Trophy fish

While other kids watch cartoons, our fishing-obsessed four-year-old Jake stays glued to the fishing channel. A few weeks ago, at my brother Mac's farm near Hahira, he caught his first bass: he baited the hook, cast it, caught the fish and reeled it in, and got it onto the dock, all by himself.

He wanted to take it home and eat it, but Jimmy talked him into letting him get it mounted. We picked it up at the taxidermist's yesterday, and it is a beauty. An enraptured Jake told us on the way home,"When I'm grown up, I can tell everybody I caught this fish all by myself, when I was just a little kid."

Easter at Mac and Susan's farm

At Caroline's 3rd birthday party

Kindergarten, revisited

It's a shame the resolution of this photo is so grainy because it's a wonderful shot: Buddy Coleman and his grandson Coleman Call and Jimmy with grandson William Kerns. I took it today when we attended Grandparents' Day at Valwood School kindergarten. In 1948, Buddy and Jimmy were classmates in First Methodist Church Kindergarten, and here they are, 62 years later, sitting in those little bitty chairs with their grandsons.

4

It was four years ago today that, while playing golf, one of Jimmy's vertebrae collapsed. A few weeks later, we learned that this was caused by multiple myeloma, the rarest of the three blood cancers. Treatable but not yet curable, it is a cancer of the bone marrow, that destroys the bones. Four years ago, the average time a person lived after diagnosis was forty-four months.

We passed that marker four months ago, and not only is Jimmy alive and kicking, but with the help of oral chemotherapy, the cancer is in remission and we are living relatively normal lives. It's still an uphill battle, but we are enjoying every day, hopeful that the grace of God and the advancement of medical science will grant us many more.

Lapping it up

Buddies

Jimmy enjoys some down time on the sofa, reading his Kindel. Check out Andy's little face, peeking over Jimmy's leg.