My grandfather's funeral/Thanksgiving

Well this past week has been rather interesting. There was some good and some bad, I'll start with the bad. My Grandfather, after spending the last 5 or so years on an oxygen tank and slowly declining in health, passed away last Sunday evening. My received a call on my cellphone from my dad just 30 minutes before the end of work that evening to inform me of this. The funeral was going to be held off until Wednesday (I think in an attempt to allow all the family time to come to town for it), so we decided to leave as soon as my class ended Tuesday, and I would skip my Wednesday classes. So all according to plan, we left Tuesday and made it down there an hour before visitation that evening. We of course went to visitation, where I met up with my good friend and cousin Andrew. It was mostly just a bunch of boring socializing, everyone seemed to be ok despite the passing of a loved one, I think because we had been expecting it for such a long time. So me and Andrew hung out most of that evening and just cracked jokes with each other as usual, and I even met some people around my age from his church (he goes to a Church of Christ), the Bradford family.

The next day, irony begins. By the way, did I mention to yall that I was a Paul Bearer? Well I was, and due to the events that happened on this day I became just a little bit more important than that. We arrived an hour before the funeral services begun. In fact when we arrived, we had the pleasure of seeing my pastor and his wife, Brother Calvin Warren and Sister Betty, pull up. So for the next hour, just the usual socializing, then they called us Paul Bearers to the back while everyone took a seat. They were going to let us make an entrance once everything was set to go, except for one little problem... The preacher for the funeral did not show up!!!

So we waited for about 15 minutes, and then decided to go ahead and start playing some music for the people in the santuary that were waiting. My mom, my grandmother, and some other family members then came back to see what was going on. After a few minutes, my mom suggested the idea of asking Brother Warren to conduct the service. I personally did not like the idea because I knew that Brother Warren didnt even know my grandfather. So I told her I would do it instead if necessary. I went outside to look for my spare bible which might have been left in my car, but could not find it, so I asked the funeral director if they had a bible we could use. They brought us one, and not having the time to look and see if it was a KJV 1611 or anything like that, I opened it up and wrote down on a bookmarker the passages that my grandmother wanted to have read for the service. We decided that I would go up to read the scriptures, but instead of the message that would have been given, we decided to have family members come up to share their memories of my grandfather when that time comes, and we reluctantly asked Brother Warren to say the closing prayer, but I asked my dad to inform him of this first before we start the funeral, which he did.

So after all of this panic, we decided to go with our scratched up method for conducting the funeral service, and to be honest, it worked out great. Brother Warren even got up and gave a nice message about the love that he noticed we all shared for my grandfather before he said the prayer, he did a wonderful job. After that everything worked out as it should. We drove up to the spot for his burial, and he was given a military burial (you know, with 3 shots fired in the air, and then Taps is played). O by the way, I also forgot to mention my grandfather was in the Air Force, and was in WWII. He didnt fight in the war, but he flew planes for combat (I dont know the details exactly). After the funeral we all went back to my grandmothers house (where we were staying for the nights we were down there anyway), and had a wonderful reception.

The next day, we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner there at my grandmother's. I think God planned my grandfather's death at this time, because he wanted us to be together like this for Thanksgiving. Although most of my family on that side is very worldly, they are good people that I enjoy hanging out with, even if my attempts to convert them havent been too successful. We had a lot of fun playing football in the backyard, and playing games at night.

On Friday, we drove back to Memphis, and went to have Thanksgiving with the other side of my family, my dad's side. We got in around 1pm Friday, and went over to my Aunt Gwen's and Uncle Dexter's at 2pm, to have another delicious meal, at which I, this time, was the only dark meat eater, so I enjoyed the pleasure of gobbling up both of the turkey legs. Afterwards, my Aunt Gwen gave us two tickets to the Memphis/Lamar game at the FedEx Forum on Monday night, that they are not going to use. The tickets are on the club level, and I definently want to get there early. So, Lord willing, I plan to skip class Monday night (its a pointless class anyway, to be honest), to get there, which should be a fun game, despite a blowout.

Well thats pretty much all the news I have for now. Except, o wait, the scores for the week: Memphis 26, Marshall 3, Tigers are bowl eligible and likely!!!! Hopefully we're Hawaii bound, I think that would be a nice send-off for DeAngelo. Also, after wins against Alabama and UCLA, the Memphis basketball team just barely lost to Duke Friday night, it was a heartbreaker, but o well.. if our team of Freshman can compete like that with an established Duke program, this early in the season, that makes me very optimistic about what we have to offer as the season progresses.

