| Biographical Non-Fiction posted October 9, 2021 | Chapters: |
...139 140 -141- 142... 
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At the end of camp, Connie comes home to live.
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
Another Birdie Back in the Nest
by BethShelby
.jfif)
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
Connie decided she wanted to go back to college full time in the fall. While she was still at camp, she asked me to go to Chattanooga State and pick up her transcripts. She had 68 college hours, but not all of them would transfer from the junior college to the University of Tennessee. Her plan was to change her major to Interior Design, a field she had always found interesting. She thought she could finish in two more years.
Before Connie’s camp session was over, J. P was calling constantly to see if we’d heard anything from her. She wasn’t trying very hard to maintain a relationship with the guys she had been dating before going off to camp. We hadn’t expected J. P. would be someone to be so concerned about her. I’d assumed he would find another girlfriend, with her away for a while. At first, Connie had talked about Charlie, the guy she met at camp, but on one of her later calls, she’d said she didn’t expect things to work out with him, because he lived too far away. He lived in a tiny Mississippi town near Hattiesburg.
As camp was ending, Connie got in trouble with the camp director. Some of her latest group of teenage girls had left graffiti all over the walls of the cabin. Connie said she didn’t realize some of the girls had gone back to her cabin, because there had been no writing on the walls when she left. When the writing was discovered and the director learned of it, he was very angry and blamed her. The graffiti proclaimed Connie is the greatest, but there were some very negative comments about him. He insisted Connie remain an extra day and clean all the writing from the cabin. When she did leave camp, she went by the way of Georgia to visit with Don and Kimberly again.
Before she made it back home, J.P. was driving us nuts, but Charlie was calling from Mississippi as well. Neither of them seemed to understand why it was taking her so long to get home.
“Ahh….to be young again and to be truly missed,” I exclaimed. You gave me your exaggerated, hurt expression. “Just kidding,” I added. “I know you’d miss me. If I’m an hour late getting home, you’re on the phone calling to make sure I’m okay. I know you couldn’t live without me. I’m the same about you; remember the time you had a flat when you were on the way back from Mississippi, and you didn’t call to tell me you were spending the night in a motel. I had the police out looking for you.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” you asked with a sigh.
The day after Connie returned home, the camp director called her and apologized for the way he had acted toward her. He told her she had done an excellent job as a camp counselor and rock climbing instructor. We were relieved, because we didn’t want the incident to leave a negative impact on her summer experience. Connie wasn’t thrilled about having to live at home again, but she was trying to make the best of it and hoping it would be only temporary.
J.P’s car was in the repair shop, so Connie went over and picked him up and brought him back here to spend the night in our guest room. She also had a long conversation with Charlie, who was trying to figure out a way to continue their friendship.
Don called and told us Mom needed his help on some roof repair and painting work, and he planned to go to Mississippi on Wednesday. Connie wanted to go with him, hoping Charlie could drive up and see her. I decided I needed to go check on Mom and Dad as well. You agreed I should go, so I drove Connie and myself to Atlanta.
Kimberly was nearly seven months pregnant, and although she was seeing a midwife for delivery, she wanted an ultrasound to make sure everything was going smoothly. We arrived in time to go with her and Don for the procedure. It was quite easy to see on the ultrasound the baby was a girl. Don couldn’t believe it, because he’d been so certain it was going to be a boy. He even thought he’d figured out a way to make sure it would be a boy. It was like when he was ten and I’d given birth to Connie. He asked my doctor if he could go back and look again and make sure there wasn’t a boy in my stomach, he might have missed. He’d felt outnumbered by women all his life.
On our way to Mississippi, Don drove and Connie sat up front. Their conversation showed that Connie’s experience at camp had made a big impact on her life. She and Don talked freely about God, which was very unusual for Connie, who had always hated going to church. After we got to Mom and Dad’s place, Don took Connie part of the way toward Hattiesburg and they met Charlie. Don gave him a hard time, mostly kidding, but asking all sorts of questions. I think he embarrassed Connie.
