I’m Back! August 1st is a Great Day!!

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Lori Crane

Sorry for being MIA. I’ve been in Bermuda since May and internet is ridiculously expensive down there. But I’m back now and will run around and catch up with everyone over the next week.

A few months ago, I published a journal/perpetual calendar called “On This Day” (check it out at Amazon) to keep track of my ancestral dates. You know, births, deaths, etc. I finally found a minute to use it, and for the last few days I’ve been filling it in, and guess what I found out…

Today is August 1st, and I realized if it weren’t for August 1st, I wouldn’t be here. That gives me a strange feeling that I should put some energy into this day and enjoy it to the fullest.

On this day in 1936, my grandparents were married.

On this day in 1892, her grandparents were married.

I’m glad to be back, especially on August 1st! Catch you all tomorrow.

Farming, Winning, Unpacking, and Catching Up

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Lori Crane

Holy cow, the last month as been NUTZZZ!

I moved from Michigan to Tennessee on May 1st. Whew, that was a lot of work! I felt kinda bad that I went to work on May 3rd for two weeks and left my trophy husband in Tennessee to deal with the movers, the dogs, and his new job, but I had to sit on a beach in St. Maarten and get paid. (I work for Norwegian Cruise Lines, if you don’t know.) So, trophy husband unpacked boxes as best he could and regularly emailed me pictures of the house. I was so happy to see all our stuff made it, but I must admit, my first thoughts were, “Hey, that doesn’t go there. Why would he put those things on that table? That other stuff should go there, and move those things to the other place.” LOL. Poor guy. Well, it was so cool to fly into Nashville on Saturday to come home. I’ve been home for two days and have most of our belongings sorted out. I’m still finding things we didn’t unpack when we moved three years ago, but it’s fun to go through it.

In case you missed it, we now have a farm and poor trophy husband has a lot to do. While we were driving down from Michigan (eight hours in the car with two dogs panting and turning it into a smelly steam room), one of the six moo moos had a calf. I called her Peanut (standing on the left), which will be totally wrong when she weighs 900 pounds, but I don’t care. While I was away last week, we had the second calf. I named her Buttercup (laying down on the right). They are precious!!

While I was gone, Twister (the neurotic donkey) apparently went into the chicken enclosure and wouldn’t come out. He’s out now and back with his buddies, but he was a poor little loner for over a week. My house sits by the barn and the chickens, and I haven’t seen Twister since I’ve returned home. He may be a little freaked out by the whole experience. He’s hiding on the back of the property.

Also while I was gone, my book “An Orphan’s Heart,” was named as a finalist in the 2014 Eric Hoffer Awards. I’m tickled pink!

The sequel to “Stuckey’s Bridge” is coming out in two weeks. “Stuckey’s Legacy” will hit the shelves on June 1st. While I was on the ship, I finished writing the third in the trilogy. “Stuckey’s Gold” is now in the pipeline and will be out in August. If you haven’t read “Stuckey’s Bridge” yet, get busy.

I think that’s all the news. I’m leaving Sunday for Bermuda for nine weeks, so I won’t be around until the end of July. Have a great summer and I’ll yack at y’all soon!

They loaded up the truck and they moved to Tennessee

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Lori Crane

Beverly Hillbillies in reverse. We live in Michigan and we’re moving to Tennessee…NEXT WEEK!

Last Thursday (April 10), my trophy husband said, “My company has a job opening in Tennessee.”

I said, “Well, what are we waiting for?”

We’ve been discussing moving South for quite a while. The snow in Michigan sucks! But since we were here, we’ve also been looking for a farm in Michigan for the last year, but everything we found, put an offer on, got an acceptance on, etc. has fallen through. Maybe we’re MEANT to move South. If you know me, you know my life is about SYNCHRONICITY! I completely believe things happen for a reason, and you will know you are on the right path by the crazy signs around you. Obviously, the difficulties we had trying to buy a farm in Michigan meant we were not on the right path. When things are right, they’re not difficult…they’re easy. Tell me if I’m on the right path when you read the following story…

That night (April 10), I found a farmhouse online and emailed about it. We planned on going down Sunday (April 13) for a couple days for hubby to check out the job and me to check out the neighborhoods for houses. (In 2 weeks, I’ll be out of the country until August, so if this is going to happen, it has to happen quick quick quick.)

