(sent to Brenda Cannon Henley by R. O. Williams, Jr.)
Your article last week about the “Rocker” was another winner….you will recall that we became friends back when I was going through Prostate Cancer surgery, organizing the local Gift of Life support group…all of which prompted your interest in the subject…you were a blessing at that time (which is now some 8 years ago) and your articles each week continue to place you in our living room each week. Even though we are now in Austin some 95% of the time, we continue to subscribe to the Examiner in order to try to keep up with what is happening in Beaumont, but your articles each week are one of the first things I read!! Both because we lost our beach home of some 35 years in Sandy Shores and for which you continue to bring us back to the beach through your writings….too, I had met Ted through our office (we financed some of his beach insurance before you 2 married), so I feel like you 2 visit us each week! As we returned to Austin last Friday, we came back by way of Crystal Beach (I wanted to see all that was happening at this time), Galveston and then to Austin….I have continued to share with people that it has not been beach houses being replaced…they are BEACH HOMES….large, beautiful, colorful….we have held on to our plot which now is nearly beachfront…the water was beautiful, the little Methodist church (which I attended many times) has been rebuilt..things were really humming…but moreso, wanted to thank you for the article about your loved “Rocker”….it was so much like my own remembrance of my platform rocker which was built by my Step-Grandfather on my Mother’s side…..Grandpa was a real carpenter, had his own workshop behind their home in Lake Charles and produced a number of different rockers, but the one I inherited is a platform style in which my father rocked me until my feet touched the floor…when Patsy & I married while I was still in the Univ of Texas, that rocker came to Austin with us for our apartment and I used to have a fraternity brother who were nearly fight over the right to sit in it when he visited…we used it for our children and now it is in our daughter’s home in Dallas…when we visit there, I can assure you that I always have at least one time of rocking in it….that brings back so many memories…all good of my father who was of such high integrity, my Mother who was the ultimate at-home Mom at that time, my Grandmother whose home it descended from (and who was truly an angel if one ever lived) and of our children…..the one you showed exudes of love, understanding and just plain ole’ fun!!! So, thanks again for bringing back wonderful memories of the past…at my stage of life, I am convinced that life is built on memories and the Lord is blessing each of us so much when we are given one more day of life as we arise each day….I praise him each day that he has allowed us to be in Austin to share time with our son, Bill, his family and now my older grandson, Taylor, who is playing baseball for the Longhorns…I continue to learn each day that as Rev. Ann Beaty preached last week at Tarrytown United Methodist Church, we are not God, we are not Jesus, we are not the Message, but WE ARE THE MESSENGER…..whether it be with a kind word, a smile or an ear to listen….you represent all of that, so…..keep it up, know that you are truly appreciated by this one human in Austin, Texas….love to you and Ted…. R. O. Williams, Jr.