Don got busy doing the work Mom was paying him to do. Mom was turning eighty, but her health seemed good. Dad, at eighty-four, was having problems. He got up in the night and got lost. He often fell, and Mom really needed help with him. I felt bad that we lived so far away. Neither of them were ready to leave their home and move closer to us.
After the work was finished, Don wanted to go to the nearby town of Philadelphia to see the Indian casino, which had been recently built. Mom wanted a chance to get out of the house, so the three of us went. It was the first time I’d ever been in a Casino, and I was shocked that something so near our little town could be so elaborately decorated. Don was blown away by it too. He said it looked just like Las Vegas, and it stuck out in the middle of rural Mississippi.
I got to meet Charlie when he brought Connie back to Newton on Sunday. He seemed nice, and she was right; he did look a lot like Woody Harrelson on Cheers. Connie said she liked his parents, although she hadn’t gotten to see them very long. Connie and Charlie had gone to Gulfport with some of his friends. They had gone to a casino, too, where he won fifty dollars. I was disappointed to learn he liked to play the slots.
Charlie complained about how far it was from his house to Newton, to bring Connie back. He said Highway 15 was totally boring. In spite of the complaints, it wouldn’t be the last we would see of Charlie.
Evan is 65 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 56 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working temporary jobs.
Carol is 32, and a nurse, working at a hospital in Chattanooga and living in an apartment.
Don is a twin. He is 31 and just graduated from Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical company and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta. She is pregnant with their first child.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is twenty-one. She will be a junior in college.
J.P. is Connie's current boyfriend. Charlie is a new boy Connie's met at camp.
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
Connie decided she wanted to go back to college full time in the fall. While she was still at camp, she asked me to go to Chattanooga State and pick up her transcripts. She had 68 college hours, but not all of them would transfer from the junior college to the University of Tennessee. Her plan was to change her major to Interior Design, a field she had always found interesting. She thought she could finish in two more years.
Before Connie’s camp session was over, J. P was calling constantly to see if we’d heard anything from her. She wasn’t trying very hard to maintain a relationship with the guys she had been dating before going off to camp. We hadn’t expected J. P. would be someone to be so concerned about her. I’d assumed he would find another girlfriend, with her away for a while. At first, Connie had talked about Charlie, the guy she met at camp, but on one of her later calls, she’d said she didn’t expect things to work out with him, because he lived too far away. He lived in a tiny Mississippi town near Hattiesburg.
As camp was ending, Connie got in trouble with the camp director. Some of her latest group of teenage girls had left graffiti all over the walls of the cabin. Connie said she didn’t realize some of the girls had gone back to her cabin, because there had been no writing on the walls when she left. When the writing was discovered and the director learned of it, he was very angry and blamed her. The graffiti proclaimed Connie is the greatest, but there were some very negative comments about him. He insisted Connie remain an extra day and clean all the writing from the cabin. When she did leave camp, she went by the way of Georgia to visit with Don and Kimberly again.
Before she made it back home, J.P. was driving us nuts, but Charlie was calling from Mississippi as well. Neither of them seemed to understand why it was taking her so long to get home.
“Ahh….to be young again and to be truly missed,” I exclaimed. You gave me your exaggerated, hurt expression. “Just kidding,” I added. “I know you’d miss me. If I’m an hour late getting home, you’re on the phone calling to make sure I’m okay. I know you couldn’t live without me. I’m the same about you; remember the time you had a flat when you were on the way back from Mississippi, and you didn’t call to tell me you were spending the night in a motel. I had the police out looking for you.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” you asked with a sigh.
The day after Connie returned home, the camp director called her and apologized for the way he had acted toward her. He told her she had done an excellent job as a camp counselor and rock climbing instructor. We were relieved, because we didn’t want the incident to leave a negative impact on her summer experience. Connie wasn’t thrilled about having to live at home again, but she was trying to make the best of it and hoping it would be only temporary.
J.P’s car was in the repair shop, so Connie went over and picked him up and brought him back here to spend the night in our guest room. She also had a long conversation with Charlie, who was trying to figure out a way to continue their friendship.
