A Special Thank You

*NOTE…All the things I was taught in Journalism class have long been gone from my writings. I like to blame most of my “mistakes” on having MS, but my writing skills were gone before that started.  As some “folk” on Sand Mountain might say, ” all my learn’n has left me.” And for that I truly want to apologize to Mr. Jack Simms and Mr. Ed Williams.

As I was looking for another post to “re-post” I found this one. Wow, seems like so long ago, July 1, 2013. You will never understand and know just how much Mrs. Crumly loves, really LOVES, this blog.

A Special Thank You
Posted on July 1, 2013 by Billie Crumly —
Today this site has been up and running one month.  As I’ve told you before,  I love telling tales and sharing stories with hopes I can drop a little history along the way for future generations.  When I started the blog my goal was to get 500 hits the first month  Would you believe there’ve been over 4000?  I’m stand in awe and want to thank you for your interest and support.
Ads are now available should you be interested.  (*NOTE I will use my e mail address until Mrs. Crumly is back at her desktop.  russaustin1964@hotmail.)
Continue to drop in just any time so we can sit here on this shady front porch and chat a while — yes, there’ll be sweet tea available.
Sincerely,
Billie

Since I started helping Beth post and keep a daily number count on hits I can tell you that since May 2, 2014 the blog has not gone below 1,097 hits a DAY.  And on May 9th the blog hit 2,230. And yesterday May 29th the hit count for the day was a huge number of 2,296. And it was the same blog post two days in a row because I did not have the time to post a new blog yesterday. WOW!

I must tell you that she had pain for quick some time with her hip and just knew she needed to have it replaced. Well things have gone from bad to worse. But I really believe God has a lot of great days ahead for Mrs. Crumly.

Mrs. Crumly still is a very sick, sweet, loveable, wonderful lady. She still needs all the prayers you can send up for her. Her two daughters are both just doing all they can to keep both parents as comfortable as possible. And they both have left their life behind 3 and 4 hours away in Georgia.

I went to visit Mrs. Crumly yesterday and I don’t know who it gets too the most, her or me. I walk in and she just cries and thanks me for coming to see her. (I really think she is just glad to see someone come in that does not have a white coat on or a cup full of pills to take.)   🙂

I have known Mr. John and Mrs. Crumly since around 1986-87. They both were a big part of my church, Geraldine First United Methodist Church. Anything that needed to be done Mr. John was the first one they looked for. And he was ready to go. That man could do anything and still at 89, work (and I know out walk) any younger man around. So for all those years we have been in a close area and always running in to each other around town (Geraldine pop. back then maybe 950. Today 700 give or take). But when Mrs. Crumly started to get serious about starting this blog she called me about making pictures for her. REWIND..I was a “professional” (whatever that means) photographer for 21 years until 2007 when I found I had MS. So we talked many times about, “will people really care what I write”?  And of course I said, “SURE”! So off we went.

This was the very first picture I made for Mrs. Crumly way back in May of 2013. LOL still sounds so long ago to me.  The beautiful rose bush  just outside her sun room. I forget the name but I can tell you we have posted many photos of them since and they change colors as each bloom grows. AMAZING to watch.

As I pulled into the drive way to make pictures of strawberries I just had to stop and get some photos of the roses.

So of course the next photos inside the house were of the strawberries. And yes you have seen many post of those also.

The way I am no matter how bad my day may be going or how bad I feel because of my MS, if Mrs. Crumly calls and needed photos I ran right over. I loved and still love every minute I can spend with her. She has so much knowledge of life, history and all the other things she has blogged about. My last “real” grandparent died in 2000 and I still miss her so. But I tell ya, Mrs. Crumly and Mr. John have become my “real adopted” grandparents since May of 2013. Every night and I mean EVERY NIGHT at 9:30 pm if my phone didn’t ring then I was calling her to talk about the day or just tell me  stories of her life growing up at The Windy Knoll.

We have so many things we want to add to the blog. Like VIDEOS! I have recorded some videos of them explaining the process of making strawberry jam and we just did not get around to posting any videos, YET.

I have no clue just how many pictures I have made for Mrs. Crumly. I would say it has to be getting close to one thousand or even more. I have never been a “one shot” photographer. Oh so many times she would tell me, “hey Russ that’s enough pictures of that one.”  And after she gets over this “bump in the road” she will say it again I am sure.

So to bring this to a close I want to share one last thing. I knew Mrs. Crumly would have a long hard recovery away from The Windy Knoll. So I started to think about what I could do to help her still enjoy and love the life at The Windy Knoll. For a few days right after the surgery I would sneak over there and make some pictures of the summer flowers in bloom. Oh and with the help of Beth also. She has about 4 great photos here also.

And when Mrs. Crumly went to rehab I was ready with the very thing I knew she would enjoy more than anything else I could do for her. I looked at the collage of photos for many many hours and re-arranged them many many times until I thought I had it perfect. Then I re-arranged them AGAIN.

But here is the finished product below. And when I delivered it to her room, she made me cry just watching her cry so hard seeing photos of some of the things she loves more than you will understand or believe. I can not wait to get her out of that hospital and hear that phone ring again at 9:30pm and her saying, “I’ve got some pictures I want you to make for me.” And that my friends, is great country living.

Guest writer….Russ Austin.