RSS Feed
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Editor's Notes Mary Hamrick's influence rippled across life's pond
Still, it can come so unexpectedly. It came that way Sunday to my Aunt Mary Hamrick at her home in the Barrytown community of Choctaw County. A lifelong faithful member of the Barrytown United Methodist Church, she was getting ready for church when she collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack. When she didn't show up for church, family members knew something was amiss. She had just celebrated her 82nd birthday a few days earlier, on Nov. 8. Mary had taught school in Choctaw County for 44 years. She taught at Gilbertown, Lisman and Shady Grove. Mary never married and did not have children of her own but the hundreds of Choctaw Countians she taught were her children. Her nieces and nephews were her children and even her own siblings were her children because she was the quiet but efficient family member who tended to everyone. She nursed my grandmother and grandfather in their declining years. She tended to two uncles in their final months with illnesses. She has looked after her sister, my mother, Edna Hamrick Cox, and her brother, my Uncle Berlie "Punk" Hamrick, over the years. Mary and Punk have shared supper every evening for the last several years. Many days this past year when I'd be at The Choctaw Advocate in Butler I'd go back by Barrytown and get there just in time to pull up a chair and share a meal of vegetables, some kind of meat and cornbread. Mary would always make excuses for the supper but it was good to me and I enjoyed spending time with them. Mary was a wonderful cook. Christmases and Thanksgivings were always big feast days at the Hamrick home. Over the years, many have died and some who gained families of their own have taken their holiday celebrations elsewhere but Mary always had Christmas dinner at her home for anyone who would come. She loved to have the house filled with people. "We've always had Christmas dinner here," was her pat answer to those who suggested she come eat with them instead. Little things can get to you. Opening her freezer Sunday night I found bags of fresh coconut, undoubtedly awaiting that wonderful coconut cake that Mary, and her mother before her, always had for Christmas dessert. It was one of my favorites. I cried standing there staring at bags of coconut, not so much for the cake that will be missed but for the loss of the person who made it and the loss of a family tradition. I was comforted by the turnout for visitation and the funeral. Mary taught generations of Choctaw Countians and many came to tell how much she taught them-not just from textbooks but from the way she lived and acted. Many also laughed, confessing paddlings and rebukes they received from her but all agreed that they did not get anything they didn't deserve. Mary was a quiet, almost shy person but she loved people and she cared about people, especially her students and her family. She would say she didn't deserve the accolades that have been paid to her. But like the old adage about the stone cast into the water and the far-reaching ripples that result, her life caused ripples that influenced many-an influence for good. Fred Kimbrough sang "Precious Memories" at the funeral and I couldn't help but think how true the words are. Not just for my family and me but for many others too.
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
|
for larger version       |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
