Dearest Isabella, (The finale)
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let’s pretend that this is my final letter to you. I say pretend, because I know that there will be many more letters to you, Jack, Sarah and “Cupcake.” By the time that you read this, you will know “Cupcake’s” real name and whether Cupcake is a girl or a boy. Several months before you were born, Coach and I were in Dallas and having dinner with your Mom and Dad and your Uncle Curt and Aunt Margo and your cousins, Jack and Sarah. It was the evening that Aunt Margo and Uncle Curt shared the good news with your Mom and Dad that Aunt Margo was soon going to have another baby and that you would have a new cousin just a few months after you were born. That evening, Sarah announced that “Aunt Kristen’s baby” (That would be you) was going to be named “Queso” and that new little brother or sister –to –be would be named “Cupcake.” I often laugh about “Queso” and “Cupcake.”
So, as I said, there will be many more letters that I write to you, Jack, Sarah and Cupcake but this is the last of your “Isabella Rose McGee has been born” letters. I have found great joy in writing to my sweet, adorable grandchildren. (Now I am sounding like Grandmother Beryldine again.)
As I took these few weeks to write to you and recall the strong women that have been in my life, I couldn’t help but pull it all together with a verse from Hebrews. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us.” The funny thing is that Coach used this verse at your Mom and Dad’s wedding. When the minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” Coach did not answer with the typical response of “Her mother and I do.” Because he believed that many people had invested in and enriched your mother’s life, he had a different answer. He referenced the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1. Coach referenced that great cloud of witnesses that surround us and proceeded to list the people that supported and gave away your Mother to be married to your Dad. He said something like this: “Her Grandfather Curtis, her Grandmother Doris, her Grandmother Beryldine, her Papa Tom, her cousin, Heather, her brother, Curt, her sister-in-law Margo, her nephew Jack (Sarah wasn’t born yet, but did attend the wedding in your Aunt Margo’s tummy) and (big breath) her mother and I do.” No one was expecting this and you could hear the people in the sanctuary. It is something that I hold very dear to my heart. Coach practiced and practiced and we all had a visual picture of all of those that had gone on before us that were gathered that day to celebrate with us. I hope that when you get married, Isabella Rose McGee, (and Sarah Margaret Crofford and Jackson Bailey Crofford and Cupcake Crofford and all your other little brothers or sisters and cousins to come) you will feel and think about this story of all the people that have loved you through the years and supported and encouraged you as you have grown up and are gathered to give their love and support to you as you marry.
But what writing this has done for me is that it made me list some of the great cloud of witnesses that are cheering me on as I run this race. I no longer have this nebulous (big word for ‘not clear’) picture of the crowd, but actual faces that are lined up as I run the race that has been put before me. One time, Sarah was cheering for Jack at a soccer game. She would jump up, bend her arm, pump it back and forth and say, “Go, Jack, Go!” I got such a kick out of her precious little smile, tow headed blonde bouncy hair and cheerleader style rooting for her big brother Jack. Now I see Connie, Dixie, Hays, Rella, Bessie, Mrs. Prescott, Brickey, Mildred, Iris, Marylou, Grandmother, Aunt Evelyn, Grandma Beryldine. And, my Uncle Luke, my Uncle Glenn, my Daddy. Others that I didn’t meet until I was almost an adult like your other two great grandparents – Coach’s parents, Grandma Doris, who is still with us, and Granddaddy. And, a host of others that I have failed to mention. All waving their arms and shouting, like Sarah, “Go, Cindy, Go!” This verse has come alive to me. Isabella, you and I will cross that finish line together someday, along with all the people that have come into our lives, and finish the race.
“Go, Isabella, Go! Go Jack, Go! Go, Sarah, Go! and Go, Cupcake, Go!”