Early Sunday morning, I got a response to my email which was uber-strange, stating the owner worked for the UN and was being transferred to South Africa, and asking questions like ‘Can you attach a photo?’ ‘How much can you put down upfront?’ ‘What’s your birth date?’ It was more than a little weird, so you know me, I Googled it. Turns out it was a scam. It’s been running since 2009. They get your info, you send them a lot of money, and you don’t get the house. I searched online and found the REAL real estate agent and sent her an email, telling her there was some fraudulent activity going on with that property. In the car on the way to Nashville an hour later, I got an email from her asking me to call her. I did and we spoke about the email I had received, which I offered to forward to her. I also asked (since I had her on the phone) if I could set up an appointment with her (since she’s a real estate agent and I’m looking for a house).

Monday morning (April 14), I dropped hubby off at the new job and went driving around. Armed with coffee, my GPS, and a list of 20 houses, my plan was to look at all of them before meeting with the real estate agent at noon. All of the houses were in dinky neighborhoods with no yards. I hated them. I’m a country girl. Give me room. Give me grass. Finally, I ended up at the farmhouse I had originally emailed about. I was in LOVE. There were cows and a donkey next to the house…chickens and geese in the barn…and a beautiful 150-yr-old farmhouse.

While I was in the driveway, my trophy husband texted, “The job is a go! Find a house!”

I texted back, “Just did! Check your email.” I sent him pictures of the cows and the house, and I headed to the real estate office.

The agent showed me some houses on her laptop (some of which I had just driven by) and I told her the one I really loved was the old farmhouse. She told me all about the history of the house and the land. I asked her why she knew so much about the property.

She said, “Because I’m the owner.”

SYNCHRONICITY

We signed the papers Thursday morning (Apr 17) before we left, and we’re now back in Michigan packing. The movers are coming Apr 29! I gotta go….

Rainy Day Soup

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Lori Crane

To-die-for Asparagus Soup on a chilly, rainy day! Yummy!

Emeril’s recipe, roughly:

Cut tips off a couple bunches of asparagus and set aside. Boil woody ends of asparagus in 8 cups of chicken stock (or veggie stock for you veggie-type people) for 20 minutes.

While it’s boiling, in a large saucepan cook 1 cup diced shallots, 1 cup diced leeks (white part only), and the rest of asparagus (cut up) in 1/2 stick of butter until softened. (Don’t worry about the size of the dicing, you’re gonna blend it later.) Add 1 tablespoon of garlic, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper.

Remove woody ends from stock with slotted spoon and discard, then add shallot/leek/asparagus mixture to stock. Simmer 20 minutes.

To serve: Remove shallot/leek/asparagus with slotted spoon and blend in blender and then add back to stock, add 1/2 c heavy cream and asparagus tips, warm and serve. Top with Parmesan. (I was tempted to put some diced ham in this. Might be yummier, but I’d probably omit the salt.)

Saturday Snippet – Okatibbee Creek

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Lori Crane

It’s been a while since I posted a snippet. The following is from my book Okatibbee Creek. The heroine of the story is my 3rd great grandmother. She barely survived the Civil War and typhoid running rampant through her family. In this scene, the war is over and disease has passed, she is older and having a discussion with the slave who raised her.

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I look up and see Bertie slowly walking up the road toward daddy’s house. She’s wearing a dark blue dress and a floppy straw hat covering her eyes.

“Hi, Miss Bertie,” I yell to her as I wipe away my tears and put a smile on my face.

“Hi, baby girl.” She waves back.

“What brings you out on this lovely morning?” I ask when she finally reaches the porch and plops down on the step. She takes off her hat and reveals her gray hair tied in a bun. She sets her hat next to her and wipes beads of sweat off her forehead with her handkerchief.

“I was just on my way to your house to see the babies and to see how you are doing,” she says as she tucks her handkerchief back into her sleeve.

