BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR SAYING,  THE WORLD HAS EYES AND EARS !!!!!!


I had an aunt pass away this past Friday.  She was 98 years old and lived a good life.  Her name was Ruby Cardell and she and her husband,  Ed Cardell were the owners of Floyd Road Shopette for years.  If you grew up in Mableton,  at some time in your life you most likely met Aunt Ruby.  She was a very humble lady with a loving personality and a beautiful smile.  May she rest in peace in the arms of her savior.

As I was thinking about Aunt Ruby this weekend,  my mind naturally flowed to others that have died recently.  It seems each week we are going to a visitation, funeral or memorial service for a friend or  family member that has died.  Why is it that there seem to be more and more deaths of people close to me I asked myself the other day?  I'm sure it's because I'm getting older and am getting close to that time when I will be called home myself.  I'm sure some of you are saying to yourselves about now "This sounds like a gruesome post,  I don't know if I want to keep reading this or not."  Or you may say  "This doesn't sound like a post from Wesley,  he's usually upbeat."   Let me ask you to please continue reading.  There yet maybe something that will inspire you.

When writing most of my post, a subject or a person will come to mind,  I sit down at the computer and just start typing.  What you get is the first thing that pops into this old soft bald head that is attached to this body of mine.  But this post has developed over the past week and the inspiration came from someone who is probably going to be shocked when she sees her name.  If you happened to read my last post, you will remember it was about my Aunt Frances and her having her 100th birthday.  If you haven't read it I hope you will.  It was about the things I remember about Aunt Frances and the influence she has had on my life.  I posted it on facebook as I usually do and was again amazed at the responses I got.  I still have a hard time believing people will read something I write,  much less enjoy the things that come out of my mind or my memories of my life years ago.   Maybe that's a subject for another post but for now I must finish this one.  Anyways, I love getting comments on what I write.  I guess it confirms that what I write is worth reading.  Maybe it's an ego thing.  I'm not sure but I know I enjoy the comments and I mean everyone of them.  But after the last post there was a comment that really hit me hard.  I mean hard like a kick in the stomach hard.  It came from a lady that I went to High School with.  We are friends on Facebook.  In fact we are probably better friends on Facebook than we were in High School.  You see, she was a much nicer person in school than I was and she had the good sense to keep a safe distance from me and my kind.  That being said,  I guess I can still say we were friends back then, and I'm glad I can say we are friends today.  The person I'm talking about is Edna Brown Romano.  What was her comment you ask?  Edna said:

 

"I pray I will live a life that will call to the mind of a niece,nephew or grandchild the warmth of love you have shared so beautifully."

Stop for a minute and think about what Edna said.  She not only said these kind words to me,  she set a goal for herself to live a certain kind of life.  In fact, Edna took it a step farther and prayed to live her life in a certain way.  Edna's comment struck a chord with me.  As many things do lately, Edna's comment got my mind to going.   The first thing I did was type a new status on Facebook.  You may remember  I typed:

                                  I can do that.    Think about it.

You probably thought I was asking you to think about it, while I was actually asking me to think about it.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't live that kind of life.  I could type I CAN DO THAT,  and I could say I CAN DO THAT, but by myself, I couldn't do that.  So I went back and read Edna's comment again, and two words jumped out at me.  I PRAY.  There was my answer.  If I pray, I can do that.
Phil. 4-13 says  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

When I was younger, just like most young people I thought I was indestructible.  I thought I would live forever.  Then for some reason  we finally realize we are only here for a short time.  It is during these times we discover that if we are going to leave a footprint on this earth,  the best way to be remembered is by how we lived.  How we treated others.  How we loved others.  When I think of the ones that have gone before me,  the ones I remember fondly are the ones that always had nice things to say.  The ones that always had that smile on their faces.  The ones with a giving spirit.  The people with a righteous spirit and those that showed mercy to the downtrodden.  In short,  the ones I have the best memories of are the ones that were the most Christ like.
 And so:

 I pray I will live a life that will call to the mind of a niece,nephew or grandchild the warmth of love You have shared so beautifully with me my Lord.  Let me always be submissive to Your Guiding Light.

