Author: Buddy McElhannon
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Retirement 103 – Can A Marriage Survive the Retirement Years?
It was 1999, and my wife (Tootie) and I were looking forward to retirement. At 48, all five of our children had left home. Though our golden years were still over a decade away, our nest was empty, and we relished the next season of “our time.” For some couples, the empty nest season may…
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Adorning the Dark
In a year known for its unexpected events, there is one certainty, 2020 will be a year remembered primarily as the Year of the Pandemic when life became more about surviving than living. How much longer this lasts remains to be seen. We yearn to return to normal. Or, as one Facebook post shouted: “2020…
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Big Sexy Hair
It started as an innocent conversation. One of those typical dialogues a mother might have with an inquisitive, very bright for his age, six-year-old. Answering the first grader’s incessant questions had become a primary role for his parents. Now, as mom worked on getting her hair ready for a rare evening out with her husband,…
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Names Worth Remembering
Some places conjure up more than pleasant vacation memories. They trigger emotions, prompting a momentary pause to reflect, to reminisce, to remember. These places have names, names that are more than a geographic spot on a map, names that echo across time. Names that might or should cause us to pause, to bow your head,…
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Supper’s Ready
The power of words to change hearts is something I will never fully understand. Appreciate? Yes. Understand? No. A certain survey asked Americans what they longed to hear someone say to them. Three answers stood out. The first one is no surprise. “I love you.” The second one you might have guessed. “I forgive you.” …
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A Moment of Truth
A Moment of Truth is a phrase that may conjure up different scenarios in your mind. For me, it triggers thoughts about customer service. Over thirty years ago, I read a book titled Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon, then President of Scandinavian Airlines. Carlzon saw every customer interaction as a moment in time that…
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A Real Superhero
What is it with children and superheroes? It has become a normal, if not natural part of childhood to become fascinated with mythological caped crusaders who lead exemplary lives, fight evil, and seek to save the world. Who from my generation cannot remember the opening line from a popular television series of the 1950s —…
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God Helps Those Who…
There are a number of enduring images I will remember from the Pandemic of 2020 — Healthcare workers wearing their full-body protective gear, people wearing gloves and homemade face-masks as if they were normal wardrobe attire, and empty grocery store shelves void of certain items like beef, chicken, Lysol spray, and, of course, toilet paper.…
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I Am A Poppy And I Am Not OK
Time for me to fess up. I have recently been diagnosed with a malady that is becoming increasingly common among people my age. During this pandemic, there is more than one virus with which to be concerned. Apparently, I have been infected by it. It’s called Grand-Sep-A-20 or GSA-20 for short. A few weeks ago,…
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In Search of Perfect Vision
They thought she was standoffish, at the very least anti-social. They would smile at her, but she was unresponsive. It was as if she was blind. She nearly was. She wasn’t being rude or unsociable. She was just extremely near-sighted. My grandmother, born in 1897, had poor vision. But in the early 20th century, it…
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