Today's Opinions

When I was a little girl, I attended Pleasant Grove Baptist Church with my mom and brother.

One year, an ice storm damaged some branches on the two big sycamore trees at the edge of the cemetery. I recall some discussion among the church members whether to cut the trees down – as they were advised by an expert – or to trim the damaged branches and give the trees a second chance.

Being a bit of a tree-hugger back then, I was glad when the adults decided to do the only wise thing by giving the trees a chance to recover.

For 10 years I worked with Daphne Loyall at Sunrise Manor Nursing Home.

Daphne, as administrator, deals with patient care, personnel issues, auditors and government regulations. Just try to read through the latest Medicare requirements and you’ll find plenty of reasons to pull out your hair.

Daphne had an expression she used when she was having one of “those days,” when no big thing was going wrong but the little things weren’t going right and she felt she would drown in them.

A couple of months ago, someone asked me why I don’t write about my children as often as I used to. When they were younger, they made frequent appearances in my columns – but always with their permission.

As they became adults, I tried to respect their right to privacy. Amanda, always a whirlwind of sociability, probably wouldn’t mind if I wrote about her life; but Daniel was more introverted. He didn’t care to draw a lot of attention to himself.

But he managed to do exactly that on Nov. 2.

That was the day everything changed.