PAGE 4A - THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2025
pinions
‘Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.”-
Henry Ward Beecher
Your hands
Centenarians
Hello, neighbors. Last Sunday, I held my grand
mother’s hands. Mema. Tommie Kathleen Partain.
‘Keena when Grandpa was talking to her. “TK Par
tain” when she signed artwork or wrote stories. As she
got hold of mine, she said, “Ohhh, cold. Are you al
right?” Hers were warm, much more so than mine. I
told her that I “guess I just keep chill hands.” She nod ¬
ded and squeezed.
By Travis
Moak
Mema’s hands are 94
years old, plus some
change. They are thin yet
still soft. Although they
are a little shaky these
days, she has no problem
working her way through
the big mug of coffee I
bring her each Sunday:
steady as a rock then. Al
ways raises the mug to
show me, “I approve.”
I wrote about her hands
in the very first entry of
my Mindful Moment
column—January 2023.
It was brief, maybe 250
to 300 words. I sought those words carefully, digging
through the river of language to capture an idea. I still
do, now 115 entries later, perhaps around 65,000 words.
I took a long walk that afternoon after leaving her
company, sometimes seeking the shady path, other
times looking for longer, sunnier stretches. Sweating
during summertime usually does not bother me...un
less I am in dress clothes, which I was not. As I ambled,
admiring trees, listening for birds, I thought about oth
er hands: earlier in the week, sitting down to a supper
with my parents, we all held hands as Dad said grace.
We always do that when I visit for a meal. Just before,
Mom insisted that there was “nothing much to do” as
I offered help. A mother’s hands, still providing. After
supper, Dad and I worked on a Lego project, his fingers
dwarfing all the little pieces as he doggedly labored at
snapping them into place.
Continuing my walk, I looked at my hands—borne
out of theirs. I urged my mind to roll back through the
years, thinking of all the meals prepared, the projects
started and finished, two sets of hands helping a small
er set grow. I dug deeper to consider how the same was
true for their hands and for the hands before that and
before that, on and on. Eventually, I caught myself in
a moment of laughter as, holding my hands in front
of me, I quoted Ricky Bobby to no one, “I’m not sure
what do to with my hands.” Funny how our minds
work.
After a good chuckle, I thought about a recent vis
it to my cousin Jodi’s house. Related through Mema’s
side of the family, her dad, Wayne, is my mother’s first
cousin. Jodi invited my folks and me over to pick blue-
berries, saying there were too many for she and Mar
cus and Maddie. We found that she told the truth: there
were also too many for us. Over the next few days, my
hands turned those blueberries into cobblers for several
people. Wrapping up my walk, I got in my car, worked
the wheel, short-shifted here and there, and made my
way to the house. When I got there, I sat down to type
this here column thinking, “I know exactly what to do
with my hands.”
And, so you have it: roughly another 600 words cen
tered on a mindful moment, something as simple as
being thankful for the hands that gave me mine.
My hope is that you are thankful for yours. Thank
you for making my life better, family.
Mindfully yours, Travis.
Celebrating 35 Years of Service Through Rotary
Dear Editor:
On June 26, 1990, a small group
of committed community members
came together with one goal in mind,
to serve Madison County. That vision
gave birth to the Rotary Club of Madi
son County, and this year we are proud
to celebrate our 35th anniversary.
In the three and a half decades since,
the focus of our club has remained the
same, which is Service Above Self.
From this commitment, one of our
most impactful and enduring pro
grams was created, the Rotary Hand
icap Ramp Program. Since its incep
tion, our club has built an incredible
986 ramps for residents primarily in
Madison County and is now just 14
ramps shy of 1,000 as we celebrate
this milestone year.
While the ramp program is our most
visible effort, our members are also
engaged in many other areas of ser
vice. We support local seniors through
Meals on Wheels, promote early liter
acy by reading to elementary students
and sponsoring First Readers, and
help address food insecurity through
the Madison County Food Bank and
the Food 2 Kids program. These are
just a few of the ways we aim to make
a meaningful impact in our commu
nity.
