On December 22, 2010, just before Christmas, my mother-in-law, Florence Hodges, died. Florence, as I called her, lived 91 years and put up with me for over 40 of those years. She attended the church below, where her funeral service was held on Sunday - the day after Christmas - the Christmas it snowed in NC.
Prior to attending the "new church" Florence and Buck (my father-in-law) attended the "old church", built in 1874, the sanctuary where Patt and I were married and where Laura was baptized.
The Hodges family grave site is behind the church and the cemetery has graves that go back to the early 1800s.
It was a very cold and snowy day. The snow started late Christmas night and did not stop until mid morning on the 26th.
That Sunday morning, I went for a walk in the woods in the pasture behind Florence's house during the 11 o'clock hour when Florence would have typically been watching a TV church service, though on this Sunday it would have probably been just the preacher speaking to an empty sanctuary for the TV audience as most churches were closed as the snow was still falling that morning.
The world was gray, cold and very very quiet. The cows were in the barn lot eating hay.
Florence welcomed me every time I came into her home - and I knew she would. She put up with my teasing her - and I did, I even gave her a bottle of Famous Grouse - probably the first bottle that was entirely hers in her life. She appreciated the joke, or at least acted like she did. And she allowed me to stow it in the cabinet - "where no one would see it" and to partake of "her scotch". We occasionally discussed politics, she was very well read, and she would send me news articles on politics and on Wake Forest and Appalachian sports. Florence was the most loyal reader of this blog that I knew of and I often wrote just for her. I will miss Florence very much.
