Monday, November 30, 2009

Mamie Murphy Day

The party was even better than I hoped it would be. Leal and I went to the Ruritan hall at eleven to finish setting up. Within thirty minutes, there was a caravan of caring family members bringing offerings of food, drinks, ice and service ware. I could have provided nothing but decorations and the party would have been a smashing success. Somewhere between one hundred five and one hundred fifty people came to celebrate Mamie’s ninetieth birthday. The mayor and the media showed, which one can never count on because it has to be a slow news day to show up all the way in Coker Creek for an old lady’s birthday bash.

How Mamie was surprised is beyond my imagining. All of Coker Creek had been informed, and it was even announced at the church services. Maybe Mamie being hard-of-hearing has its good points. When Mamie’s daughter Jean opened the door for her, Mamie stood there like a deer caught in headlights. Several of us were afraid we’d given her a heart attack. And then she smiled, her twinkly little blue-eyed Irish smile.

I had come to the hall armed with Mamie’s Women’s Study Bible, and a couple of verses marked about women that I felt would be appropriate for Mamie. I showed the verses to Wanda, and was surprised when she questioned the translation that I was using. After checking to make sure she was comfortable with the translation, and being assured that one of Mamie’s granddaughters had given Mamie the Bible, she read through my marked verses, obviously not quite satisfied with them. I suggested that the proverb about the good wife who rises before dawn might also be good, but Wanda pointed out that the verse felt too funereal.

Mamie seems to be comfortable with her preacher preaching from different denominational pulpits because, as she says, “It’s all the same Bible.” But, being raised Roman Catholic, I guess I’ve been exposed to more of the verses about women – as Roman Catholics seriously revere Mary as the mother of Jesus. Wanda and I finally agreed that Wanda could choose whatever verses she found fitting.

Wanda who is not only Mamie’s niece-in-law, but also Coker Creek’s songbird of the south led us in singing “Happy Birthday” as Mamie entered the room with Junior’s son Travis and his daughter Brook. She then read from Mamie’s Bible, introduced the mayor, and asked Mamie’s preacher to lead us in prayer. I wanted a female family member to lead the prayer, but since the preacher was there, Wanda wanted to offer him a place on the program. I sat and basked in the glow of Mamie’s mammoth family celebrating my adopted Mountain Mama.

Halfway through the afternoon, Richard reminded me that I have twenty-four event-free hours before I begin helping Rachel cook for her family’s annual Christmas open house. I offered to do the cooking at our house in the holler, but Rachel insisted on my coming to her kitchen in Atlanta. This is probably, in large part, because Rachel’s husband, Larry, will be on a business trip next week. She has cautioned me that I’m not to bring down any food from our fridge or freezer. I’m afraid that, without the proper ballast, the van may have trouble holding the road on the way down the mountain. We’ll see how that goes.