So anyway, God Bless,
Joe


P.S. What happened to the preacher that was supposed to preach for my grandfather's funeral? He was working out in the garden and lost track of time.... He even came over to my grandmother's house after everything and was very apologetic, and my grandmother spoke as if she held absolutely nothing against him. I admire her forgiving heart, but personally, I could not think so highly of someone who leaves a mourning family at a time when they want to give a loved one an honorable funeral. RIP Ray Lawson

Gmail

I gots Gmail now so anyone who uses Google Talk please add joe444477@gmail.com to your list. Also joe444477@hotmail.com will still be my main email address since pretty much everyone knows it by now and has it saved on their list, but I also will check joe444477@gmail.com so feel free to email me there if yall want.

God Bless,
Joe

In Loving Memory of Derek Cournoyer

I would like to dedicate this post to a good friend of mine named Derek Cournoyer.

Back in the day, I used to live in the south part of Memphis. Fox Meadows, to be exact, which is west of Hickory Hill, and east of Parkway Village and Whitehaven (aka Blackhaven). Around when I was 10 years old and halfway through 5th grade (about 1994, or 95) we moved to an appartment near there and started searching for a house in Cordova. The next summer we found a nice house, which we still live in today, in Cordova. So we moved out there and I started the 6th grade at Cordova Middle School. When I started school there, I noticed a particular student in my class that year who was in a motorized wheelchair, named Derek. I ended up becoming good friends with this particular boy. Me and him and some of our other guy friends (because at that age hanging out with girls was still unpopular because they still had "cooties" in those days) had a lot of fun all the time hanging out with each other and became really close. This really helped me understand what its like not being able to ever walk around anyway. So why was Derek unable to walk? And why did he need a motorized wheelchair instead of a regular one? Well Derek Cournoyer had an illness known as "Muscular Distrophy." This illness was discovered when he was about 4 or 5 years old, and it is very rare for anyone to live longer than 10-15 years once this illness is discovered. So why did Derek spend all this time going to school if he wasnt going to live for very long? We'll he had hopes that one day scientists would find a cure for Muscular Distrophy and that he would be able to walk again.

Throughout 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade Derek and me, and our friend Jeff were very close friends. Even in 8th grade when our entire class went on a field trip to Washington DC, instead of riding on the bus like everyone else, me and Jeff rode in a van with Derek and his mom, and Jeff's mom. As I mentioned in a previous post I could not find a particular picture of Derek, my dad, Jeff, and me all standing next to Congressman Harold Ford Jr. (this was around April or May of 1998). But there is a picture from that trip shown below, of us in a restaurant there in DC.

So anyway when we made it to 9th grade Derek, Jeff, and I all went to Cordova High School together. We even had another friend, Ross, from Cordova Middle, that went there too, and he was a good friend to Derek also. So time moved on and we maintained our strong friendship with each other. Until later in the year (around March or so, of 1999), I went to school one day to have a teacher call me out into the hall in the middle of my first class to tell me something. This teacher told me that Derek Cournoyer had passed away in his sleep that previous night!!! They took me to a room in the Guidance Counselor's office where Jeff and Ross were, and let us sit in there alone for awhile to talk with each other and mourn over the loss of a close friend of ours. Jeff and Ross cried a bit, I did a little, but not as much. We then spoke to each other about our feelings and decided that we would not be able to go through a day of school. Ross decided to stay at school for the day, but Jeff and I decided to go home. So his mom took both of us home.

The next day I left school early again. This time it was to attend his funeral, at which I was an Honorary Paul Bearer. I forgot the name of the church it was held at, but it was at the corner of Walnut Grove and Walnut Bend in Cordova, the church where Derek and his family went to. Then the burial was at the Memphis Funeral Home on Poplar, just west of I-40 and east of Yates street.

So what to make of all this? I felt that my friendship with Derek was a blessing for both of us. I hope that I was able to make his life on earth much better despite his disability, and he definently made mine much better. Not only for his good friendship with me, but for helping me to look at disabled people with a great respect for them. He helped me see them, not as something unique because they were disabled, not to stare at them at a store because of their difference, but to just look at them as any good person that I could be friends with. God richly blessed my life to give me a friendship with Derek.


Here is a picture of our trip to Washington DC back in 1998. Derek is the one on the right (of course), his mother (Mrs. Susie Cournoyer) in next to him, my dad (further left) is in the back, and halfway cut off on the far left end is Jeff.

