Joys Ahead,
Cici/Çease
Thomas Jackson Lynn: Well, this could also fill a book. My dad, Tom or sometimes TJ, if Mother was flirting with him, grew up in the Great Depression. Again, I’ll let Coach tell you all about that later. His mother died when he was about six from tuberculosis and he was raised by his older sister, Mabel. They were very poor and he remembered living in a tent, traveling to Florida for work and watching his dog disappear down the road because they couldn’t take the dog with them while he sat in the back of a pick up truck, and having the only quarter in his pocket that his family had at the time. He noticed that the men he admired the most were men that were involved in church. He chose to pattern his life after them and he was an elder in the First Christian Church in Amarillo for as long as I can remember. He had more sayings than you can imagine. At the time, I thought they were bothersome, but now I would love to hear him say them again and tell him how smart I think he was. When we were leaving on a trip he would say, “Now would be a good time to get those things you forgot.” Not long ago I heard Uncle Curt tell Jack and Sarah that. When I complained about steak being tough, he would say, “I’ll tell you when it’s tough, it’s tough when you don’t have any.” He always looked out for people that were less fortunate than he was and when he died, friends made donations to the Salvation Army. One of my favorite memories is that he called my mother “My Lady” and “Honeychile” My mother bought some silverware that was called “My Lady” just because of its name. Maybe someday you, Sarah or Jack will have it. I love to think about them when their love was new and before the war took such a toll on him. Mother said he was never quite the same jovial man after the war. When I would ask him about WWII, he would shake his head and say “It was awful. It was awful.” He did manage to secretly tell my mom where he was on a ship in the South Pacific. The government censored the letters but he managed to tell her to tell the new girl Callie something or other. Dona you remember her or something like that. He was in New Caladona and mother figured it out. I have attached some pictures that were taken after the war. Mother and Evelyn were beautiful and Daddy and Uncle Luke were handsome and dashing. I sometimes see my dad in your Uncle Curt. He used to regularly send Grandmother Beryldine flowers, but Grandma Beryldine stopped that and said they needed to save the money. He graduated from Amarillo High School, the same high school Grandma Beryldine, Coach and I graduated from, when he was 21. Talk about perservance. He never had a college degree but he managed to save a considerable amount of money on a very modest salary. He used to charge me a penny when I left the lights on and to this day, I turn off lights when I leave a room….or at least most of the time. If your mom or Uncle Curt would save some money, he would match it and put it in savings. He was frugal, but generous. One of the funniest stories was when he ask Coach to go with him to do his shopping on Christmas Eve. Coach remembers going into a Rexall drugstore right before they locked the door. He looked up and down the aisles and settled on a bottle of Great Body Hair Conditioner. He said he didn’t know what it was, but he knew it was good because it was expensive. Your great grandmother was perplexed when she opened it and said she didn’t know whether she should rub it on or drink it. Before you are too harsh on him, remember Grandmother Beryldine took back a mink coat that he bought her. Note to Isabella, Jack and Sarah….love the gift and love the gift giver. The night he died, I called him and told him I loved him. We had a good talk and he said he wanted me to call again the next night. I said I would try. Later that night he had a massive heart attack and was gone quickly. I wish I had said “Sure, I will call you.” Grandmother Beryldine said that she wished she could have told him one more time that she loved him. When it’s all said and done, Sarah, Jack and Isabella, the greatest of these is love. He was a good Daddy and I’m so happy that Jack bears his name.
Just a few other people to mention. There seem to be so many, but I am going to limit myself. You may continue to receive e-mails over the years of people that I have thought of and want to tell you about. Right now, I will limit it to four more people.
Glenn Davis Broaddus My mother’s brother and prank player deluxe. I have heard more stories than I can count about the pranks that he played on my mom. He loosened the cinch on the saddle of the horse that my mother and Uncle Glenn road to school. Mother would get on and promptly fall off as the saddle came off the horse. He figured out a way to hotwire the seat of their old Model T Ford that they drove to school later on and would shock my mother. He laughed how he would watch her squirm. Again, not a complainer, Mother never said a word. When I ask him to sign my autograph book, he wrote “To the little girl that needs a moving van every time she goes out of town.” Apparently, this characteristic was begun early and one of the first “discussions” Coach and I had was all the luggage that I took on our honeymoon. When the valet man at the Village Inn in Lubbock opened the truck, he looked at Gary and said “All of this?” You never know when there is going to be a formal and I wasn’t going to be caught short.