I can tell by her demeanor that there is something more on her mind, but I figure she will tell me when she is ready.

“Well, it’s nice to see you. We are all doing fine at home,” I reply.

“That’s good to hear, baby girl.”

“Bertie, I’m forty-one years old. How long are you going to call me baby girl?” I tease her.

She laughs. “You have been my baby girl since I came to your daddy’s house when you were six years old. You will always be my baby girl.”

“Aw, you know I love you, Miss Bertie.” I reach over and pat her bony hand.

“And I love you, too, baby girl. You know, you have always been the smartest and most beautiful of your momma’s children. And with everything you have been through, you have become the strongest and most courageous woman I have ever known.”

She pauses and looks out across the yard as her mind wanders to another time and place. After a moment she adds, “Your momma and daddy would be very proud of you, but it was a blessing they were not around to witness all the pain and loss we went through.” She pauses again and looks out across the yard. “You’re also a wonderful mother.”

I can tell she’s leading up to something.

“I don’t know what I would have done without you, Bertie. You helped me through so much.”

“I know what you went through, baby girl. I witnessed it all. I have seen you stand strong in the face of disaster and death and sickness and hunger. You have faced every adversity with courage and every defeat with dignity and grace. I’m very proud of you, more than you’ll ever know.”

My eyes well up with tears as I feel a mixture of being touched by her kind words, and trepidation that she is going somewhere awful with this talk.

“Bertie, your love has been one of the reasons I have been able to be strong and steadfast. Together, we have laughed and cried through so much,” I say as I stare straight ahead at the field.

Memories come flooding back, along with the sadness and the happiness. Rice, Daddy, Momma, Monroe Franklin. I shake the memories off and look back at Bertie.

“I have the feeling you weren’t headed all the way to my house just to tell me you’re proud of me.” I stop and wait for her to speak.

“Well, baby girl, like I said, you have always been the smartest of your momma’s children.” She takes a deep breath and exhales. I wait patiently as I watch her build up her courage. “Well, I have not been feeling very well lately and I saw the doctor. He said he can’t do much for me and I may not be around much longer. You know I have raised Tony as my own since his parents died of the fever. He’s only thirteen and not quite ready to face the world on his own just yet.” She looks away. I can tell she is trying to get through this speech without crying. Finally, she turns to me and looks me straight in the eye. “I want to ask you to take care of Tony when my time comes. I can rest easy if I know you will do that for me.”

“What? Bertie, of course I will take care of Tony. But I don’t want to hear anything about you being gone. We’ve been through too much together and everything finally seems to be turning around for the better.” I pause, wondering if that is really true. Is everything going to be all right?

I continue, “We’ve walked straight through the midst of hell and we are just now starting to find our way back.”

“I hope you’re right, baby girl, but we can’t control what the good Lord wants to do. We just have to handle it the best we can when it comes.”

I nod and quietly say, “Bertie, I will do whatever you need me to do.”

“I know you will, baby girl. I just thought it would be nice to ask.” She winks at me.

Using both arms to lift herself, Bertie slowly rises from the step. I stand up, too, and she gives me a long hug. She puts her hat on and carefully steps away from the porch, heading toward the dirt road. I yell “goodbye” to her and she waves her hand behind her head without turning around. She walks very, very slowly, favoring one leg more than the other, and I watch her until she shuffles out of sight.

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Lori Crane Books at Amazon and on audiobook at Audible.

Frogs, Frogs, Everywhere!

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Lori Crane

I was reading a blog by NIKIMARIE about what she carries in her purse, and it got me thinking about the quirky things we carry around with us. Do you have some strange thing in your purse or your wallet that you couldn’t part with? My trophy husband carries a torn piece of his friend’s underwear from twenty-five years ago. Don’t ask. Just do what I do, shake your head and quietly back out of the room.

Well, I have one of those quirky things, too! I carry a carved, soap-stone frog!

The frog thing started a while back.

I read somewhere that it’s good Feng Shui to place a frog by your front door. It attracts money. Well, who wouldn’t want that? So, I put a little frog by my front door and sure enough, I instantly got more money.

