Lots of laughter and some tears

Folks, we just returned from a trip back to Ohio to visit family and friends.

While there we made trips to many locations and visited the houses in which we were born. We went to an alumni reunion and hosted a variety of friends at a big get together.

We discussed those by gone days and the fun we had as friends many years ago.

We also visited friends who were seriously ill. Ellen Fox was my nurse when I had my first eye operation. We became friends and she and her husband, Lyle took trips to Europe together. We visited the Foxes but Ellen was in a coma and did not know we were there. She passed on just a few days later. Tears were shed.

We visited Clark Ummel, who was and has been, for some time now, in a coma also. Water came to my eyes again when I learned of the death of Penny Carter. Penny who’s whose full name was Hammond Paul Carter Jr. However, I never heard him called anything but Penny. He played basketball when I was Junior High coach at Gratis school in Preble County, Ohio. He started in the seventh grade. By the time he was a senior Gratis School played for the division two basketball championship of the state of Ohio. In the semi-final game Penny scored twenty some points to put Gratis in the state finals. I can not recall exactly how many points Penny scored. However I do remember what the headline said above the column in the sports section of the Columbus paper. It read, Penny worth a million for Gratis.

After high school, Penny married his high school sweetheart, Patty Kurtz. They are the parents of four children. Penny always gave his best as a basketball player and continued this habit as a husband and a father. He knew no other way.

So our trip continued to be filled with happiness and sadness just as life brings these emotions to all of us as we travel life’s highways.

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