Amen and Amen.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

On this day in history the Congress passed the Bill of Rights, The three crewmen of Skylab II landed in the Pacific Ocean after being on the U.S. space laboratory for 59 days, and My Aunt Frances was born.  Big deal you might say to yourself..."So today is your Aunt's birthday.  We all have birthdays."  Yep,  we all have birthdays, but will you have a 100 of them?  That's right,  today My Aunt Frances is 100 years old.  Happy birthday Aunt Frances.

I'm sure you are familiar with the old saying  "He can't see the forest for the trees."   Well this morning as I was thinking about someone like my Aunt Frances having 100 birthdays, this old saying came to mind. But as I thought, I said to myself,  "Be careful Wes, living to be a hundred years old is quite a feat,  but the big thing,  the thing that really matters is what you did in those hundred years."  So I decided to change the saying to "You can't see the trees for the forest."  You see,  the forest is the one hundred years but My Aunt Frances built that forest one tree at a time.  To know My Aunt Frances,  you have to be able to see the years in small segments.

1912....Taft was President.  It would be 2 years before WWI would start.  Seventeen years before the great depression, and it was the first year of the Girl Scouts. Oh how I wish I had been smart enough to quiz Aunt Frances years ago about her young life.  The stories I could have heard and the things I could have learned.  Aunt Frances is the oldest of eight Hogue children and the last one living. Today she is bed ridden,  her body is broken and almost worn out.  Her mind isn't sharp like it was a few years ago but her spirit is still something to behold.  If you look up "sweet spirit" in the Dictionary,  it wouldn't surprise me to see a picture of My Aunt Frances.

As I wish for unheard stories to be told to me by My Aunt Frances,  the one thing I do have and cherish are the memories I have of her.  I still remember as a young boy visiting at her house,  playing with little cars in the room next to the kitchen as she was cooking dinner for her family.  The thing that is foremost in my memory isn't the food she was preparing or the decor of the house.  It isn't of the toy cars and trucks I played with or the clothes she wore.  The memory is of her voice singing praises to her Savior.  She wasn't just humming a tune or singing a chorus.  She knew all the words to the hymns and would sing all the words.  There was no air conditioning and the windows were open and I know the neighbors heard her sweet voice.  It hasn't been but a short time ago that I once again heard her singing and it still brought a smile to my face and a warmth to my heart.

I love going to yard sales and flea markets.  I like taking old throw away items and decorating my birdhouses with these things.  I can trace my love for scrounging for old things directly back to My Aunt Frances.  We lived in Atlanta when I was young and I can still remember her coming out and picking me up and we would go down on Decatur Street to the pawn shops looking for bargains.  It makes me laugh thinking about her shopping in these stores.  She loved her antiques.

But if you're going to talk about the loves of My Aunt Frances,  you have to start with family.  When the Bible talks about being equally yoked, I'm sure it's talking about Aunt Frances and Uncle Ralph.  When you came to the first curve on Cooper Lake Road,  every house you could see, the people who lived in them were related to Aunt Frances or Uncle Ralph. My Grandfather died when all  the kids were fairly young and from what I can discern,  the family stayed very close in large part because of Aunt Frances and Uncle Ralph.  I can still remember during the last years of my Mom's life,  if there was a problem,  she would say  "Call Aunt Frances." If the Hogue family had a Matriarch, without a doubt it was My Aunt Frances. And you could easily see the importance that was placed on family, in the lives of the children of Aunt Frances.  Even when we lived out in Atlanta it wasn't unusual for Jimmy or Stuart or Nick to show up for a visit.  And Marlene and Dianne seemed as close as sisters sometimes.  Family mattered to Aunt Frances and she taught her children that family matters.

