Starting Over

Evidently, if you do not post to your blog on a regular basis, blogger decides that they will make you start over. I am going to do better at this. Okay, for the Reader's Digest version of the Bass Family. The year 2006 has sucked for lack of a better word. It actually started in December 2005. We found out on December 12, 2005, also my daughter's 14th birthday, that my father in law, known as PawPaw, had stage four prostate cancer. He had surgery and supposedly was in "remission." We had a great Christmas, but about 6 weeks ago, he began having problems again. Most of you probably already know that we buried him on March 12, 2006. And most of you know about my ordeal with kidney stones. Now for the new news. I have learned more in the past month than I ever learned in college. During the last two weeks of Paw's life, we had great conversations. I was never considered Paw's "daughter in law", he always called me his daughter. During this whole time of dying, I have never seen the outpouring of love from a community, as I saw in Georgiana. Yes, they are a little backwards - stores close at 12 on Wednesday, they eat potted meat gravy and other such great things - but this community surrounded my family with the most awesome display of love. More so than that, I learned from my PawPaw that one thing and one thing only matters - Do you know Jesus? I learned after his death, that the day the hospice nurse came to admit him to their caseload that he introduced himself to the nurse. Then he said to her, "Do you know Jesus?" She replied, "Yes". He said, "Well that is great...is there anybody else at Alacare that I need to work on?" Paw Paw not only walked the walk but he talked the talk. He loved to have a good time and he loved a good joke. But above all he told everyone about Jesus. The last Sunday that I got to spend with him, he asked me to take care of his babies and Big Boy - aka Stephen. I told him I would do the best that I know how. He told me to look in the Bible for all of my answers. He also told me he was ready to go. He wanted to go see Jesus, his mother and daddy and then sit down at the gates and wait for his babies. I know that Paw is up there waiting - of course between fishing trips. We all have those people in our life that we look up to. I must say Billy Joe Bass is that person for me. But one word of advice - listen to those people while they are here on earth, because when they are gone, you have to rely on memories. More tomorrow - thanks for being such great friends.