Don called and told us Mom needed his help on some roof repair and painting work, and he planned to go to Mississippi on Wednesday. Connie wanted to go with him, hoping Charlie could drive up and see her. I decided I needed to go check on Mom and Dad as well. You agreed I should go, so I drove Connie and myself to Atlanta.
Kimberly was nearly seven months pregnant, and although she was seeing a midwife for delivery, she wanted an ultrasound to make sure everything was going smoothly. We arrived in time to go with her and Don for the procedure. It was quite easy to see on the ultrasound the baby was a girl. Don couldn’t believe it, because he’d been so certain it was going to be a boy. He even thought he’d figured out a way to make sure it would be a boy. It was like when he was ten and I’d given birth to Connie. He asked my doctor if he could go back and look again and make sure there wasn’t a boy in my stomach, he might have missed. He’d felt outnumbered by women all his life.
On our way to Mississippi, Don drove and Connie sat up front. Their conversation showed that Connie’s experience at camp had made a big impact on her life. She and Don talked freely about God, which was very unusual for Connie, who had always hated going to church. After we got to Mom and Dad’s place, Don took Connie part of the way toward Hattiesburg and they met Charlie. Don gave him a hard time, mostly kidding, but asking all sorts of questions. I think he embarrassed Connie.
Don got busy doing the work Mom was paying him to do. Mom was turning eighty, but her health seemed good. Dad, at eighty-four, was having problems. He got up in the night and got lost. He often fell, and Mom really needed help with him. I felt bad that we lived so far away. Neither of them were ready to leave their home and move closer to us.
After the work was finished, Don wanted to go to the nearby town of Philadelphia to see the Indian casino, which had been recently built. Mom wanted a chance to get out of the house, so the three of us went. It was the first time I’d ever been in a Casino, and I was shocked that something so near our little town could be so elaborately decorated. Don was blown away by it too. He said it looked just like Las Vegas, and it stuck out in the middle of rural Mississippi.
I got to meet Charlie when he brought Connie back to Newton on Sunday. He seemed nice, and she was right; he did look a lot like Woody Harrelson on Cheers. Connie said she liked his parents, although she hadn’t gotten to see them very long. Connie and Charlie had gone to Gulfport with some of his friends. They had gone to a casino, too, where he won fifty dollars. I was disappointed to learn he liked to play the slots.
Charlie complained about how far it was from his house to Newton, to bring Connie back. He said Highway 15 was totally boring. In spite of the complaints, it wouldn’t be the last we would see of Charlie.
Evan is 65 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 56 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working temporary jobs.
Carol is 32, and a nurse, working at a hospital in Chattanooga and living in an apartment.
Don is a twin. He is 31 and just graduated from Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical company and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta. She is pregnant with their first child.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is twenty-one. She will be a junior in college.
J.P. is Connie's current boyfriend. Charlie is a new boy Connie's met at camp.
Connie decided she wanted to go back to college full time in the fall. While she was still at camp, she asked me to go to Chattanooga State and pick up her transcripts. She had 68 college hours, but not all of them would transfer from the junior college to the University of Tennessee. Her plan was to change her major to Interior Design, a field she had always found interesting. She thought she could finish in two more years.
Before Connie’s camp session was over, J. P was calling constantly to see if we’d heard anything from her. She wasn’t trying very hard to maintain a relationship with the guys she had been dating before going off to camp. We hadn’t expected J. P. would be someone to be so concerned about her. I’d assumed he would find another girlfriend, with her away for a while. At first, Connie had talked about Charlie, the guy she met at camp, but on one of her later calls, she’d said she didn’t expect things to work out with him, because he lived too far away. He lived in a tiny Mississippi town near Hattiesburg.
As camp was ending, Connie got in trouble with the camp director. Some of her latest group of teenage girls had left graffiti all over the walls of the cabin. Connie said she didn’t realize some of the girls had gone back to her cabin, because there had been no writing on the walls when she left. When the writing was discovered and the director learned of it, he was very angry and blamed her. The graffiti proclaimed Connie is the greatest, but there were some very negative comments about him. He insisted Connie remain an extra day and clean all the writing from the cabin. When she did leave camp, she went by the way of Georgia to visit with Don and Kimberly again.