Luther Earl Sheldon Aunt Evelyn’s husband from Des Moines, Iowa. I could write a book, but will keep it to a few lines. The way he treated Aunt Evelyn stands out most. While he was in the war, he arranged for a florist to send her flowers every week while he was away. He always bought her the prettiest gifts at Christmas and I admired their 50 plus year love affair. One time I remember him drilling Mollie and I on the state capitals while we rode a jeep up a narrow mountain in Lake City, Colorado. Why that stands out, I don’t know. He just expected a lot out of us and helped us achieve it. There were family vacations in Colorado and holidays in San Angelo or Amarillo and a two week vacation to California with six people in a small car. Mollie and I were promised a motel with a swimming pool the last night of the trip. When we would get unruly, my Dad would say “Do you want Uncle Luke to ‘lay down the law’? I didn’t know what that entailed but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to find out. He worked for Phillips 66 all his life in San Angelo, was a elder in the church and was a community leader. I can’t pass a Phillips 66 station without thinking of him.
Dearest Isabella, (Part Seven)
You are now twenty four days old. Soon you will be a month and then six months and before you know it we will be driving to Dallas to celebrate your first birthday. Well, I promised that I would tell you about the people that influenced me after I married. I think I will combine the men and the women. At least for now, I’ll try that. I lay in bed or am driving the car and all the sudden I think of someone else I want to tell you all about.
Probably the two people that I would put near the top of the list would be your other great Grandmother and great Grandfather, Doris Cash Crofford and Curtis Alvin Crofford. They (guess what) always made me feel welcome and loved---are you seeing the pattern to great admiration? Sounds a lot like Jesus’ commandment of “The Greatest of these is Love.” Your great Grandmother Doris has a lot of spunk. Maybe Sarah got a double dose of spunk—Grandmother Doris’ AND Great Great Grandmother B’s (Broaddus). But I rather like the idea of the women in our family being full of spunk. A strong powerful woman is very appealing. That doesn’t mean she isn’t a Godly woman, but she is no push over and knows who she is. There is a difference between being Godly and being squished. But I am rambling and I intended to tell you about Grandmother Doris. Her house was and still is immaculate. We always joked that you could operate in her kitchen if the hospitals ever got full. Every time she came down she would clean out my refrigerator. No one does it better and if she is still around when you get married, I bet she would be willing to clean yours out and show you how. I never was interested in knowing how. She always did it to perfection and you can’t beat perfection. She was always willing to jump on a plane when your Mother and Uncle Curt were little to come babysit. I owe part of my photography career to my total lack of worry when I would go to Texas School, a class that was held each year for photographers, or any other seminar or weeklong school that was offered or even a vacation with Coach. I never worried once about whether your mother or Uncle Curt were well cared for or if the house was running smoothly. Hey, it was probably running smoother than when I was in charge. She was still driving by herself to Oklahoma City or coming in at 2:00 a.m. from a card game with her friends into her 80’s. She says she has the best looking grandchildren in the world and I hear her making those same claims about her great grandchildren.
Curtis Alvin Crofford This is one of the men that your Uncle Curt was named after. (The other was my dad, Thomas Jackson Lynn.) One of the things that I remember him saying was “Nothing good ever happens at the back of the bus.” So he chose to sit at the front of the bus where he could stay out of trouble. I’m afraid that I would have been turned around to at least see what was going on “back there”. He was a very moral and highly principled man. He was on the city council and when the mayoral race was approaching, a group of men talked him into running for mayor due to his high standards of conduct. He was an elder in Southside Church of Christ and later Southwest Church of Christ when it combined with another church. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club and evened booed the Lion’s Club one time when we went by a sign with their logo. Coach can give you all the details, but he worked very hard all his life. He started out working for Pepsi Cola but broke his back when a garage door fell on it while he was unloading the truck. He was confined to a cast from under his arms to his pelvis with a brace on his neck. He couldn’t ever go back to his manual labor job. His boss, being a kind man (and I am betting recognizing quality when he saw it) said he had a new distributorship in Amarillo and needed a bookkeeper. Your great granddaddy began to learn bookkeeping and eventually studied and passed the CPA exam. Coach says it took him along time to pass all the parts, but he preserved. I think perservance would be one of the characteristics that he has passed on to our family. But the greatest lesson that he ever taught me was his faith in God. Not just saying he had faith, but living like he had faith for all to see. One scripture that sums Granddaddy up would be “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.” He lived by that. I bet he was quoting it when he broke his back and I know he quoted it (because I heard him) when it looked like Coach was headed straight for Vietnam. Again, Coach can tell you the long version, but Coach was all but assured that he would be accepted into the Navy’s Judge Advocate program. He had a very high LSAT score, a test that he took to get in law school. He turned down a place in the army reserve to gamble on the Judge Advocate program. He heard a few days later that he was turned down for the JAG program and by all accounts, he was headed for the front lines of Vietnam. Granddaddy pulled that verse out like Dad was just headed for the grocery store. Again and again, he quoted it and refused to panic and refused to not trust God. I’ll tell you the rest of that story in a few minutes. So, one of the verses that you will need to lay claim to is “All things work together for good, for those who love the Lord.” I even bet your great Granddaddy will help you learn it.
