My Cloud
My mother would have been 87 on Wednesday of this week. Sadly, she passed away about five years ago. Mother grew up in Vienna, a town known today as the home of “The Big Pig Jig.” It sits on Interstate 75 about an hour south of Macon and it is the county seat of Dooly County. My father was born in Dooly County as well but was raised in Cordele.
During my mother’s youth Vienna was better known as the home of Walter F. George, who for a number of years represented Georgia in the United States Senate.
Vienna is also the hometown of George Busbee, a former governor of our state, Jody Powell, press secretary for President Carter, and Roger Kingdom, an Olympic Gold Medalist. That’s a pretty good roster of notable folks from such a small place.
Today, to my knowledge the only family that I have that lives in Vienna today is a cousin. I occasionally will pull of the interstate and drive through Vienna whenever I’m heading down to South Georgia or Florida. When I do this I always make my way over to the cemetery. It is there that I am reminded of the rock from which I was hewn.
Driving into the cemetery I come to the Harden plot first. There is buried my grandmother; Lillian was her name but we called her Nenny. She lived with us until I was five years of age and swatted my rear end a time or two. My great-grandmother who I understand was a breast cancer victim is also buried there. A few great aunts and uncles are also buried there.
One of those uncles was Uncle Elmo. Uncle Elmo died when I was in the first grade. His funeral was the first funeral I ever attended.
I have heard a lot of Elmo stories over the years. He was a bookkeeper and he was also in the insurance business. Uncle Elmo didn’t have an office for his insurance business. He sat on a bench on Vienna square and if one wanted insurance one came to see him there. He also owned a hotel in town. I learned in recent years that he won the hotel in a poker game.
Uncle Elmo’s wife Ann is buried there. She was related to baseball great Ty Cobb and from what I’ve heard shared his disposition.
There was Uncle J.T. He owned a dry goods store in town. Buried next to him was his wife Lucile who died from cancer at a too young age. After he retired Uncle J.T. would have “baking day.” He would bake a bout a dozen pound cakes in loaf pans. He would put them in the freezer and then whenever any of his friends in Vienna would pass away or come home from the hospital then he would take thaw out a pound cake and deliver it.
Uncle Charleye is also buried there. At one time he was the head “something or another” with the Georgia Department of Revenue. He would often regale me with stories of his time in politics and state government. His wife Aunt Francis is also buried there. She loved to tell jokes although I can’t think of a joke she ever told me that would be appropriate to tell in the newspaper.
Down the cemetery road and around the bend is the Brown plot with some of my Dad’s folks. There are two graves which are the graves of my great-grandparents. My great-grandfather was the Tax Commissioner of Dooly County. I’m sure he was real popular.
My paternal grandparents are buried there as well. John T. and Lizzie were hardworking folks who fought and struggled to raise five children during the Depression.
My Aunt Sophie, my grandfather’s sister is buried there. She was a very prim and proper lady who never married. She was probably the first feminist I ever knew though the notion of being a feminist would probably offend her.
My Dad’s brother, Uncle Henry is buried there along with his wife Violet. We would often visit them in their home in Cordele and Uncle Henry would come out and fish at our little place at Lake Blackshear when I was boy.
These are my roots. These are some good hard working folks who weren’t perfect; however, in all their humanity they were blessed and endowed by God’s grace. Some of them I never knew. Some I knew only a short while and some have recently passed through the bonds of earthly life.
Whenever I visit the cemetery I am reminded of the words found in the Book of Hebrews which say, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2a NRSV) These folks, along with my mother and father, are a part of my cloud of witnesses and for that I am eternally grateful.