Life Story:Part One

(Left) Laverne, Wink, and Jean Ann Rush in 2007








Cancer. Alzheimer's.
Before these words were uttered and then placed upon their lives, and now with time seemingly standing still, I spoke to my grandparents about the early days of their lives. The following includes a series of interviews I had with my grandparents in 2001 while they lived in Collierville, around the corner from my house.
(I miss those days.)

Part One: (From 1/29/01, I wrote down all they shared with me that evening.)
I drove them out to my parent's house in Atoka, TN, for a catfish dinner my father and mother had prepared. We all sat around, and after a humble prayer from my father, we ate and talked. That moment seemed so right, like this is what family should be. If only I could bottle up what we had right then are there.
Why don't we do this more often? Excuses fly from every direction like work schedules, long drives, and gas prices ($1.70/gal. I only wish they were as cheap as back then). Discussions ended and the road trip home had begun. This normally 45 minute drive from Atoka to Collierville gave us ample time to talk. As of late, I have spent more time just finding time to visit with them, especially since my grandmother's short stay in the hospital. I guess their mortality has become much more of a reality to me. Therefor, I have made it my mission to go and visit both of them every morning before I go to work. But this time it was different.

The roads leading home are not well lit and are quite curvy, especially on Collierville-Arlington Road. My grandmother requested I be very gentle in handling these curves for it bothered her health in some way. Of course I obliged.
This brought us to a topic. I questioned them,"What was it like when you were young? How were the roads? How often or did you ever travel at night? How did families get together and visit?" The answers flew, and more importantly the questions stopped. I became a captured audience- a student, so to speak, of life. And these were not just any lives, these were the reasons why I am alive. This was a part that I knew so little about, but is so important. This past had shaped me (us). In a way, I am what they had been.
I became a sponge. I needed to know more, and they were willing to tell me. You could tell that they wanted me to know all about their lives.
How vivid are their memories. At the ages of 75 (Laverne) and 77 (Clyde)-(when I wrote this), they remembered so much. Personally, my long-term memory isn't that long anymore. Maybe it is because they relied on their minds more, and that they were better used? Maybe times were so difficult that scars left these dramatic waves of thought which became permanently ingrained in them forever? I cherish that gift. That is why their stories must be told.
My grandparents are not wealthy business owners. They have not traveled the world after retirement. Actually, they have rarely been farther away than Arkansas or Branson, Missouri. They do not live in a condo or retirement community in Florida or even dream of such. My grandparents have left us another kind of legacy.

As I endeavor to give some kind of life through words to these two people that I do so truly love, I pray that your lives will be illuminated and blessed by their love, their struggles, and how the past can teach us how to find our families again.

Next stop: "The Roaring 20's?"