Story Time
Mother, Mary Evelyn, her children, and I went to a ladies’ lunch yesterday at the home of retired teacher who is part of our church. Our hostess lives on a hill in the country, where she has been creating pretty landscaping for decades. We gathered on the porch at first and I got to share a porch swing with my grandchildren. Just as we went in for lunch, God sent a quick summer shower. It was all just beautiful.
I love this group of ladies. Each is part of our ladies’ Bible class which meets only during the school year and only on days that school is in session. If the children get a snow day, we stay home. Our schedule tells you a lot about the power of tradition. Not one person in our class has had children in school for a very long time.
The dressed eggs, homemade bread, salads, pound cake, coconut pie, and other treats were yummy, but the highlight of our gathering was the conversation. The ladies were in a story-telling mood. One lady remembered that when she was a girl adults used to tell her that babies were found under cabbage leaves. Miss Katharine, whose ninetieth birthday is Saturday, said that she used to go outside and look at the moon to try to see storks.
It was uploaded by William Creswell.
After lunch someone asked Miss Katharine to tell stories. I hurried to pull my chair close so I didn’t miss a word. Here’s my favorite one. Try to imagine this pretty, spry, ninety-year old woman standing at the head of the dining room table telling this story with animation while acting out parts of it along the way. I’ll help you picture her. Her short gray hair is always trim. She was wearing a knit shirt with pink and white horizontal stripes of varying widths with her black pants and tennis shoes.
Miss Katharine and her husband, who has since died, used to get away to a cabin by the lake. To prepare for a trip to the cabin, Miss Katharine packed three brown paper bags–one with groceries, one with clothes, and another with sewing, since she was an avid quilter at the time.
At the end of one getaway about twenty years ago, her husband told her that he had to make a quick trip out of state. He went home first and Miss Katharine stayed behind to pack up. As she gathered their things, she put dirty clothes in one bag, sewing in one, and trash in the other. She thought she put the bag of trash in the front seat and the dirty clothes bag and sewing bag in the back. On her way home, she threw the front seat bag into a dumpster.
Miss Katharine got home in time to get her two bags out of the car and say goodbye to her husband. She looked into the first bag and found her trash! She told her husband, “I’ve thrown away our clothes!” Then she looked in the other bag and found the dirty clothes! Oh, no, her sewing bag!–she was mortified!
At this point in her story, Miss Katharine told us that her husband used to say that at that point, she hurried back to the dumpster and hardly even told him goodbye. She believes he overstated the case!
When Miss Katharine arrived at the dumpster, she looked around to make sure no one was looking. Then she looked inside at a rusty, dirty dumpster. Evidently it had been emptied the night before. At the bottom was a lone brown paper bag of sewing. Miss Katharine found a stick, thinking she would poke a hole in the bag and try to fish it out. Nope, it wasn’t going to happen.
She decided she would have to go in. Again she looked around to make sure no one was looking. At this point she interjected, “Everyone in the county knows me!”
Miss Katharine pulled her car up beside the dumpster so she could use the car as a sort of ladder and in she went. Once inside she discovered that all the things a dumpster has to grab a’hold of are on the outside; the inside was smooth. Here came another interjection: “I’m short!”
By this time Miss Katharine was again looking around, not to make sure that no one was looking but in hopes that someone was! No cars came by. That wasn’t going to happen either.
Finally Miss Katharine got one heel over the edge of the dumpster and made her way out, though she scraped her leg considerably in the process.
This weekend Miss Katharine’s family is scheduled to gather at her house to celebrate her birthday. Her church family wanted to celebrate, too, so last night our children’s class made cards for her in the basement while the adults had their class upstairs. Everyone was invited downstairs after church and we got to surprise Miss Katharine with an ice cream cake and ninety candles. Happy Birthday, Miss Katharine!
A woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30