RIP Derek Cournoyer

Please click here to return to my main blog page to continue reading my post about Congressman Ford.

My weekend all across the horrible state of TN

Well as I have told many people, my dad bought 2 tickets to the UT/Memphis game in Knoxville off of Ebay. So we took the trip up there Friday night. The game was Saturday at 1, but it was a 6-7 hour drive so we left Friday night. We stayed at the Barber's house Friday night (many thanks to them for their gracious hospitality and warm invitation into their home). We wanted to stay there Saturday night too and go to Covenant PBC Sunday morning, but unfortunantely we had already made plans to meet Grace and Dustin in Jackson, TN at 2pm Sunday afternoon and then I would need to get back home pretty earlier Sunday evening to do some Accounting homework. So anyway, on Saturday we left for the game. Matt Barber and Greg Peterson came with us. We parked my car at Greg Peterson's work and just took one car up there. Once arriving at the game, we at first sat in our original seats way up in the nosebleeds, but due to a lack of oxygen supply we were forced to move down. We spotted Matt Case and his wife in the lower level along with Michael Rushing and his girlfriend and decided to move down there. Eventually Matt and Greg joined us so it was the 8 of us with only 2 dressed in a horribly ugly shade of orange (I was getting on their "Case" about it the entire game). Although rather disappointing after having a 13-0 lead and then barely losing (remind yall of the UAB game?) it wasnt bad. I wasnt too opmistic without DeAngelo out there. But it was still fun. Anyway after the game, my dad and I drove to Cookeville, TN for the night, where I had to buy new dress shoes because I left my only pair at home. The next morning we headed up to Nashville and went to church at Radner PBC. I saw quite a few familiar faces there including Dan Beauchamp. We werent able to stay for lunch though due to the fact that we had to rush off to meet my mom, Grace, and Dustin in Jackson, TN to celebrate her birthday. We went to some 50's style restaurant there and had a nice 3:00 in the afternoon meal. We even had the embarrassing pleasure of all the waitresses coming over and annoucing to the whole place that it was Grace's birthday. They made Grace do some hilarious dance that I was trying so hard to take a picture of, but couldnt get the camera ready until it was all over. So unfortunantly I am unable to post a picture of it here for yall's humoring entertainment. Well after that me and my parents came back to Memphis and Grace and Dustin went back to Martin and that was pretty much it. I'll post some more stuff on here in just a day or two so please keep coming and read yall.

God Bless,
Joe

P.S. O btw I was already considering this, but due to popular request, I am growing my hair out to the same style as in the picture posted below (when I was 17). Or at least I'll be making an attempt at it, I cant guarantee I'll ever be able to make it look that good though.

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Pictures from my childhood

So I was sitting around my room yesterday (Monday afternoon) and should have been studying, but didn't really feel like it. So I decided to rummage through my old pictures and look for a particular one of a former handcapped friend Derek Cournoyer (who had Muscular Distrophy), and my dad, and I all in a picture standing next to Congressman Harold Ford Jr. back when we were in 8th grade and on a field trip to Washington D.C. By using the word "former" to describe Derek, I am not indicating he is no longer a friend, but that God decided to take him home a year or so after that particular picture was taken, he was never cured of Muscular Distrophy, but I'll go into more detail when I get a picture of him on here. But of course since I was looking for the picture, it did not turn up anywhere, but I did manage to find some other cool pics I thought I'd scan and post on my blawg. So I'm here at work today, and tried to scan all the pics (which btw I saw Ryan come in to the computer lab while I was scanning, and to my knowledge he's still in here). I didnt manage to get all the pics scanned because the scanner was too slow and I havent yet developed a sense of patience, but I did get a set of 3 scanned that I thought it would be cool to post on here, and since I seem to love to post all my pictures in sets of 3, here they are:


This picture was taken, assumably, in December of 1985 (evidence of the month by the Christmas stockings in the background). Yep, I was a rather handsome young fella' back in my younger days.





















Here's a lovely picture of when I was probably 7 or 8 (probably 1991 or 92) or so. Also pictured is our lovely former cat Emily. Unfortunantly Emily passed away in Febrauary of 2001, just about 10 days or so before her 20th birthday. A little over a year later, March 30, 2002 to be exact, we got a new cat that we currently have to this day, pictures of her are below on this blog, and I'll probably post some new ones of her very soon.
















This one was during the summer of 2001 (I think), at Mobile, AL. I was just a young 17 year old then, ahh the good ole days....

My Car

Aint it purrrrrty?