If you know me, you know how obsessive I can be. So, I figured if one frog was good, more frogs would be better. Don’t laugh. It’s logical, no? My trophy husband didn’t think so either. But let me tell you, we always have the money we need. Nine years of putting children through college, new homes, family emergencies, we always have it, no matter how much.

So, where else would you put a “money frog” except where you keep your money? I placed this little one in my change purse, and my change purse is always full of money. I will keep it there forever and ever!

Here ends our Feng Shui reading for the day. So, give it up, what’s your quirky thing?

Happy 143rd Birthday, Aunt Dora!

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Lori Crane

Mary Eudora Culpepper Saterfiel Watson was born March 31, 1871.

She is pictured here in the center with her husband WB Saterfiel to the left, her father JB Culpepper to the right, and her children from left to right in front Dewey Oliver Saterfiel and baby Alma. In the back row, left to right, Evie Mae Saterfiel Hodges, Indeola “Necie” Saterfiel Byrd, Willie Carlos Saterfiel, Adie Joseph Saterfiel.

Side note: I ordered my grandparent’s marriage license and the witness was D.O. Saterfiel, the little guy. He was my grandpa’s cousin. I sometimes forget these people knew each other. 🙂

She was my grandpa’s aunt Dora. She was born to Joel B Culpepper and Mary E “Mollie” McFarland in Sumter County, Alabama, as the only girl with five brothers. There was another girl born to the union, but she died at birth. Aunt Dora was the eldest of the children, so I imagine she was the caregiver to her little brothers. At some point when the children were little, the family moved to Kemper County, MS. After her mother’s death in 1908, her father moved in with her for a short time. That’s when this photo was taken. Shortly after this, he was placed in a soldier’s home in Biloxi, MS, where he died less than a year later, on Nov. 11, 1911. Dora was 40.

When she was about 19, she married William Bartley Saterfiel around 1890 and had six children. Three of her children married into the Hodges family. Mr. Hodges married three times, and with each union came more children. The three Saterfiel children married a Hodges child from each of the three wives. The Hodges/Saterfiel family reunion must be confusing.

She lost her youngest child in 1912. Baby Alma was only five years old when she died, not very long after the top photo was taken.

Following her husband’s death in 1925, she married GW Watson in 1929. Though she was married to Mr. Watson for 21 years, her headstone reads Eudora Saterfiel and her obit says nothing of Mr. Watson’s children. She died at the age of 78. Her obit is as follows:

Friday, January 6, 1950

Mrs. G. W. Watson

Mrs. G. W. Watson of Collinsville died Friday at St. Joseph Hospital, following a heart attack. Funeral will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. from the Union Funeral Home. The Rev. Edward McKeithen officiating. Interment will be in Union. Survivors include three sons: A. J. and D. O., Collinsville, and W. C. Saterfiel, Causeyville: Two daughters, Mesdames Joe Byrd and George Hodges, Collinsville: several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Her father, husband, and baby Alma are buried at Zion Cemetery, Kemper Co, MS. She and her other children are buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Lauderdale Co, MS. Mr. Watson and his first wife are buried at Memorial Park in Newton Co, MS.

My Grandmah – the Doctah

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Lori Crane

In the early 1900s, my great grandmother, Nancy Didama Spencer Burke (Grandma Damie) was a doctor. She rode around the back hills of Newton County, Mississippi, taking care of the sick. She didn’t ride in a car. She rode side-saddle, and a woman doctor was a rare thing.

Many moons ago, women were the caretakers and caregivers, but at some point the medical power was given over to men. Gaining that power back was a hard door to open.

It was opened by Elizabeth Blackwell (pictured left) in the mid-1800s. Miss Blackwell was born in England, but raised in America. A dying female friend told her she would have suffered far less if her physician had been a woman. This statement encouraged Elizabeth to pursue a career in medicine. She was told she would never become a doctor, because there was no schooling available for a woman, but that didn’t stop her from applying to every medical school in the country. Finally, as a joke, she was voted into Geneva Medical College in New York. I can only imagine the ridicule she received at the all-male school. But she showed them. She graduated first in her class in 1849 and later studied surgery, midwifery, and obstetrics. One can imagine she had very few patients and no camaraderie, but she persevered. Keep in mind this was 100 years before women even got the right to vote. She was a strong and intelligent woman.

