By Donna Traywick

Mt. Olivet News

Hope everyone had a safe and healthy Christmas. I had a strange and very different Christmas this year.

On Dec. 21, grandson Alex’s birthday, I contacted Covid. I had planned my Christmas menu to the last detail – when to take the turkey out of the freezer Friday night, when to bake it on Saturday or very early Sunday morning, so it would be ready for our 4 p.m. celebration.

We were to attend church service and the late afternoon meal would not be rushing me. But, all my plans were put on hold.

Instead, I spent a very quiet and peaceful Christmas Sunday. It gave me a lot of time to reflect and have my own little Christmas service. I read the Christmas story from the book of Luke. I wouldn’t want to spend another Christmas like that, but under the circumstances it turned out well.

There was not a lack of food. Doctors Harold and Lisa Newcomb send a huge bowl of chicken soup with bowtie noodles. Dr. Harold’s mother Brucie and I grew up together in the Methodist Church. 

The first wedding I ever played for was Brucie’s to fiance Hurston Newcomb.

On Christmas morning Jeff Allen brought me an old fashioned country breakfast that wife Jennifer had prepared. I haven’t had biscuits with ham and red eye gravy on Christmas morning in a long time. 

At supper he came again with more food. Do you see now why I love the Mt. Olivet Community?

I have had a much lighter case than some of my neighbors and church friends. I took all the recommended shots and took precautions the best I could, and I still believe that is the best way to stop this. I wish everyone with Covid a very speedy recovery.

It was in 2018 when the editor came to Mt. Olivet to take pictures of our Christmas program and asked me to write the cutlines underneath. After he encouraged me to try writing I can hardly believe that it’s been 208 weeks and I’ve gotten something in every week, and skipped fewer than twenty.

It’s for you, my dear readers, that I write. I am not a trained writer and I appreciate all your comments, corrections, and even criticisms. That’s the way I know so many of you are reading my column.

When I look back over the last four years and reflect on all the things that have gone on in our lives, I see that many have shared their joys and sorrows with me and I have done the same through this column.

I hope that as we approach this new year we can continue to do the same. I thank Jeremy for his encouragement to work on my children’s book series I have started about the adventures of “The Purple Tractor.”

A happy and healthy New Year to all. Call or text me at 901-828-8824 with news or comments. What is your New Year’s resolution?