By Ralphine Major

It all started with the heart.  Many Focus readers may remember my first column, “The Real McCoy,” which ran on February 7, 2011.  Dr. Kyle McCoy is the cardiologist who treated our mother after her heart attack.  “Life is a Gift,” my tribute to the late Criminal Defense Attorney Zane Daniel, was published a few years earlier.  I worked for Zane and Jimmy Duncan when I was in college.  I had worked on the McCoy piece off and on for a couple of years and had no idea what to write for the next week.  My brother came to the rescue and suggested I write a review of “Heaven is for Real,” the book about a three-year-old child who had been to heaven.  That resulted in my second column, “Glimpses of Glory.”  Now, three years later, the list of stories to write number into the hundreds.  I call on my committee of two—my mother and brother—to help me decide which one to run next.

While the two stories I have written this week are being finalized, I take a moment to reflect on stories that came my way—country music stars and cowboy legends from Hollywood, doctors and dentists, military and missionaries—and stories I have yet to write that include names like Zachary, Colby, Jeanette, Godwin, TOTS, Henry, Wright, and a 96-year old from Nashville named Luttrell.

It is a joy to bring you an occasional timely or seasonal topic and share with you simple scenes of our rural way of life.  I have been blessed to learn of true, human-interest stories about our neighbors, churches, charities, and a sports series that started with a comment from a coach named Ken.

With Easter upcoming, I share with you a favorite scripture:  “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” John 10:10 (KJV).  Focus readers may enjoy this picture taken after a springtime rain.