If you are looking for ways to get
involved or give back, we welcome
you to learn more about the Rotary
Club of Madison County and consider
joining us.
We look forward to participating
in the annual Colbert 4th of July pa
rade, where we’ll be celebrating this
35-year legacy with candy, smiles and
gratitude for the community that has
supported our mission from the begin
ning.
Here’s to 35 years of impact and to
many more to come.
Sincerely,
Ben Morris
President, Rotary Club of Madison
County
Missing dog
Dear Editor:
Missing Dog!
Thank you for taking the time to read
this letter.
I’m the man you’ve probably seen
walking a beagle around downtown
Greensboro. I walk my dog almost ev
ery day—sometimes twice a day. He
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Pastor Hugh Hendrickson and his dog,
Reverend “Rev” Colbert Comer.
loved exploring downtown and greet
ing familiar faces.
His name is Reverend Colbert Com
er, but most people just called him
“Rev.”
On the afternoon of Thursday, June
5, Rev went missing.
If you’re inclined to look for him,
you might start downtown. That’s
where he was happiest. At home, I’d
often find him sleeping on the couch,
curled up in my chair, or waiting by the
kitchen door. He liked resting under the
fig tree in the backyard or napping on
the rug in my office at church.
If he wasn’t there, he might’ve head
ed toward the interstate—he loved DQ
puppy cups and was always hopeful for
a few Frencli fries from the fast-food
places.
He could’ve also made his way to
the lake where we used to live. We
often walked the pond behind Publix,
thougli it’s been a while since we’ve
been back.
Or maybe he went north, toward
Colbert and Comer. We used to walk
the Comer City Cemetery almost every
day. He had friends on Georgia Avenue
and a yard he loved to crawl across on
his belly, just for fun.
And if he went really far, perhaps he
made his way back to Lavonia. That
was home for five wonderful years.
Maybe he’s walking Bowman Street,
or resting under a tree in the Lavonia
City Cemetery. Maybe he’s trying to
visit his friends at the Depot, Beasley
Tax Service, or Gum Log Brewery. He
might be stopping by Lavonia United
Methodist Churcli where he often went
to work witli me. Maybe he’s check
ing in witli Lauren, his dog-sitter and
photographer, or stopping by Lavonia
Animal Hospital to visit his vet friends.
Many of you have been asking about
Rev. Thank you for your love and con
cern.
I want you to know: I actually know
exactly where Rev is.
He’s not lost.
Reverend Colbert Comer has crossed
the rainbow bridge to be witli Jesus.
He’s waiting for me now—waiting
witli Jesus, just as faithful as ever.
Until that day comes, he holds a spe
cial place in my heart.
I also want to share my deepest grat
itude to the beautiful and loving staff at
Durham Veterinary Clinic. You were so
kind and professional witli your care.
Witli love and gratitude,
Pastor Hugli E Hendrickson
Greensboro
In case you don’t recognize the word, a centenarian
is someone who lives to be at least one hundred years
old. If you can make it to one hundred and five years
you are a semi supercentenarian and if you live to be
one hundred and ten years old you are a supercen
tenarian. This is the last designation for those who
achieve the maximum human life span. The oldest re
corded human life span is 122 years, 164 days. That’s
44,694 days or 1,072,656 hours.
If you can make it to the
age of one hundred you
will have lived 876,600
hours. That means that if
you live to be one hundred
you will have slept for ap
proximately thirty-three
years. Another unusual
statistic about centenar
ians is their gender. The
significance of this is that
eighty-five percent of all
centenarians are wom
en. It’s just an opinion
but from my observation,
women take better care of
themselves than men do.
So, what is all this stuff
about old age? It is because I was recently reminiscing
about my early childhood and what I could remem
ber from my very early years. Most of that revolved
around a time when I was four years old, when my
brother was born. Daddy had to go to work and moth
er was not able to care for me and a new baby. This
was when I met a lady named L.E. Collins. Daddy
would go pick her up every morning before he went
to work and she stayed with us all day, till daddy got
off work and mostly took care of me and the house.