Ilma Beryldine Broaddus Lynn. There were, and are, so many wonderful women in my life but the best was and is my Mom. Isabella, she is one of your great grandmothers -- Grandma Beryldine. At age 92, she still has a beautiful smile and sweet spirit. She doesn't remember very well anymore and has lived in a home for people with memory loss for about a year. The other day when I was there visiting the activity director there told me that Grandma Beryldine tells her regularly how blessed she is and how happy she is to have such a nice place to live. Never a bit of grumbling about her circumstances or where she now lives! And the activity director said that Grandma Beryldine is the only resident who ever tells her that. She is the most unselfish person I have ever known! She always does what is best for everyone else rather than herself. When she moved to Houston, she said she wanted to do it before she “had to” and when she could still make friends rather than just rely on Coach and me to entertain her. Her attitude has always been such an example to me and to Coach and your Uncle Curt and your Mom. She always wanted me to go out and learn how to be with people; then she would add “all kinds of people.” She is the reason that I so love meeting and being with people! She lived on the farm and could not participate in after school activities because she had to ride the school bus home right after the school day ended. So, I got to do any activity I ever wanted to try. She did not spoil me (At least I don't think that I am spoiled. Ha) by indulging me but she encouraged me and supported me in everything that I ever did. She was always my biggest supporter. When your Mom and Uncle Curt came along, she was their biggest supporters as well. She was the minister’s secretary all my life. She started out keeping the books accounting for the Church's money and when Daddy gave her a mink coat for Christmas one year, she made him take it back because she didn’t want anyone to think she was stealing money from the collection plate and buying a mink coat with it. Trust me! Everyone at that Church loved her and admired her so much that that thought would never have occurred to anyone. People would sometimes stop in the Church office unannounced to visit with the minister about a complaint that they had. She would listen to the person talk while they waited for the minister to be available and, often, by the time the minister was available, the person was satisfied just by having had Grandma Beryldine listen to them sympathetically. She was a life long worrier, but also a life long encourager. I am honored to have called her Mother.
Well, Isabella, these are just some of the women that influenced me growing up. It was a good exercise to think about them with such pleasant memories that night that I held you for the first time. I hope when you are holding your grandbabies, you will be able to recall all the women in your life that made you the person you will have become. You won’t remember that night when you were ten days old and I held you in my arms most of the night and prayed over you but it was one of God’s sweetest gifts to me.
I will love you forever.
Cici (Cease)
P.S. Another time I will tell you about more people that influenced me as I was an adult. Remember, I wasn’t really much of an adult when I got married. I was 18 (Almost 19, I like to point out) and Coach was 21. We have pretty much grown up together. Another time I will tell you about people that I have met along the way that helped me become who I am today.
