Child’s courage to be admired
Courage, grace and poise. I witnessed all this and more in the amazing form of a slight wisp of a 13-year-old girl.
The occasion was not a happy one for any involved; it was the sentencing hearing of Sherri Mathis in the murder and abuse of Cheyenne Delp and the abuse of her brothers.
On the stand, calmly recounting the abuse she suffered as a foster child in the Mathis home in 1999, this 13-year-old revealed herself to be a young woman of substance and confidence.
That confidence, poise and courage in a 13-year-old who has been through so much made for a very strange juxtaposition with Mathis herself, who, by all accounts, grew up in a loving home yet turned out to be an insecure, monstrous adult who took her rage and anger out on the very helpless young ones entrusted to her care.
But Mathis will never see the light of day again as a free adult while this 13-year-old has, I predict, an extremely promising future.
The question many folks are asking is why Mathis, whose foster care license was revoked in 1999 because of the alleged use of corporal punishment, was granted legal guardianship of the Delp children.
Common sense would seem to dictate that a woman whose foster care license had been revoked should never have been granted legal guardianship of more young children, regardless of the biological parents’ wishes.
While we’re in the vicinity of the realm of justice, much ado has been made about the middle school incident in which some 300-plus students decided not to take a chance on going to (or staying in) school due to graffiti found on a bathroom wall indicating everyone was going to die on that date (April 18).
Quite frankly, I say more power to those students for letting each other know about their safety concerns. Better 300 miss school than one die.
And let’s hope that the students’ concern extends to turning in the person responsible for writing the implicit threat on the bathroom wall. While the graffiti itself is vandalism, the words contained it could well be likened to hollering ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.
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On a much lighter note, our spring weather has brought out birds in full force. At the Newby household, we spotted a couple of robins at work on the twig wreath which hangs by the front door. Suspecting the birds were stealing twigs to build a nest, we were amazed to realize the robin couple was actually building a nest atop the wreath, a double-decker nest at that!
If you’ve ever tended an injured bird, you know how scared they get. It feels like their little hearts are going to burst right through their chests. So, of course, every time the door was opened, the nesting bird flew off in agitation with a whooping of wings that scared us too. The reverse happened as well when one of the birds was swooping in to nest just as we were coming out the door.
But fear has proven no competition for maternal instinct. When we hit that spell of cold weather, the mother robin sat on her nest, warming the sole blue egg through days and nights of door openings and closings. No matter how scared she was, she wasn’t coming off her nest! We’ve gotten good at slowly and quietly opening the door so as not to disturb our closest neighbor and, hopefully, we’ll have the first baby robin before too long.
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Among the many excellent things happening around here that you shouldn’t miss, this week I recommend you tour Magness Library to enjoy the Warren County Women’s Fine Art and Heritage Craft Show.
In the library’s main room, the Hearth & Home Quilt Guild has a marvelous selection of quilts hung around the walls. Created especially for the bicentennial with Warren County themes, the quilts are the work of Jan Burke, Lena Jones, Carolyn Lance, Frances Ledford, Linda Lusk, Peggie McColloch, Jewell Murphy, Reba Jo Newby, Dianne Page, Nila Patton, Betty Smith and Patsy Webb. (We’re especially proud of Reba Jo’s rhinestone-studded Dottie West quilt!)
Throughout the other downstairs rooms, and all through the upstairs sections, are works by such local artists as Linda Bernhardt, Pat Bigbee, Carole Boyd, Melody Brock, Debbie Dunham, Chole Gillespie, Betty Bryan Haslam, Francis Locke, Brandie Mansfield, Carol Neal, Fairy Locke Newman, Mitzi Pierce, Elsa Richter, Dorinda Watts and Ruby Wood.
Among the many artworks that struck our fancy were Pierce’s baskets, Dunham’s counted cross-stitch ‘Great-Grandpa’s Store,’ Dorinda Watts’ pottery, Carol Neal’s ‘Imagine,’ Brenda Glenn Lochay’s ‘The Celebrity,’ and Elsa Richter’s impressionist landscapes.
They scope of local talent represented here is breathtaking and well worth the trip to the library. While you’re there, be sure to check out the regular displays in the Genealogy Center!
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Seen and heard hereabouts: Talk about a booming business, just try getting a table at Billy’s Restaurant in beautiful downtown Newtown for Friday supper or Sunday lunch! Billy Foutch has got ’em coming and going, and the home of the Gatorburger is boasting a brand spanking new sign. Billy, the king of the grill, is doing so well he’s looking for help in the form of an experienced short-order cook.
Among those enjoying Friday’s catfish special recently were Peggy and Curtis Raby, Jeff and Linda Golden, Edd Cantrell, Pat and Wally McClarren, and Lena and Chiz Jones.
Sunday’s brunch bunch left folks circling the parking lot trying to grab the next available space. Enjoying the meat and three were a slew of folks from Locust Street Church of God including my former Yorozu supervisor Lisa Moore (with husband Harold and son Cameron in tow), Tammy Black, Teresa and Barry Haston, and Bobby Christian. Lisa proudly reported the church’s volleyball teams came in first and second in league action and are now in tournament play.
Also spotted Yorozu’s Chris Fults and family in the parking lot as we were departing. It’s always good to see former co-workers out and about.
It was good to see Coy Hathcock, minister at Westwood Church of Christ, a guest of Lena and Chiz Jones, as well as sisters Kay Worzek, Joyce Pirtle and Linda Davenport (along with husband Jerry) at Sunday lunch.
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Reporting from Depot Bottom Country Store this week: Sandy Young and Brenda Myers were holding down the fort and serving up grub for the likes of Billy Earl Jones, Kenny Neal, David Mayfield, Pete Blankenship, Morris Womack and Lucille Newby.
Pete wasn’t being very hospitable. In light of gas prices right at $3.50 a gallon, I thought he might let me borrow the key to BRC’s locked pumps, but I got a resounding ‘no’ to that request.
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Ladies of Leisure: Spotted happily retired Glennis Bassi and Cathy Bryant at City Caf?? last week. Both were enjoying a leisurely lunch and Glennis looks to be doing very well indeed, sporting a most splendid red hat. Also partaking of the City Caf?? hospitality were Judge Larry Ross, wife Tammy, Phillip Clemons and former county executive Carol Hamblen and dentist husband Dr. Russ Hamblen.
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Thought for the week: ‘He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.’ ‘ Raymond Hull.