No energy

No energy. Not really, really sick. Just very tired.

Thinking about those people who were saints in my life: my Aunt Clyde and Uncle Lester who loved me without condition. He made me a wooden stove that was wonderful when I was 7, right after Dad went back into service. She made me clothes and took me to vacation bible school and let me be her "page" at Eastern Star. Big Auntie and Uncle Jake, who lived down the road from us and invited us to watch television every Saturday night so that Mom could see Lawrence Welk. Uncle Jake and I lay on the sofa and watched until I got too big for that. Big Auntie would pick tiny little butter beans and shell them and cook them for Uncle Jake and me. She let me play in her living/dining rooms where she had lots of fascinating stuff that I could pick up and handle and pretend with. Grandma Woods, whose grandsons were David's friends, and who let me eat cold biscuits at her kitchen table and watch her cook on a wood burning range. We never told my Mom that because she didn't think the kitchen was clean enough. And, Grandma let me play her old pump organ even though I didn't know a note of music, I learned how to pump and hit the keys and what all the stops did. And, I got to bring the bunnies in the house, one by one, and play with them through the house, making a big circle with the bunny happily hopping along and waiting until I could catch up to continue our romp. And, Caroline and her one armed husband, whose name I've forgotten, who cooked me turtle soup and made me eat on a white cloth at the sewing machine rather than at the table with them - 'cause it wasn't fittin'. Caroline also cooked on a wood burning range and her biscuits were better than Grandma Woods. And, Mrs. Pettijohn, the town librarian who entertained me many days after school with stories and with books she had chosen for me. She let me read anything I wanted to read in the library, but I could take home only books she thought Mom would approve. Mrs. Eason, my fifth grade teacher, who believed in me. She gave me the best part of the Christmas performance that year. But, Mom couldn't come to watch because her boss' twin sons were also in the class and had parts - so the boss and his wife came to the performance. Mrs. Eason taught us songs and took us on trips and made us think about life and the earth. She disciplined us and made us work hard. Mrs. Denton, who taught Latin (and had also taught me in sixth grade) and who probably instilled in me the idea that I could go to college. She encouraged me and praised my work. For the first time, I was in a class with people who expected to go to college - all of them; I guess, I assumed that I would go also - even though we had no money for college. When I finally graduated, my aunt wanted a picture of my degree so that she could hang it in her house - the first one of our family to go to college.

These are a few of my early life saints. Who were the saints in your life?