Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette May 13 2010

Jerry Gibbens passed away shortly after noon, Wednesday, May 5, at the age of 92. When Paula called to tell me about Jerry’s death, my mothers words on the death of old people came to mind, “ we can’t live forever, just because our kids want us too. We are tired and want to go live with Jesus.” I can not tell you how much comfort mother’s words have brought me.




And Jerry’s death like mother’s was not long and lingering, both were at peace and ready …Just a few weeks ago the little children from the church traveled to Raymond to Riggs Manor, to sing for the residents…Jerry was too weak to come down…so they went to her room to sing for her, weak as Jerry was she sat up on the edge of her bed and sang “Jesus Loves Me” with the little children. I did tear up and had to reach for a tissue when Reverend Rydbeck told that story at her funeral.



Jerry was such a lady, she and her husband Julian sat in the pew front of me at church, and they came to church nearly every Sunday, until just a few months ago. Jerry was a petite little lady, I doubt she was 5 foot tall, and she could not have weighed 100 pounds. Jerry, at all times, was dressed beautifully…. Jerry was at always flawlessly attired in her little pastel suits and high heels, and not a hair out of place. And Jerry was accessorized beautifully too, pretty scarves, handsome purses, I always told her, she looked like a little doll, somebody had stood on a stool and dressed….Jerry was a girly girl for sure. But Jerry’s loveliest accessory was her charming smile and sweet southern nature.



Jerry loved parties, so for the family meal after the funeral…When Jacqueline I were discussing what we were going to do, I declared, “We got to make it look like Jerry!” Jacqueline agreed…. I called Robert Edward asked him to come, and help me get the fellowship hall ready…we set up tables and spread on the sparkling white table clothes. Jacqueline came with buckets of pink roses, and queen Anne’s and when she finished her magic with flower arrangements…. the fellowship hall at the Edwards Presbyterian church looked more like we were fixing to have a tea party then a funeral meal.



I wish I had taken a picture of the room when the meal was being served…of two of the men, farmers, Jerry’s son, Lewis Montgomery, and one of the pall bears, Russell Cannada, in their suits and ties, sitting at the girly girl, prissy tables. I thought to myself, “Jerry got Lewis and Russell to a tea party“ It brought a grin to my face…

Love to all

"The week that was..."

One of the bullet holes...


Cookies



Edwards Ministerial Alliance and C.U.T.E. combined meeting

Front Porch at Gibbs Grocery Learned. Mississippi

Steak Night at Gibbs

King Edward Hotel

Downtown Jackson Mississippi

Christiansen's Comments

Hinds County Gazette

September 17 2009

The tempo of life in Mississippi is picking up speed now….What with football season beginning, and so many of our community events are planned to take place in the cooler months…So from now until New years, we will have lots of events to chose from…we for sure can’t get to them all.

Then after New Years it dies back a bit until Spring. The coming of Springs brings another eruption of activity …and our calendars are once again get so full, we have to go to writing in the margins, with arrows looping around and pointing to dates, just to keep up with where we are suppose to be and what we are suppose to have in our hands when we get there.

I said that to say…I have had a full week last week, my first full week since last Spring…I’ll get the calendar and we will just take it day by day…want to?

Monday was Labor Day: I drove to Madison and had lunch with daughter and did a smidgen of shopping…bought some new towels…Lost my camera in the mall, when I discovered it an hour or so later we returned to the mall and it was right where I left it…

Tuesday: Remember back about a year ago, Dave Montgomery’s house, over on Montgomery drive, was broke into? Dave was home at the time, after an exchange of words, the intruder ran out, but he shot back in to the house? Well the intruder’s trial was Tuesday. ..I went to the trial.
The court house in Raymond is closed for renovation…so for the time being court is being held out at the penal farm….quite depressing what with the fences and the razor wire. Tuesday morning they picked the jury…I didn’t go for that part. The trial was to begin at 1’oclock..it was delayed for a short time…Something about the jurors lunch.

When the proceeding began to proceed, Dave could not go in the court room, because he was a witness, but I could and did. The judge was familiar face, Judge Breland Hilburn.

I sat down on the back row…sort of the back row…the court room is quite makeshift….but serviceable for sure. Anyway two young people came in and sat down on my bench…they were law students…an assignment from one of their professors was to observe 10 hours of trials, the month of September…trials with evidence.

This I found most astounding…They told me, they were are having a very difficult time finding trials to monitor. Now you would think with all the criminal activity reported on the local news shows…those young law students would have countless court cases from which to pick. .

What I learned was this, it is not that cases are not being dealt with…fewer cases are going to jury trials…, more and more defendants are choosing to plea bargain and plead guilty. Which in the end, was what happened in the case involving Dave …The young man plead guilty to 2 counts…which could net him 45 years in jail…..he is not but 20 years old. Very sad…..

Wednesday : I was in the MEA clinic…they were handing out face masks to those with coughs and sniffles…flu season is here.

Thursday; Morning I spent baking cookies for the families of Knox McGee Thomason, of Atlanta, and Elizabeth Camille Hale of Raymond. Knox McGee was born September 1, Elizabeth Camille was born September 9, I have to tell you ..I think Knox McGee is the coolest name ever! Lynn and Davis named him Knox after one of my favorite people, Knox “Knocky” Askew, the McGee is a family name on his great grandmother Cannada‘s side.

