Dispatches
Dispatches from Home and London – The Day the Queen Died. September 8 2022
Good evening from London. We went to Westminster Abbey this afternoon. I was awestruck by its majesty and grandeur. Sam and I decided to go our separate ways while in the Abbey. Later in the day, I went looking for…
DISPATCHES FROM HOME: A Friendship Remembered July 2020
Who’s the chubby kid standing near the orchestra, I asked while sitting in the choir loft of Gulfport’s First Baptist Church? Don’t you know, replied a fellow choir member? His name’s Keith Ballard. He’s singing the boy soprano part in…
Dispatches from Home: London Calling September 1 2023
By this time, a year ago today, I was on Delta flight 4874 bound for Atlanta. Later that evening, I flew out of Atlanta on Flight 0032 bound for London’s Heathrow Airport and the fulfillment of a fifty-five-year-old dream. The…
DISPATCHES FROM HOME – 131 + 43 + 4+1 = 179 Titanic memories.
While recently waiting in line for some eye meds at the local apothecary shop, I spotted what I thought was an old friend of mine, who seemed to whisper, “Please don’t leave me here. It’s been so long since last…
DISPATCHES FROM HOME: I WANT A MAGICAL SHREDDER FOR CHRISTMAS!
On Christmas Day, 2016, the sunlight slowly melted the delicate tracery of the morning frost hugging the rooftops on dear ole Wilson Drive. Little did I know that would be my last Christmas with my “mom.” Why the quotations? Although…
Dispatches from Home – 125 Years!
On a Sunday evening in the hot summer of 1966, my dear parents and I joined Gulfport’s First Baptist Church. As we walked down the aisle, and the pastor, Dr. William Tanner, greeted us, I was fascinated by the greenish-amber…
Dispatches from Home – February 2020
One year ago today, February 22, 2019, God called my dear mother Home. The morning was foggy with rain. A dull silence filled the house. I’d slept a somewhat sleepless night, pondering what the future held for Mom and me…
Dispatches from Home – New Year’s Eve 2019
As Father Time shuffles off this mortal coil and awaits the arrival of the New Year baby, I’ve come to the end of the year and the decade amazed at how quickly 3,650 days disappeared. I’ve also pondered the grains…
Dispatches from Home – Christmas Eve 2019
Christmas is many things to many people. Giving special gifts. Traveling to unusual places. Fun with special people. But most of all, Christmas is a season of traditions. Each year at this time, families all over the world re-create those…
Dispatches from Home – Camille 1969 50 Years Ago August 2019
The crazy, chaotic summer of 1969 is remembered for many things: Woodstock, Chappaquiddick, the moon landing, the Zodiac Killer, and Charles Manson. But for those of us who lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we remember only one thing about…
Dispatches from Home – Father’s Day 2019
For those who knew my father, you know how gregarious he was, never meeting a stranger. Boy! Pop could talk, but only when he had something to say. Otherwise, he was hidden behind the latest issue of the Daily Error,…
Dispatches from Home – May 2018
Just finished watching Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Agatha Christie’s classic tale of murder on the Orient Express. While watching the movie, I could not help but think of a time in the not-to-distant future–when my dear mother no longer needs…