It’s a day to pay tribute to men and women who serve the United States’ Armed Forces. How fortunate are we, here in Calhoun County, that Warrior’s Weekend will also be held that day. Come on down to Port O’Connor, Saturday, May 19, and say a big “thank you” to our Armed Forces personnel and veterans.

This Sunday, May 13, the second Sunday in May is designated “Mother’s Day”. In the United States, Mother’s Day started nearly 150 years ago, when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day”.

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna’s mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother’s Day. In 1914, Anna’s hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday. In the United States, Mother’s Day has flourished, in fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day to honor and express appreciation of their mothers.

If your mother is living, try to attend church with her this Sunday and I will see you there! Our church will be honoring our mothers during the 11:00 a.m. service and corsages will be presented to the oldest and youngest mothers in attendance.

Prior to calling the Meeting of the Service Club to order, President Janet Johnson was pleased to introduce Ms. Mary Belle Meitzen, a member of the Calhoun County Historical Society. This was a return visit to the Club by Ms. Meitzen, who was there to present to our President an honorarium regarding the historical dedication of our Cemetery. Ms Meitzen stressed the importance of maintaining cemeteries throughout our State as they are living proof of earlier times and the struggles involved.

Following Ms. Meitzen’s appearance, the Meeting was then called to order. Applicable to the dedication of our Cemetery, the members then voted to present to the informal committee of cemetery caretakers as headed by Bob Allen a monthly stipend to cover some of their costs in maintaining the Cemetery grounds.

Again, the information regarding Club members’ participation in Warriors’ Weekend on May 18th and 19th was presented with the mention of cooperation and assistance of the membership. Needed will be many desserts that will be served during the Fish Fry on Friday evening as well as money donations for the fruit to be served at the Saturday morning breakfast. Additionally, it was announced that a meeting for all Volunteers was to be held on April 30th at 6:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church.

The membership then voted to supply and post American flags during the Weekend from the Community Center to the intersection of FM1289. This will be a time consuming project so the participation of the entire membership will be needed.

President, Janet Johnson reminded each member that beginning in May and continuing until September there would be only one meeting each month of the Service Club. Remember that the only meeting in June will be held on June 7th at 10:00 a.m. in the Meeting Room of the Community Center.

We have been having some awesome services recently. This past week, we hosted the ministry of George and Linda Kutach. They are very musically talented and George is a gifted preacher. We indeed were blessed! Patrick Overton has ministered here several times over the past few weeks and always has a special word from God’s Word. Thanks!

Mother’s Day is this coming weekend, and we have planned several special things to bless mothers. Ministering in both the morning and evening services will be Gene and Mona Summers. They have been here several times before and have always been a special blessing to all. You will not want to miss either of these special services: 11:00 a.m. and (Note time change) 5:00 p.m.

Each mother present in the Mother’s Day morning service will receive a special “home-crafted” gift. Over the past years, mothers have truly appreciated these unique and “time-honored” gifts.
The evening service will begin at 5:00 p.m. instead of the usual 6:00 p.m. The reason is that we have a lot of things planned especially to delight our mothers. Following the evening service, we will enjoy a “Mexican Style Pot Luck”. That simply means that we all will be making our favorite “Mexican dishes” and bringing them so everyone can sample these creations. After we have enjoyed a time of fellowship at the tables, we have “Mariachi” singers scheduled to arrive. We were so delighted with these singers last year that we have asked them to return to honor our mothers. We trust every mother in this area will come and enjoy a Mother’s Day to remember!

The largest Wounded Warriors Event in the nation is coming to Port O’Connor again for the sixth year in a row. We have been asked to have a special part in this great weekend of activities – prepare and serve the Saturday morning breakfast. We will be cooking 135 dozen eggs (donated by Allen and Terri Quinn), 150 pounds of sausage, 50 pounds of cheese, 10 pounds of butter, 850 flour tortillas, 300 apples and 300 bananas – coffee by the buckets – and milk and juice (donated by Speedy Stop). If you would like to help us with some of these items, please let us know by calling 983-4240 or 983-2619.

On Friday, May 18, we will not be hosting Friday Night Youth (FNY) because we will be preparing for the Saturday morning meal. If you would like to help, please feel free to come by!
Fisherman’s Chapel is a “busy” group of people who are working toward eternity. We know that works will not get us in the “Pearly Gates”, but we realize that after we have been “born from above,” we have a lot of things we want to do in service to our Lord. You will always find a warm welcome at the Chapel and are urged to, “Come, grow with us!”

A book by a very favorite author in our Library has been reissued to the delight of all his faithful readers. The book, MIRACLE CURE by Harlan Coben was listed as his second published book which he had written while he was still quite young, being barely twenty years old. The author also states that the book was not based on a “real-life” occurrence, although it is easy to form that opinion as you read the book.

Coben tells the story of a group of doctors doing research and treatment of AIDS and the HIV sickness in their Manhattan Clinic. He also tells the story of a very popular basketball player, who somehow becomes tainted with HIV. The player’s popularity plummets as his sickness is publicized, and he and his wife strive to rebuild their life following the diagnosis. And when other patients in the Clinic are unexplainably killed, the plot “thickens”, and the reader becomes totally engrossed.

Coben has also a character by the name of Myron Bolitar and has written a number of books in that series. He has also written several “stand-alone” plots that are, in my opinion, far superior to his series. But that is for the reader to decide.

A completely change of pace was Philippa Gregory’s book, THE VIRGIN’S LOVER, the story of Elizabeth I and her long standing affair with Robert Dudley, a childhood friend. Despite the pressure upon Elizabeth to marry a prince to govern England, Elizabeth tactfully refuses to marry; though at times she really isn’t that tactful. Her reasoning to stay single is that she refuses to share the Crown with a man, and additionally, she has become too involved with Dudley. Then the unexplained and sudden death of Dudley’s wife further complicates Elizabeth’s life, yet despite constant rumors throughout the Court, she attempts to put Dudley aside and continue with her reign.

A fascinating book filled with real life character after character in the English Court, Ms. Gregory has the talent of thorough research and clear writing so that the reader does not feel overwhelmed with a long list of characters.

But the book I found the most challenging and riveting was NARROWS GATE by Jim Fusilli. The title describes a community on the waterfront near New York City, which is actually Hoboken, New Jersey. Populated with Italian-American families, primarily Sicilian, we read about the rise and fall of a skinny blue-eyed crooner; another who is hiding his background and ethnicity and the involvement of a portion of the Mob in every-day life.

The character Bebe Marsala is the loosely described real-life Frank Sinatra, and the book details his ups and downs. The cruelty of members of the “Mob” in enforcing their rules or making a statement is detailed, in somewhat too much detail. The plot reaches out and grabs you and the characters are so well-drawn that if you lived in the Eastern part of our country, you would probably be able to name them. I’m curious as to what other books Mr. Fusilli has written, and if they all approach the same quality as this one. Not a book to read lightly, but a very enjoyable one too.
Just a quickie: we have an unbelievable array of books for purchase at our Library, both hard cover and soft cover, of all types of fiction and even nonfiction. Come see us before you take your trip!

“When an old person dies, a Library burns down”
Karin Gillespie