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My Mom ("Grandma Beryldine") and Dad ("Papa") - Nov. 1945
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Grandma Beryldine at home in approximately 1992 or '93. She was about 75 at this time
Aunt Evelyn and Grandma Beryldine having fun in San Angelo in about 2004
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Mabel Faye Davis Broaddus. Isabella, this is my grandmother and she is your great, great Grandmother. She was wonderful. I stayed with her a lot and rarely had babysitters, other than Mrs. Prescott. Grandmother would braid my hair, make snow ice cream and wonderful sugar cookies, baked squash and home made rolls and burnt sugar cake. Oh yes, and wonderful fried chicken! I wish I had paid more attention to her cooking skills. Mother said that during the Depression (Another terrible time that your great grandparents lived through and something that I pray that you will NEVER have to experience!) she always fed anyone that came to her backdoor that was hungry. When she was a young single woman still living with her parents, she was not allowed to date my grandfather because he drove his horses too fast. He trapped furs and sold them to buy her a bracelet, which she hid in the attic. She wasn’t allowed to accept gifts from men. I guess that bracelet was just too pretty to turn down and I have it now. I wear it a lot and think of her and the great story that went with it. She got caught dating him because she had someone else pick her up in a one horse wagon but my grandfather, Tom Broaddus, brought her home in a two horse buggy. Grandmother’s Dad saw the tracks in the mud or snow (They lived in cold, cold Missouri). Not long after that they married and moved to Amarillo, Texas from Missouri. I have a picture of her as a teacher in a one room school house that I will show you when you are older. She always bought Mollie, my cousin (Aunt Evelyn’s daughter), and me Easter bonnets and we always hunted Easter eggs at her house. She was a wonderful part of our life. On a very cold and snowy day in Amarillo when Coach and I were first dating, we were trying to drag a sled behind a car on the expressway (which hadn’t opened yet). All we needed was a rope. I figured that Grandmother would give me one. When I knocked on her door, she asked me if my mother knew about this. “Well, of course not, that is why I came to you!” She went and got the rope. You will see her type of spunk as you get to know your cousin Sarah. My grandfather died on Father’s Day in June before I was born in October. I never knew him or any of my other grandparents. Isn’t it ironic that you were born on Father’s Day 60 years later? God always makes “sad” sweet.
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My Grandmother's Class That She Taught in the One Room School in Rural Missouri.
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My Grandmother's Three Children- Aunt Evelyn, My Mother, and My Uncle Glenn
Evelyn Louise Sheldon: My wonderful Aunt Evelyn! Isabella, she was your Grandma Beryldine’s only sister and would be your great, great aunt. She also had beautiful dishes, perfect posture and great style. I used to watch her paint her fingernails with red fingernail polish and she wore Chanel No. 5 perfume. She was elegant and my Mom wanted me to grow up and be like Aunt Evelyn. She said that Aunt Evelyn didn’t know how to do stuff at home when she was young but became the best housekeeper and cook after she got married. I am not sure if there is a time limit on when those housekeeping talents will appear. I am still waiting! Mother used to talk about how they didn’t go to the USO during the war (World War II, a terrible time that your great grandparents lived through and something that I pray that you will NEVER have to experience!), the USO came to them because Aunt Evelyn could jitterbug so well. She was beautiful! My only girl cousin, Mollie, and I used to spend lots of weekends and Summer vacations together. I had been begging my mother to let me “frost” my hair to no avail. One Summer while I was visiting them in San Angelo, Aunt Evelyn let me put lemon juice on my hair to bleach it out. I was sure that I was a lot blonder! She and Mother didn’t ever make Mollie and me do the dishes and they didn’t even get mad when Mollie and I (or it might have just been me) opened a box of marbles during the church service and the marbles hit the sloped concrete floor and rolled all the way to the front of the sanctuary. The preacher thanked us for waking up the folks that were sleeping. What was I doing with marbles in church? She gave me a wonderful bridesmaid’s luncheon at the Amarillo Country Club the day of my wedding and it was as elegant as everything else that she did! But don’t be confused! Aunt Evelyn WAS NOT just a person of beauty and style but no substance. She was involved in her community and church and a leader in all in which she was involved. She never met a stranger and was outgoing and friendly and inviting to all. Coach says that when we began dating and he first became involved with my family, he was a little shy and uncomfortable but Aunt Evelyn always made him feel special and welcome. She treated him as family, right from the beginning. As you grow a little older and get to know your cousin Jack, you will see these leadership and friendliness traits in him. He often talks about his family. I wonder if Aunt Evelyn is coaching him. My beautiful Aunt Evelyn died just a few days before your Mom and Dad’s wedding and I will forever be disappointed that she was not there to share that wonderful day with us. But, I am sure that she was looking down from heaven and smiling with approval at how beautiful the wedding was! Grandma Beryldine often can’t remember that Aunt Evelyn has died and she asks about her. I don’t have the heart to remind her that Aunt Evelyn is no longer here. Grandma Beryldine sometimes introduces me as her sister. I just smile and relish in the compliment. Maybe I’m turning out like Aunt Evelyn after all.
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My Cousin Mollie and Me.
Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Luke Right After World War II, Late 1945.
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Aunt Evelyn's Favorite
