Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Not Newsworthy

The newspaper that covered Mamie’s party agreed to publish a story I had written about Mamie for my blog and give me a byline. This was exciting to me -- until I received a copy of the paper. I had promised to send the story on to the Buzz as soon as I got home from Mamie’s party, but I went to lie down before Bluegrass, completely forgetting my promise. As my mind wandered in that twilight state just before sleep, it came into sharp focus on the fact that all newspapers work on deadlines, and time was wasting on the Mamie story.

I jumped from the bed, booted up my computer, opened my email program, searched my blog entries for the title, attached the file, and hit “send.” Feeling greatly relieved that I had accomplished that task, I went back to bed. I had written the story in early October, and had failed to re-edit the story before emailing it. The day it was published, Betty emailed me a copy of the paper. There it was on the front page, next to the photo and story about Mamie’s birthday party provided by the journalists at the newspaper – my byline on Mamie’s biography.

According to my piece, Mamie’s deceased son Junior is still active in the Ruritans, and the Autumn Gold Festival which is held the second week-end of October hasn’t yet happened for this calendar year. I hope this oversight on my part doesn’t inflict pain on the family or grief on the Buzz. If I hadn’t asked for a byline nobody would know it was my mistake, but I had to get greedy. Another case of “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” So much for my fantasy career as a newspaper columnist.

I did stop by Mamie’s to apologize before I left for Atlanta. She hadn’t yet seen the Buzz that featured her, but she didn’t seem upset with my confession. In fact, we spent most of our time laughing together. She showed me a write-up that Charlie and had brought to her birthday party. He spoke of Mamie’s generosity when he first moved to the mountain. It seems that he was on his way to Florida to pick up his belongings, and needed to establish a post office box before leaving. He had no time to stop by with the rent, so Mamie fronted him the money out of her pocket until he could return -- this for a man she never met. Charlie said that, in part because of Mamie, he believes that Coker Creek may not be Heaven, but it has the same zip code.

Maybe the reason God has granted Mamie so many years on earth is that she’s really a medicine woman with her huge doses of trust, forgiveness and fun. And he wants her to pass on all of her healing goodness before He takes her home.