In 1975, Sheila Kay Adams took me to meet her Granny Dell in Sodom. That was the beginning of what has become a series of lifetime relationships with Dellie's family and community that continue to this day.
Among the people I met that day were Joe and Marthie Chandler, Dellie's daughter and son-in-law, who lived a couple of miles down the road, but more often than not could be found up at Dellie's where the air was cooler, the view from the porch better, and there were always enough people for a round of "set back."
Marthie and Joe took me under their wing. When I moved to the Big Pine community Joe gifted me my first flock of chickens and I ate so many meals in Marthie's kitchen I soon lost count. In 1979, they paid me the ultimate compliment by asking me to drive them to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, to visit their daughter Sue and her husband, Vince.
Both Marthie and Joe are long gone now. But those of us who knew them - we remember and won't soon forget.