LOOKING FORWARD TO NEW YEAR

December 26, 2012

By Olivene Godfrey

Christmas has past and it's time to welcome a new year.  Son, Barry and I will be glad when 2012 ends, as it hasn't been a good year for us.

In early spring, I was hospitalized with double pneumonia and was very sick.  The illness took its toll on me and I still have bad days.

Looking back, I realize that each decade of my life has been different as I pursued new interests.  One of my goals for 2013 is to have four of my novels that were written in the 1980's published.

Tam is preparing the first novel, "Seasons" a love story, according to the publisher, Amazon's KINDLE books requirements.

It would be a great achievement to have the novels published.  And, to be honest, it would be frosting on the cake, if my books became best sellers and to be rich and famous during what may be my final decade on earth.

I've done a heap of living during my 85 years of life.  And, I've drawn upon some of my own experiences when writing fiction.  But, the books aren't autobiographical.

Now, a few words on new year resolutions.  I rarely make any.  But, this year, I do resolve to try to be more patient with Barry and Tam when I'm waiting for them in transporting me to different rooms in my wheel chair.  My only excuse is that it's hard not to be able to walk when and where I want to go.

See you next time.  (As told to Tam)

CELEBRATING BARRYS BIRTHDAY AND FLAT TVS NEED "SOUND BAR" AND IN PRAISE OF EGG WHITE SANDWICHES AND PASSING OF GOOD FRIEND

December 18, 2012

By Olivene Godfrey
On son, Barry's birthday, December 14th, we met Tam at Western Sizzlin to celebrate with good food.  As is the practice at the restaurant, Barry's dinner was free.
We were all dressed up and looked pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.  Barry and I planned to take pictures but forgot to do it.
When I'm dining in a noisy restaurant, the sound is magnified since I am hearing impaired.  The mingling of voices slurred is just deafening with my hearing aids, which I need to hear when people speak to me.
Barry  had attended his shop's Christmas dinner the previous night.  And, he said he wasn't going to plan two dinners "back to back" again, as it was too tiring.  Well, none of us are "spring chickens" and we need our rest at night.  We did enjoy the dinner and was pleased that Tam joined us.
Last weekend, Barry bought and installed a "sound bar" for my flat TV in the sitting area of my bedroom.  He says the flat TV's, even expensive ones like he has in his media room, don't have enough space for a good speaker and need sound bars.  I think the TV firms should include sound bars when they are sold.  Before I had mine, the sound was "tiny" but now it is clear and good quality.
I asked Tam a while back if she had ever heard of egg white sandwiches.  To my surprise, she replied that she made them for her two granddaughters.  When I was a child, I didn't like the egg yolks and my late mother would make egg white sandwiches for me.  So, now Tam makes them for me.  I was surprised when the USA Weekend magazine featured an unusual egg white sandwich recipe recently.
As I write this, I have just heard that a dear friend and former newspaper colleague passed away this morning.  Ruth Cox was a lovely lady and a talented writer and will be greatly missed.  I will comment on this in more detail soon.
Merry Christmas!
See you next time.  (As told to Tam)

REMEMBERING BIRTHDAYS PAST AND PRESENT

December 12, 2012



By Olivene Godfrey

I had a nice quiet 85th birthday this week. Barry had already given me a combination birthday and Christmas gift - my flat TV for my sitting room. But, on my birthday he gave me a big button remote control for my TV. Tam brought me a delicious chocolate birthday cake and a gift bag filled with gifts. I also received a funny birthday card from my sis, Jeanette. Jeanette Greeson, my longtime friend also sent me a nice card. And, I had a bunch of birthday greetings on the computer and telephone. I feel blessed.

My daddy, until his death, always called me no matter where he lived on my birthday. He told me about the cold winter night when I was born in 1927. He and my mother had been married a year and were living in the Methodist parsonage as the tiny town of Pelham, Tennessee didn't have a pastor that year. Daddy said the doctor who was at the house told him to go outside and chop wood. I was a breech baby and one of my tiny arms was broken and mother told me the doctor put my arm in a sling and it healed fast.

Since I was tiny and looked pale as I had a fair complexion, people thought I wasn't healthy. Since I've lived 85 years, I guess I have proved them wrong.

My mother gave me a birthday party every year. The party I remember most was the one of my 13th party. I convinced my mother to let my guests and myself to play spin the bottle, a game where the bottle spinner could get a kiss from the opposite sex if the bottle stopped spinning in front of them. Mother said no kisses but we could walk around the house in the dark. (My mother was very naive - ha.) The following day, one of my girlfriends told me she had let a boy kiss her, and I envied her.

The emotion I felt on my 85th birthday was gratitude to God for sparing my life back in the spring when I was very ill. And the best birthday gift I ever received was the birth of my son, Barry , on December 14th. We have plans to celebrate his birthday which I will tell you about later.

See you next time. (As told to Tam)

CHRISTMAS TREE EVOKES MEMORIES

December 2, 2012

By Olivene Godfrey
As I watched Tam decorate our small Christmas tree a few days ago, my thoughts went back to past holiday seasons.  My sisters and I had wonderful childhood holidays with Santa usually bringing gifts we had requested.
Then, when my late husband, Ralph, and I married, we spent Christmas with both of our families.  Over the years we enjoyed watching the grandchildren play with their toys.  Then while living in Florida, Ralph and I, after 12 years of marriage, received the best gift we ever had on December 14, when our son, Barry, was born, changing our lives forever.
When Barry was a child, Ralph would go into the woods and chop down our Christmas trees.  I would decorate the trees but I was never as creative as my late mother was when she decorated at Christmas.  She would start decorating the day after Thanksgiving and continued doing that until she passed away at the age of 92.
Then Ralph became ill and we didn't do any decorating following his death 10 years ago.  Barry and I just couldn't get in the mood to put up a tree.
Then Tam and Kym came into our lives and encouraged us to put up a Christmas tree last year, which we did.  And, a few days ago, Tam brought the small artificial tree out of a closet and decorated it, and Barry put up a few decorations in the den and kitchen.
Barry brought in my December 10th birthday and Christmas gift, a 26" screen flat television, for my sitting area in my bedroom.  He mounted it on the wall and put up an antenna in the attic.  And I can watch the news and the Today show in the mornings from my recliner now, and other programs.
We aren't sure of our Christmas day plans yet.  But, with the good Lord willing, I'm expecting to have a good Christmas.

See you next time.  (As told to Tam)