Before she made it back home, J.P. was driving us nuts, but Charlie was calling from Mississippi as well. Neither of them seemed to understand why it was taking her so long to get home.
“Ahh….to be young again and to be truly missed,” I exclaimed. You gave me your exaggerated, hurt expression. “Just kidding,” I added. “I know you’d miss me. If I’m an hour late getting home, you’re on the phone calling to make sure I’m okay. I know you couldn’t live without me. I’m the same about you; remember the time you had a flat when you were on the way back from Mississippi, and you didn’t call to tell me you were spending the night in a motel. I had the police out looking for you.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” you asked with a sigh.
The day after Connie returned home, the camp director called her and apologized for the way he had acted toward her. He told her she had done an excellent job as a camp counselor and rock climbing instructor. We were relieved, because we didn’t want the incident to leave a negative impact on her summer experience. Connie wasn’t thrilled about having to live at home again, but she was trying to make the best of it and hoping it would be only temporary.
J.P’s car was in the repair shop, so Connie went over and picked him up and brought him back here to spend the night in our guest room. She also had a long conversation with Charlie, who was trying to figure out a way to continue their friendship.
Don called and told us Mom needed his help on some roof repair and painting work, and he planned to go to Mississippi on Wednesday. Connie wanted to go with him, hoping Charlie could drive up and see her. I decided I needed to go check on Mom and Dad as well. You agreed I should go, so I drove Connie and myself to Atlanta.
Kimberly was nearly seven months pregnant, and although she was seeing a midwife for delivery, she wanted an ultrasound to make sure everything was going smoothly. We arrived in time to go with her and Don for the procedure. It was quite easy to see on the ultrasound the baby was a girl. Don couldn’t believe it, because he’d been so certain it was going to be a boy. He even thought he’d figured out a way to make sure it would be a boy. It was like when he was ten and I’d given birth to Connie. He asked my doctor if he could go back and look again and make sure there wasn’t a boy in my stomach, he might have missed. He’d felt outnumbered by women all his life.
On our way to Mississippi, Don drove and Connie sat up front. Their conversation showed that Connie’s experience at camp had made a big impact on her life. She and Don talked freely about God, which was very unusual for Connie, who had always hated going to church. After we got to Mom and Dad’s place, Don took Connie part of the way toward Hattiesburg and they met Charlie. Don gave him a hard time, mostly kidding, but asking all sorts of questions. I think he embarrassed Connie.
Don got busy doing the work Mom was paying him to do. Mom was turning eighty, but her health seemed good. Dad, at eighty-four, was having problems. He got up in the night and got lost. He often fell, and Mom really needed help with him. I felt bad that we lived so far away. Neither of them were ready to leave their home and move closer to us.
After the work was finished, Don wanted to go to the nearby town of Philadelphia to see the Indian casino, which had been recently built. Mom wanted a chance to get out of the house, so the three of us went. It was the first time I’d ever been in a Casino, and I was shocked that something so near our little town could be so elaborately decorated. Don was blown away by it too. He said it looked just like Las Vegas, and it stuck out in the middle of rural Mississippi.
I got to meet Charlie when he brought Connie back to Newton on Sunday. He seemed nice, and she was right; he did look a lot like Woody Harrelson on Cheers. Connie said she liked his parents, although she hadn’t gotten to see them very long. Connie and Charlie had gone to Gulfport with some of his friends. They had gone to a casino, too, where he won fifty dollars. I was disappointed to learn he liked to play the slots.
Charlie complained about how far it was from his house to Newton, to bring Connie back. He said Highway 15 was totally boring. In spite of the complaints, it wouldn’t be the last we would see of Charlie.
Evan is 65 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 56 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working temporary jobs.
Carol is 32, and a nurse, working at a hospital in Chattanooga and living in an apartment.
Don is a twin. He is 31 and just graduated from Life Chiropractic College.
Christi is Don’s twin. She is working as a receptionist at a chemical company and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta. She is pregnant with their first child.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is twenty-one. She will be a junior in college.
J.P. is Connie's current boyfriend. Charlie is a new boy Connie's met at camp.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband, Evan, as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.
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