“Edith Petty”

Yesterday, August 29, 2018, I went to be with my friend Ray and his brother Eddie as they buried their 94 year old mother.  Edith died this week of dementia, after a prolonged struggle against the growing darkness. She was the twin of a sister, in a family of eight daughters, from Edgefield, SC.  Edith married Grier Petty, who died early in his 50s, unexpectedly.

I went to pay my respects, to honor Edith’s memory, but mostly to sit in the same church with my friend Ray and his family, to remember and to give thanks for all the good times we had together.

I remember as a child playing with Ray on any given day of the week, except Sundays, as he went to the Crowders Creek A R Presbyterian Church and I went to the Bowling Green Presbyterian Church (PCUS) and we never worshiped together.  We did, however, attend each other’s church during summer Bible school.

Since I played often with Ray, I was also often found in his home.  I found his mother Edith to be an excellent cook and she would invite me to stay for lunch sometime.  We often had a delicacy, fried wild rabbit, sometimes served with potatoes and gravy, or other vegetables.  I delighted in eating her fried rabbit, as we never had such a delicacy in my home.  Some days I ate two meals, but I never told my mother I had already eaten at Ray’s home.

On occasion, Ray would take me into his father’s milk truck, and would reach into a small freezer in the truck and obtain for me an ice cream Popsicle.  We never had these at my home either.  I especially liked the vanilla covered with chocolate kind.

Eddie was “mentally retarded,” or so I was told, and was often gone to a school called “Whitten Village” (near Clinton, SC).  Later as he got older Eddie came home and we played with him there.  He was very strong and could throw a bale of hay up and over the hay wagon.  One time Eddie locked me and Ray in the trunk of their family car, which was terrifying, but he heard us calling for help and let us out.

Ray and I often went scouting for old junk in various places, to take it apart just to see how it worked or if we could make it work again. I remember we fixed an old clock with some oil and it ran for almost 15 minutes.  One time we planted a garden together and ate a few ears of fresh corn.  Another time we found an old barn about to collapse and rescued boards and nails sufficient to build ourselves a tree house with our neighbor Jack.  It was magnificent.  Both ends were open, and somehow one day I fell out backwards and hit my head on a tree root.  I saw stars and blue birds for a long time, had a terrible headache, but eventually recovered.  Edith watched over me and placed a cool washcloth on the back of my head until I was well enough and could play again.

I remember her for her kindness, and her being like a second mother to me.  On several occasions, before she let me get on the school bus with Ray, she scrubbed both my ears, saying they were not clean enough for me to go to school.  I also remember her getting upset when we put her cat into a metal milk can and forgot it.  She discovered it dead and stiff about two weeks later, but she never criticized us for it very much.

I also remember her laughing years later about the time Ray and I, age 5, got new handsaws for Christmas.  We found a stand of young pine trees about 4 inches in diameter and working all morning managed to cut down about twenty of these trees, leaving a stump exactly the height of our knees, which made an easy saw cut for us on the trees.  Grier was very angry at the time, as he was keeping these trees to be used later to build a home, but we did not know.  I ran home quickly, but Ray had to endure a good whipping over our indiscretion.  Edith saved Ray, I later heard, from being beaten too badly.

As Ray and I grew we both did some farming.  We worked together for a time picking tomatoes for Carl Petty.  Later we both worked for NB Dulin, Sr and did various jobs on the farm.  One time we build a long fence together.  Ray was an excellent fence builder.  I mostly helped, but I came into my own doing carpentry.  We also were in the Future Farmers of America and represented South Carolina in Cattle, Hog and Sheep judging in Kansas City.

Ray still farms, as well as one of his sons, who raises turkeys.  Ray raises and shows registered Angus beef and has often worked with turkey producers to help raise these birds to sell.  I went into the ministry and later into medicine, so I had to give up farming.

When we see each other, it is still like we just left off talking a little time ago.

We both have our own lives now and hardly see each other but maybe once a year at best, sometimes less than that.  But we share a lot of good memories of times gone by and of helping each other.  Ray has always been a very good friend.   One time, his mother Edith invited me to stay for a while in her home after my dad was killed by a drunken driver.  I shall never forget her kindness to me and my family in that time.

I write this story today in Edith’s memory and to give thanks to God for such a good woman as she was to me and all my family.  She is truly my other mother.  I shall cherish her as long as I have memory and I look forward to meeting her and Grier and all the family over on the other side.  It is said Edith use to sing the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” while doing work around her home.  I expect now she is pleased to be able to sing this song before the throne of our Living God in Jesus Christ the Lord!

Prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world: for Edith and Grier, Ray and Eddie and now for his and my extended families, we give you our grateful thanks!  For all the times we have shared, both good memories and painful ones, we are grateful we could share this life together on this earth.  We look forward to many more days in which we can share our lives together in all those things you have prepared for us as yet to come.  In Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray, with all thanksgiving and praise to God our Redeemer and our Friend.  Amen and Amen!”

Bill Wilson