My Tribute to Mom and Dad

(Beginning with mom)

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What can I say about my mom? There are

so many things. First and foremost, she

loves the LORD with all her heart, soul,

and mind; especially now, for 2 Cor. 5:8

says, "To be absent from the body is to be

present with the LORD." There is no longer

the influence of Satan and the struggle with

the flesh as Paul mentions in Eph. 6:12.

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From my earliest memory there were

some times we didn't go to church, but

mom started us out young. That's my only

reason as a four year old to know how to

pray to Jesus to get me out of a neighbor's

metal Navy footlocker. I had climbed inside

and shut the top not knowing the latch would

fall over, locking me inside. At that time in the

Keys, all of the trailers in the park had their

air conditioners going. No one could hear my

banging and cries for help...except Jesus. The

Christian mom inside was moved to check and

see if I had gone home. When she opened the

door, the first thing in sight was the locker!

Our God works in Mysterious Ways!

When I was eight, we attended a church mission

newly located on the Key. The pastor made a

request of need from the congregation for

anyone who knew how to play the piano. Right

away I volunteered mom, to her great surprise!

And there, started our growth in the LORD for

over twenty years.

This is a picture of my brother who went

into the Air Force when I went into 9th

grade. At that time the Vietnam War was

at its height of fighting. Being in the Air

Force, he later went to Germany for

his duty.

(Secondly, dad)
At sixteen I became dad's 1st mate on our

boat, as mom was perfectly satisified to

give the position over to me. I became dad's

fishing and skin diving partner as well as

"navigator." Pulling dad behind the boat

allowed him to locate the lobsters and fish.

As for mom driving the boat, she was too

short to see over the bow and once or twice

came too close for comfort with running over

the large brain coral that grew up to within

a few inches to a foot from the surface.

That was not something you would want

to run over with the keel or motor. Mom

always had a healthy fear of water. She

could swim, but it wasn't her first choice of

activity. Mom enjoyed fishing, but not the

slicky, slimy critters she would catch.

We would get anything from a few pounds

to 30-50 pound groupers dad would spear.

She lost all care for deep-sea fishing when

they went out in the Atlantic Gulf Stream on

one of their friends' large cabin cruisers.

The motor konked out and there they were,

this minute speck of a boat in the mist of

hugh tankers and cargo ships passing by

them like a freight train non-stop! Night

fishing ? Forget it! Mom wanted no part of

it. Even my initiation added some extra chum

to the batch. Beach combing? Now that was

one of mom's favorite enjoyments! She

loved going to the uninhabited islands

searching for "treasure." You know the old

adage, "What's one man's junk is another

man's treasure!" That was until one day they

returned to the boat to find the tide had gone

out leaving the boat high and dry on the

sandbar! In those days there were no cell

phones. So, no one knew where they were or

what had happened. Six long hours of waiting

finally brought the tide back in and they

returned home about 10:30 p.m. Suffice it

to say, beach combing became another of

mom's hobbies she would pass on to me.

I think mom enjoyed more, the thrill of dad and I

bringing back things we found when beach

combing. She never knew what we were

coming home with! As you can see, mom and

dad had collected many rare and unusual

bottles.

Many of the bottles had been classified as

old and over 100 years old! Some were just

bottles with notes from people in other

countries to which mom and dad replied

with where their bottle was found.

Some pieces of pottery were found on wreck

sites from old sailing ships back in the 1800's.

Dad had located these when he was skin diving.

The jug on the back left was dated at 110

years old (and that was back in 1968!) I still

have it! Below is a picture of a demy john

jug I still have from when dad found it in

the mangroves with just 2 or 3 inches of the

neck sticking out! The sand in the bottom

is Mississippi sand we collected from bottles

that were sent out from an institute in

Mississippi. They were tracking where the

tides would take the bottles.

More to come...