Happy Birthday, Mama

Happy Birthday, Mama

Today, April 12 is my mother, Susie Latty Day’s birthday. Mom has been gone for nearly twenty-two years now and there isn’t a day when I don’t miss her. I’d love to sit down at her dining table for just one more cup of coffee, just one more chat. Many times, I wonder what my […]

Dignity in Defeat

Dignity in defeat and graciousness in victory. I’ve often wished, if I could go back in time, that I might have been present that day, April 9, 1865, in the parlor of Wilmer McLean of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. I would like to have seen General Robert E. Lee, tall and erect, dressed in dignity […]

Rainy Day Remembering

Rainy Day Remembering

Rain woke me. Thunder too. I was thinking about long ago Etta this morning and my Latty family. It would be dark on the farm at this hour, house lit only by kerosene lamps, no outdoor lights at all. Pappy would take a lantern as he went to the barn to milk the cows and […]

My Grandfather’s Barn

My Grandfather’s Barn

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8) That verse always reminds me of my grandpa, Levi Latty. I can picture him going to his barn to milk, morning and […]

The Enchanting, Unforgettable Emerald Isle

The Enchanting, Unforgettable Emerald Isle

Sure, and it was four years ago that I traveled to the enchanting Emerald Isle, but it was an unforgettable, marvelous place–truly grand. And, since I loved it then and love it now, I’ll reprint what I said about it, shortly after arriving back home from that wonderful place called Ireland. Green fields of every […]

Making Memories for Tomorrow

Making Memories for Tomorrow

It was shocking to me when Dr. Billy Graham passed away this week. Of course, I knew that he wasn’t well and he was getting up in years and would one day die, but it’s still a shock because he and his crusades had been a fixture in American life since before I was born. […]