THIS OLD HOUSE (April 17 - 28, 2018)

                                                                                 (Botany Bay)

The flights back from Springfield, Missouri were a whole lot different than the flights out there.  Going, we were prepared for a funeral.  Returning to South Carolina, we were rejoicing in the complete restoration of our son's health.  As we landed in the Savannah, Ga. airport we were excited to connect with long time college friends, Jerry and Karen Frye.  They picked us up outside the airport and in an hour and a half we were back at Edisto Beach, SC!

The Fryes live in Eldon, Missouri, where Jerry has pastored the same church for over 40 years!  It was good to be able to spend some extended time with them in a relaxed, slow paced place.  It was exactly what Sherry and I needed after the hectic ten days in Missouri! We made an afternoon trip to a most unique place called "Botany Bay."  Botany Bay is a land preserve overseen by the South Carolina D.N.R.  It was opened in 2010.  Nearly 5,000 acres of two former plantations take you back in time. (The Patriot was filmed on the grounds.)  The most amazing part of the five mile driving tour is the secluded beach, cluttered with dead trees due to the recent hurricanes that have hit the island.  It is beautiful and, at the same time, eerie.

After three days of just lying around and doing nothing which, by the way, we did pretty well,
our next guests arrived.  This time it was Ken and Linda Moore from Ohio.  Sherry and Linda had been friends since 7th grade, and college roommates.  Ken met Linda at college and we have been good friends ever since.  Life took us different directions, so catching up now that we all are retired was wonderful. Edisto Island again provided the perfect place to reconnect.  We took a 2 1/2 hour island tour with a local lady, Dottie Thomas, who drove us through two very old plantations and down a road, the King's Highway, built before the Revolution!  A stop at the oldest Presbyterian church in South Carolina, with a tour of the building and the cemetery, was a wealth of information about the early days of this out of the way island.

REFLECTIONS

Locksley Hall was a plantation home built on Edisto Island for Sea Rice Barron, William Eddings, around 1809.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but is best known on the island as the "House of Tragedy".  Across the last 209 years it has experienced several startling tragic events.   

Two young Eddings children died of diphtheria.... An orphaned boy who went to live at Locksley Hall at the age of 17 accidentally shot a nanny and then killed himself.....A sister burned to death when her hoop skirt caught on fire....A brother was murdered in the stable.... A young mother died during child birth (rumor is that she is buried under the front porch).

How sad it is that this beautiful old home (still inhabited) is remembered for the tragic times and not the good times.  I am sure there were times when the home rang with laughter and music.  I am sure there were times of joy and rejoicing.  I am sure that there were times that were not tragic; times of weddings and healthy babies being born.

I want the home of my life to be remembered for the laughter and the music, the joy and rejoicing.  We all have those times that are less than we had hoped for; times that perhaps were downright tragic.  But it should be how we handled those times that become our legacy.  Again, it's pretty much, a choice.  As long as this old house in which I live is inhabited, it will be a "house of hope".

Just like the blend of the dead trees and the living ocean at Botany Bay, I want my life to blend together the tragedy and the triumph into something to be remembered; something that will make people say, "that is uniquely beautiful."

LIFE INTERRUPTED (March 23 - April 16, 2018)

The all night drive from Avon, Indiana, to Edisto Island, South Carolina went without a hitch.

We settled into our two bedroom condo, overlooking St. Helena Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, and began to plan for a special week with family. My two granddaughters, ages 11 and 13, were anxious to enjoy another week's visit to this special place.

Indeed, we did enjoy five days of beaches, dolphins, sunsets, table games, and just being family.  Then everything changed.

I was sitting on the deck, watching several dolphins feed at the mouth of Big Bay Creek, when my wife came out with startling news.  Our 42 year old son, the picture of health, had just suffered cardiac arrest in Missouri and was taken, unconscious, to the Cox Medical Center in Springfield,  where the emergency room Doctor indicated that family members should immediately gather.  We, in shock and through tears, packed for a funeral.

The flights from South Carolina to Missouri were a blur of prayers and tears;  pleadings and memories.  Flight attendants quietly slipped me tissues as the tears continuously slid down my face.

Even the lay-over in Atlanta provided a moment of deep pain as I couldn't bring myself to get lunch at the airport Chick-Fil-A because I knew that, surely, that's where he would go.  Just that simple thought caused a deep hurt as I slumped into an uncomfortable airport chair.

Arriving at the hospital, we were led to a small MICU room.  There he lay; linked to life through tubes and needles.  They had induced a deep coma with paralytic drugs and had begun a Hypothermia Protocol.  For the next 36 hours he lay there; body temperature reduced to 91F, cold to the touch, and unable to move.  They were hard hours, waiting for a sign.  Then it happened...he squeezed my hand.

Now, 16 days later, he has returned to the studio, is recovering from the defibrillator implant, and shows no  physical signs of ever being without a heart beat for several minutes.  His life was interrupted but now is back on track with an amazing story of God's grace to share.  Our life, too, was interrupted but we are now back on our peaceful island, planning to enjoy the next three weeks before heading back north.

REFLECTIONS

As I sat inside a beautiful condo, looking out over St. Helena Sound, I notice that the face of the water had drastically changed.  The glassy calm surface with dancing dolphins was now being whipped by gale force winds.  It was the same place, just very different.  

I watched it turn from peaceful to distressed as the winds stirred up its surface.  It is a scene that has been repeated over and over again across the years.  

Once again, my mind reflects on how much that is just like life.  Life interrupted...over and over and over again.  Once again, I am reminded that in a moment our lives can be turned from peaceful and calm into a raging storm.  

Once again, I am reminded of the ONE who calmed and calms the storm with strong words; "Peace be still".  Once again, through the prayers of so many, I am able to say; "To God be the glory, great things He has done.