Sarah Walker Gorrell, Author

There's an old saying....."you can't go home, again".........and maybe if you can, you shouldn't. A friend and I decided to make a trip, while in Des Moines, down SW 9th Street. For approximately 13 years, I had worked in an office at the end of a small strip mall on that street. The man, for whom I worked, owned a chain of McDonald's Restaurants and a chain of Camelot Dry Cleaners. We drove from Fleur Drive across Bell over to SW 9th. Nothing looked the same - everything had changed. Of course, I had to take into consideration that it had been well over 30 years! I suddenly realized that we were passing what looked like the small strip center, so we turned around and went back. Mike pulled the car into the parking lot, and I decided to get out and go into what was once the old Vegas Corp. offices. It was now an eVape shop. Once inside, I explained (to the very unconcerned young man behind the counter) why I was there. I asked if I could look around...

I'm not quite sure where the name "Sluggy" came from, but my two Texas granddaughters gave Douglas Bynum that name when they were younger.  And, it stuck.  Strangely enough, they called Hilda Grace "Mary" (that was her mother's name - but Miss Mary died before they were even a gleam in their mother's eye.) On Saturday, granddaughter Sydney and I went to Meridian, to the hospital, to visit Sluggy. Neither of us was prepared for what we saw.  He wasn't the Sluggy that Sydney remembered - nor was he the Doug that I remembered. We both knew that he was in the end of life stages - or as a cousin says he was about to finish his journey. He didn't know we were there. The visit was more for us and for "Mary" than for Sluggy. It brought back memories of the final days of Sydney's "Papaw."   Late last night, we received the text message that the time was getting close - and then, the final "he's gone" message...

I've been a little "under the weather" lately, so blogging has been slow (well, non-existent.) In my previous blog, I discussed the upcoming (next month) "Author Extravaganza" at Main Street Books in Hattiesburg, MS. Main Street is owned by Jerry and Dianne Shepherd who are also very involved in community life. After retiring from the Petal School System as a Principal, Jerry and Dianne, who had retired from USM, opened Main Street Books in 2002. They are tireless promoters of local authors. Last week, on October 31st while I was having a Heart Cath in the Laurel, MS hospital, Jerry Shepherd was undergoing surgery, in Hattiesburg's FGH, for a Brain Tumor that had been discovered, just days before. My diagnosis was better than Jerry's. The Brain Tumor is a Glioblastoma - which is a very aggressive type of brain cancer. This sweet man, and his family is desperately in need of prayers. Our family has had two occurrences with this type of can...