-9155

terrellshaw@me.com

May your joys be many, your troubles few, and may they all make great stories!