L.E. was her legal name. I always thought her name
was something like Elee, Elle or Ellee. After some re
search, I found out that she only had initials. This re
minds me of the story about Ronly Bonly Jones. When
he joined the Army, everybody called him “Bones.”
When his sergeant read his name on the muster roll,
he asked him why in the world his mother named him
Ronly Bonly? He informed the sergeant that this was
a clerical error from his enlistment. The clerk wrote
in the space for First Name: R only and in the space
for middle name B only so Ronly Bonly stuck. L.E.
Collins’ parents named her L.E. and that was all she
was ever called.
There were many happy days in my back yard while
I played with Rusty, my Irish Setter, along with any
thing else I could find to play with. L.E. would help
me turn over an old wheelbarrow with a steel wheel.
She would spin it while I pretended to grind sticks
with it as if it were a grinding wheel. We also pre
tended it was a mill wheel that produced flower that
was only dust from around the back steps that I would
pour over the wheel while she turned it around and
around.
L.E. was a tiny woman. I don’t think she weighed
over one hundred pounds in her life. One of the things
I remember about her was her hands. She had unusu
ally large and strong hands for a little bitty woman.
Those hands helped me do and learn a lot of things as
a curious four-year-old.
L.E. and her husband Burt, more often called ‘Bud
dy’ Collins, lived in Oglethorpe County, on Windy
Lane between Hwy 22 and the Devils Pond Road all
their lives. They were my grandfather’s partners in
cotton farming. I never let too much time go by be
tween visits to just stop by and see her. This contin
ued until 2010, when I was sixty years old and she
had to move to a nursing home. I still went to see her.
In 2015 I realized it had been a couple of years since
I had seen her. I found out that she was at the Oaks
nursing home on Kathwood Drive in Athens. When I
got there the lady at the desk in the lobby just raved
about Ms. L.E. being one of their favorite residents
and said she was upstairs on the second floor. When
we went up to the front desk to find out what L.E.’s
room number was, the young lady got a strange look
on her face.
It was some of the saddest news I had ever received.
Also, with sorrow in her eyes, the young lady said,
“Miss L.E. passed away yesterday!” I could hardly
believe that after two years had gone by and at the age
of one hundred and five years, a semi-supercentenar
ian, I had missed her by one day. She has now been
gone for over ten years but she is still in my heart.
By Charlie
Snelling
Deportation
Dear Editor:
Long-time workers who pay taxes and have commit
ted no crimes after coming here illegally are scheduled
to get deported by the millions. Are Americans ready for
hotels, restaurants, landscaping, construction and meat
packing companies going belly up? Is Georgia prepared
to lose its poultry industry? Are we okay with seeing lo
cal businesses and services shuttering?
The answer coming from the White House in par
ticular from Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is a loud “you
betcha”!
ICE agents are stressed by the daily quota of 3,000
illegal immigrant arrests. Most don’t believe it’s achiev
able. To meet the demand could arresting and detaining
legal immigrants become a reality by agents afraid of be
ing fired for not meeting arrest quotas? If later deported
to a foreign country, will the administration immediately
move to retrieve him/her; or will the response be “Oops”
and little to no effort is made to correct a serious wrong?
Most Americans are uncomfortable with removing il
legal immigrants who have committed no crimes while
here and pay taxes performing jobs that are vital to our
economy. Do we have the right politicians in place to
solve this problem? If not, elections are coming.
Sincerely,
Peggy Perkins
Winder
The Madison County Journal
Danielsville, Madison County Georgia 30633
Merged with The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News, January 2006
A publication of MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
MIKE BUFFINGTON, Go-publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON Go-publisher
CALEB ROLLINS Editor
Subscriptions: $45/year —$40/seniors
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Ga. 30549
The Official Legal Organ of Madison County, Georgia-Periodicals postage paid at
Danielsville, Georgia 30633 (USPS 011-097: ISSN 1074987X)