She paved the path for many women in the field of medicine – even Grandma Damie.

186 years doesn’t make any difference

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Lori Crane

186 years doesn’t make any difference

March 17th is my 3rd great grandmother’s birthday. She was born in 1828. Her name was Mary Ann. In 1862/63 during the Civil War, she lost her husband and three brothers to war, both her parents and her 1-year-old son to typhoid, and a host of other family members to one or the other. The total death count in the family over a one-year period was seventeen. She was 35.

In 1923, my great grandmother, Eula, lost her baby girl to pneumonia. That was the same year she lost her father and her sister, and the same year her husband was sent to prison for shooting down a man in a gunfight over a moonshine still. She was 25.

February 24, 2014, after a four-year battle, my daughter lost her fiancé to cancer. She’s 28.

Driving back and forth to the hospital, we spoke about Mary Ann and Eula and their ages during those horrific times, and she said it must be some kind of curse on the women of our family.

I don’t think so.

As her fiancé took his last breath, it was only she, I, and his mother at his bedside. As usual, it was the women who held the dying and kept the rest of the world from caving in. When Mary Ann’s brother died of typhoid, it was she who took in his children and raised them. She was a women who remained steadfast in the face of despair. When Eula’s husband was sent to prison, it was she who raised the other children and took care of the farm. She was a woman who stood strong in the eye of the storm and saw the family through.

I think the women of our family are the rocks. We are the ones who carry the weight for everyone else. There is no curse. There are only miracles, and we are the ones who perform them.

Happy birthday to our grandma Mary Ann. Thank you for teaching us to be strong.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Lori Crane

Well, another year has flown by. They seem to move faster now that the kids are grown and gone. We used to measure time by what the kids were doing: She was in seventh grade; He played baseball that summer. But now, there is no measurement. Days just slip by and another year is gone. How strange.

As I grow older, I have mixed feelings of both peace and sadness. Peace that I don’t have to impress, climb the ladder, drive the perfect car, live in the perfect neighborhood. Sadness that so many things are now out of my control. When you’re young, anything is possible. All you have to do is decide where you want to go, how you want to live, who you want to hang out with, and it can happen. When you age, you don’t have as many choices. I will never run for president, join the military, or become Miss America. Not that I was going to do any of those things anyway, but it’s sad to have the choices involuntarily taken from me.

As you age, it seems life both contracts and expands at the same time. It contracts due to the lack of options but expands due to the growing number of family, friends, hobbies. In my case, the lack of options for the future has been replaced with an obsessive determination to get everything done. Now. I think I’m running out of time and there are not enough hours in the days.

My mother, father, and grandmother all died in their fifties, and I always thought I would too. Well, if that’s true, I’d better get busy doing all the things I want to do, because I’m quickly moving closer and closer toward the end. It’s not really a morose thought, just a simple fact like, “Hey, better run to the store and get toilet paper.”

Aging is a very strange thing. This ring was once put on the finger of a beautiful young woman with the world at her feet and the dreams of being a wife and mother shining in the distance. Though the skin has wrinkled and the dreams have, over the decades, become reality, that young heart is still beating inside. The things that were once important – getting that promotion, cutting the grass, holiday shopping – have been replaced with the simple act of spending time with the ones you love. Period. Some family and friends are younger, some are older, some are your lifelong companions. You never know which ones will still be here on your next birthday. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. That’s the most interesting thing about aging – the finality of it all.

Love everybody and tell them so today.

Lori Crane

award-winning author. musician. cute shoes.

Category Archives: life

I’m Back! August 1st is a Great Day!!

Farming, Winning, Unpacking, and Catching Up

They loaded up the truck and they moved to Tennessee

Rainy Day Soup

Saturday Snippet – Okatibbee Creek

Frogs, Frogs, Everywhere!

Happy 143rd Birthday, Aunt Dora!

My Grandmah – the Doctah

186 years doesn’t make any difference

Happy Birthday to ME!