The time between cookies going in the oven and coming out …I spent on face book ….up loading pictures of my cookie baking….and seeing what my friends were up to…..I must say…the people I hang out with on Facebook post lots of stuff about their dogs….I guess it’s that birds of a feather thing.

Thursday evening: Tuesday, while in Raymond, I stopped in city hall to say hello to Isla and Brenda…Well! You all! Isla had an extra ticket to a Mississippi Heritage Trust event to be held Thursday, at the old train station, the event was to call attention to the 10 most endangered historic places in Mississippi …one of them being the Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, Raymond. http://www.mississippiheritage.com/

(Oh my word this is getting long…you can stop reading any time you like…it will not hurt my feelings…really it won‘t. But I am no quitter!!!… so I shall push on…..)

One component of that Heritage event was a tour of the King Edward Hotel, presently, being restored . Isla asked me did I want to go…I was so excited………the person she first invited was unable to go…I could not believe my good fortune! And I don’t mind being second choice, not at all…

I have long be fascinated by the King Edward…the stories I have heard of the events that took place there back in the day…Weddings, coming out parties and all such as that.

From the time we came to Mississippi in 1979, every few years a new scheme to save the King Edward was trotted out, we would get our hopes up and nothing would happen, until now. It is beautiful! It is going to a 136 room hotel, there will be apartments, and for those of us who are always looking for dinning opportunities there will be a coffee shop and a dinning room…December is the target date to open…I can’t wait!

Friday: I went to the grocery store. Friday evening, I met Isla and Suzanne Harpole in Learned for dinner at Gibbs Grocery, Friday night is steak night. You all it was packed, we had to wait for a place to sit… We didn’t mind waiting…I for sure didn’t have anything better to do then soak in the atmosphere. It is in an old store…the paint fell off years ago….the inside does not appear to have evolved a great deal over the years …same old counters and tables…

You don’t necessary eat at your own table. There may be two individual tables…Most squeeze around two long tables …I am thinking the tables where sit down to eat, are where back in the day, they placed bolts of fabric to be cut, they are quite long. And there is no air-conditioning aside from the front door standing open. But it is not hot…there are fans. Dinning at Gibbs is a grand experience!

Saturday: There are two newly formed groups in Edwards, C.U.T.E (Community United to Transform Edwards..or something close to that) And a Black /White Ministerial Alliance. Rev. Dean Rydbeck, pastor at the Edwards Presbyterian Church, asked if I would help serve lunch for the joint meeting…I recruited Suzanne Harpole to assist and off we went.

It was a pleasant meeting of about 20 sincere folks, whose purpose seems to be the opening up communication in Edwards…Between Black, White, our city government…all groups. The emphasis is on pray…if your plate is full, but you would still like to take part….place these groups on your prayer list.
Love to all
　
　
GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com

Edwards Presbyterian Church Bible School resignation:
Dale, Angie and Robert Edward



The Lesson Rev. Dean Rydbeck and Dale Robinson


The children singing



Linda Dickson playing the piano..

Fun time!!!

Photos courtesy of Lesley Cannada

Well, ready or not... I am back….I took off July just because it is so blamed hot and miserable…and I knew you all didn’t want to listen to me whine. August is hot too…so I will still be whiney, but perhaps be a bit more cheerfully whiny? The days are still hot, but they are getting shorter. ...so perhaps more tolerable.... We will see.

I am on my front porch. My computer, Ruby is her name, has finally caught up with the old fashion tablet and pencil……Ruby is a lap top, and it can be toted any where a pencil and paper can go….but to use the internet she had to be connected physically to a phone line.

Until Now!!! I recently acquired a wireless router! ( I already had a router… in the shop, the purpose of that router is to shape wood. The two routers do not perform even remotely similar tasks, so why the same name? Maybe the techie guys didn‘t know the word “router” was already in use…do the techie guys not get out much?)

This new router thingamajig sits on my desk in the back of the house, and some how enables Ruby, un-tethered, by a tangle of wires, to function perfectly any where in the house. As I understand it, other folks and their computers can come play too and be connected. grandson Garrett is coming with his computer, we will see.

Garrett, you may remember was in a car wreck last October, he had to have more surgery, his mom and dad tended to him last week…they have declared him sufficiently improved enough that I should be able look after him this week. I don’t know about changing the bandage….I have a weak stomach…the incision is from his shoulder to his elbow. …I keep telling myself it can’t be any worse then a full diaper….we will see.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge…literally…(7or 8 inches)...since I was last here…but the most fun, was Bible School…we had Bible School in Edwards for the first time in years…It was a GRAND success…we had 29 children to attend.

I love Bible School…I no doubt have told you this before…as a wee little child, I learned all I really needed to know about Jesus at Bible school… “Jesus loves me, this I know because the Bible tells me so” , “The B I B L E” that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B I B L E” The Bible was taught to me, in simple language, with plenty assuring words, by compassionate Christian ladies that loved me…bandage my knees, give me hugs when I needed one, poured my Kool aid and gave me cookies…Bible school taught me, I can snuggle up with Jesus any time…

Call if you need me…
　
　
GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com