I could go on and on about stories about My Aunt Frances.  Stories about auctions and staying the weekend at her house.  Stories about sleeping in the attic of the garage, riding across the fields in a horse drawn wagon and early morning squirrel hunting trips.  Funny stories about biting my finger nails and getting Polio from it. 

I'm sure during these 100 years there were some hard times and disappointments.  I'm sure there were times when many of us would say "why keep on going."  But not My Aunt Frances.  I'm sure that on this morning she awoke with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. And so today I say to her......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT FRANCES,  HOPE YOU HAVE A BLESSED DAY AND I AM SO GLAD I CAN CALL YOU:
                                                   MY AUNT FRANCES

I WISH FOR ONE MORE PHONE CALL


The phone call would come in the night.  Most times between 9:30 and 10:30 PM.  It would be my good friend Ed asking if Peggy and I would join him and Ruth on a trip to the lake to go fishing.  You see Beth, the oldest daughter of Ed and Ruth,  had recently gone to be with the Lord.  They were having trouble sleeping and just needed company.  "Of course we'll go Ed,  give us 30 minutes and we'll be there."  Those fishing trips came to my mind yesterday as I learned of the death of Ed Ramsey.  Many people would say we were doing a good deed by spending the night with friends during their time of grief but I say it was us that benefited from these times.  We learned so much about life and ourselves,  about God and His wonderful grace on these trips.  Funny how the mind works.  I can remember the sound of the motor on the back of the pontoon from these nights.  I remember the stars shining so brightly and the cool crisp air in my face.  I remember the fresh smell of God's creation and the laughter of friendship but I can't recall if we ever caught a fish.  Maybe fish isn't what we were going for after all.

As I heard the news of Ed's passing, my mind became a whirlwind of memories of Ed and his family.  I can still hear him telling stories about himself and Jessie Ruth.  Seems he always called her Jessie Ruth.  He would tell stories about when they first came to Georgia from Port St. Joe and stories about when he was a kid growing up in Florida.  Ed always had a story to tell.  He was a master story teller.  I hope his kids and grand kids have recorded some of these stories to pass down.  Speaking of the kids, it always amazed me at how different they were from each other.  Oh, as far as looks go they all seemed to favor one another but their personalities and interest were all so different.  Ed and Ruth were the best I have ever seen at letting their children develop in their own direction and I so admired that in them.  And when I say this, don't think for a minute these Ramsey kids didn't have direction.   They were always directed toward God and they were always loved unconditionally.

I thought of times when Ed was the Pastor at Brookwood Baptist Church.  He would tell me about things that were happening at the church and he was so proud of his members.  Ed was a good preacher and he was a great pastor.  He loved the congregation and was so good at encouraging them and building them up.  I can still hear Ed bragging on a teenager  speaking on youth night or about a lay member giving a talk  at Wednesday night service.  We were blessed to visit Brookwood sometimes and we were always greeted with open hearts and smiles.

Another memory was when Cindy, our oldest daughter, and Randy were planning their wedding,  Cindy insisted that Ed be one of the Pastors of the service.  Ed wasn't the pastor of our church but Cindy considered him to be a pastor to her.  I think this tells alot about the love he had toward people.  I can still see Ed standing there with that barrel chest stuck out.  As I think back I realize God had to give him that big chest to hold that big heart he had.

I could go on and on talking about what this man meant to me and my family.  I could tell of swimming parties and other trips to the lake.  Of Sunday dinners and playing cards all night long.  I could tell what a blessing he was to all that knew him but they already know this.  This Wednesday there will be a funeral for Ed.  There will be songs sung and words said.  There will be prayers prayed and stories told.  But it won't be Ed's funeral.  Ed's funeral has already been told.  It was told in his life everyday by him.

Rest in peace my friend.  I love you and miss you and I know when you reached those gates to heaven God said welcome my good and faithful servant....Welcome home.