Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Love Remembers

December 3, 1950
The youngest of 4 boys, Jim grew up in a time and place where life on cotton mill wages was all he knew. Times were tough, but, he learned that family meant more than money. He was taught that people had value not because of what they had, but how they lived their lives. His father showed rather than told…he lived what he what he preached to his son.

That legacy lived on in the man I came to know as friend, lover, husband and grandfather. He was not perfect, but he never expected more of others than he was willing to give of himself.

From the Chorus of Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man”:

And he bowed his head to Jesus
And he stood for Uncle Sam
And he only loved one woman
(He) was always proud of what he had
He said his greatest contribution
Is the ones you leave behind
Raised on the ways and gentle kindness
Of a small town Southern man
(Raised on the ways and gentle kindness)

Happy Birthday to my own small town Southern man…you will always be loved.