The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Many families touched by grief

Jeremiah


Since I wrote last there have been many families touched by grief.

Hazel Adams died at Letcher Manor Nursing Home on March 8 at the age of 93. Hazel was one of the hardest working women I’ve ever known. She worked well into her 80s mowing grass, cleaning houses, and just about any other work she thought needed to be done.

She would come over to my ‘Little Shop’ every time I brought a load of furniture in and help me unload the truck, and she wouldn’t hear of it if I told her I didn’t need help.

Hazel was there sitting and visiting with me and the shoppers every day I was open until the time of her fall, which she could never recover from. She was a ‘good ole neighbor’ and friend to so many of us.

Johnny and Sandy lost a good mother and our hearts and prayers go out to them and the grandchildren, David and Ethan Combs and Misha Hall, as well as her brothers, Bill and Luther Adams, and sister Danola Bell. Hazel also leaves many nieces and nephews who thought the world of her.

She was laid to rest at the Burton Hill Cemetery.

Also, another sweet older lady, Gracie Caudill, died on March 8 at her home on Elk Creek Road. She was 97 years old, and had also stayed busy and active until recent years. Grace had been a member of the Little Ruby Church for 61 years, had been a good quilter, Mountain Eagle correspondent, a loving wife (until widowed) and mother to her children, and had worked harder than most men.

It doesn’t seem long ago at all that she was able to attend Little Ruby Church, and she was happy that the Blair Branch Church had begun having services for the Little Ruby members in recent years.

She made the comment that now she could have her funeral at her ‘home church,’ which the family did.

Years ago, when we had our Monday night quilters group at the Blackey Senior Citizens building, Phyllis, Grace and Bertie were always there with pretty tops to be quilted, and I enjoyed getting to meet and talk with them.

Our sympathy goes out to Phyllis, Billy, Jerry and Merle and their families during their sorrow, and also to her sister, Jessie, Bertha and Ann, and the rest of her family and friends.

Lance Breeding is doing better after his recent stroke and few days’ hospital stay at UK. He was out at Blair Branch Church this past weekend and doing well, and also celebrated a birthday.

Sunrise services for the Burton Hill Cemetery, the Hampton and Dixon Cemetery, Adams Cemetery on Blair Branch and the Isom Presbyterian Cemetery are planned for Easter morning. I think they all begin at 7 a.m.

The upkeep for the Hampton and Dixon Cemetery above Letcher School will be overseen by Vergle Caudill of Blackey again this year. Donations should be sent to him if your loved ones are laid to rest there.

We missed Dock Adams at Blair Branch Church this weekend. He didn’t feel well enough to attend, but I have seen him sitting out on the porch on the warm days. Bob stopped in to visit him last Sunday.

We have been busy cleaning up the land that Dad (Don Pridemore) bought across from the house. It’s the former Madison Smith land that Jewell and Imogene

Sammons lived in before their deaths, and then Robert Glen and Kesha Sammons owned before they moved to Knott County. Since then it’s just gone downhill and the house burned, so it really was a mess to clean up.

We sure wish the scoundrels who stole Dad’s utility trailer a couple of weeks ago would bring it back. We were going to use it to haul the wood and blocks from the property, and someone drove up one night and stole it.

Shame on them for stealing from a disabled veteran who never bothered anyone. They should have to carry a flag in one had and a sign stating what they did on the other, and stand in front of the Courthouse Memorial to the Deceased Veterans so everyone would know what they did.

And those who bought it from the thieves are just as guilty.

But anyway, the land has been cleared and leveled out, and we got grass seed planted and limed it. It will be a nice spot of land again soon.

Dad may have been injured in the war, but he could still do most anything he put his mind to, as we all know.

We had a good weekend at Blair Branch Church, nice services Saturday evening and Sunday. There were a couple of guys from Boston there, taping and filming the singing on Sunday. They were doing a documentary on ‘Lee Boy’ Sexton and came by to hear the old ‘lined-type’ of singing.

Former Jeremiah resident Seldon Caudill died. He was a twin brother of the late Norman Caudill of Spring Branch, and was married to Shelby Jean Breeding Caudill. Our sympathy goes out to her, their children and grandchildren, and all of his kinfolk.

Also, Blackey resident Cecil Davis recently died.

A first birthday party was held for Sadie Gilliam last Sunday at the kitchen of the Blair Branch Church. She is the daughter of William and Lyndci Adams Gilliam and her grandparents, Evelyn Gilliam, Jerry and Bonita Adams, and great-grandmothers Ila Adams and Coreen Pridemore, were there for little Sadie’s party, and also we aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

She was cutting a tooth and didn’t feel well at first, but later had a good time.

Her only first cousin on Lyndci’s side, Noah Campbell, was there to help her celebrate. Lyndci’s friend, Jocelyn, had her little ones, Dillon and Mallory, there and Dillon enjoyed playing with Luke.

Well, I better finish this up, but one last note:

Joyce Adams spent a night in the hospital recently. She was overtired with worrying about her great-grandson, Quentin, being in the hospital, and then the death and funeral for Bill’s sister, Hazel Adams, was a little too much stress, and she had a seizure. But she is home now, and doing better.

When you miss writing a week, it’s hard to get caught up and try to remember what went on.



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