Visiting My Sweet Mom, Evelyn

Henry and I buzzed up to Franklin, TN. on his afternoon off this week for the express purpose of taking my mother out to dinner!
Evelyn Beatrice Holm Johnson is ninety four years young.  Half Norwegian and half Swedish, growing up Lutheran in Minnesota where she weathered the severe cold for most of her life, gives her a spunky nature that fits the role God has blessed her with in abundance!
My mom was the mother of five children, grandmother to 17 and great-grandmother to 25 and more to come, I'm sure!

Here's a photo of me with my daughter, Tacy and her son, Anders Eliot (he's no. 25) meeting his great-grandmother last month at Kalmia, our cottage across from Mullins Cove on Lake Nickajack.
Her favorite hymn is "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" and her example in life of living for Jesus has blessed our large extended family in countless ways.  We know we can ask her to pray about a problem we are struggling with and she will take it up as her assignment to lift us to the LORD in prayer!  What a beautiful heritage to pass on to the next generation.

"Her children rise up and bless her..." Proverbs 31:28

Bessie

We have a welcome house guest this week!  Her name is Bessie and she is spending her vacation with us, while her owner and our good friend, Terry is out of town.  She's a regular guest,, usually polite and very well mannered and comfortable since she and her mistress lived in our guest house, Morning Glory Cottage many years ago.
 It's obvious Bessie knows her way around the neighborhood, when I tell you about her escapade the other night.  I was saying good bye to our two sons and grand dog, Rocky, when evidently she slipped out the open front door.  I did not notice, but later that evening I realized she was GONE!  I panicked, I was SUPPOSED to be watching her, but she found an escape route right under my nose (or knees...she is small).
I stood in the front yard, in my bathrobe whistling towards the dark driveway. I whistled again and again.  Just when I was turning to go back in, I heard a faint jingle, then a blur of white as the prodigal returned with gusto!  She barreled in the front hall and gleefully galloped up and down our long hall about 4 times, proud of her late night jaunt on her own.  Boy, was I RELIEVED to see that naughty, little girl back in our house safe and sound!
Even if Bessie is a little minx, she has won our hearts, along with our granddaughters!

Here's a photo of our Celeste on the left and her good friend, Bessie on the right.

Celebrating Our Granddaughters' Birthdays!

What a delight it is to celebrate the gift of another year of life!

We had MANY such celebrations in our family this year, here's a peek at some happy moments when everyone looks forward to gathering and singing and eating and praying together!


  We traveled to Seattle, to visit our daughter Kira and husband Peter and to sing Happy Birthday to sweet Ivey when she turned TWO!

Back in Chattanooga...there was another birthday.

With little Madeleine, it was her very First Birthday in May! She is ONE!
Fresh from heaven, these sweet girls were sent to us and we LOVE being Grandma and Grandpa!


On October 2, darling Frances turned Three and she has learned how to hold up three fingers to prove her age.  She also know how to blow out candles!

Beaming with a big smile, Molly is our oldest granddaughter, she turned FIVE last January!She has started kindergarten and loves going to school every day!

When we celebrated our daughter, Tacy's birthday(Big 30) in
March, we included a ride in the PARTY VAN with Tacy and husband, Stephen, up to Nashville to visit Great Grandma, who is 94, YES, she is NINETY FOUR!And she still enjoys celebrating with cake and ice cream, especially with 3 little Beck girls all around her!

"I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which He is to be praised... you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand." (From Isaiah 63 & 64)

Samson the Great!

Back in 1999, we welcomed a surprise addition to our household - a VERY LARGE, brown dog named Samson that our grown son, Evan had rescued from the pound.  He was pitiful to look at, with major bald spots on his back and quite thin.   Evan learned from a vet that the most inexpensive treatment was driving to the Agricultural Exchange supply store for the medicine. Then Evan would drive this mangy mutt to our house to have his doctor dad give the injections every week.  So the "chemo" and fish oil capsules did the trick and Samson's coat began to re-grow!

We became fond of the BIG Guy, but were still quite startled when Evan announced he was going to study in Seville, Spain and we needed to keep him for a semester.  So he moved in as the young brother and shared the garage with our Border Collie, Celeste.  She was a hyper, 2 year old, prissy female and Samson was thought to be a Chesapeake Retriever, mild mannered, man's dog.  They made quite a pair!

Here we are at Sunset Rock, on top of Lookout Mountain - they were both eager for a run or a hike!     Our nephew, Micah nicknamed Samson "The Walrus", which I must admit, that huge mound of brown did resemble one when he was stretched out napping on our floor.

The LORD blessed us with two GREAT companions, each for 14 years.  Now that Samson has also died, we can imagine them reunited and galloping together through doggie heaven,pausing to share a pungent sniff.

They both revealed an unconditional love for their owners that delighted us daily.  How these two 4 legged creatures brightened our lives for many happy years!
"Let everything that has breath praise the LORD." Psalm150:6

A Dream Come True

Henry's dream to return to Belarus came true in June when we joined the combined choir from 3 churches in Chattanooga to travel to towns, cities and villages to sing praises to the LORD with the excellent Belarussian choir in a large church in Minsk.

We reconnected with our son -in-love, Andrej Demidenko, who lived in our home many summers through The Chernobyl Children's Program.  He is now a fine, handsome young man!

We sang in a children's camp and they sang back to us!

We sang in house churches in several villages.

"May (the LORD) give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed!" Psalm 20:4

Celebrating Through Poetry

Our daughter, Kira lives up to her name.  Her name is Scandinavian and means poem or song. She is teaching high school English in West Seattle, Washington.   Her great grandfather loved to compose poetry, her father and siblings enjoy writing.  She delighted us with this ode several years ago.

A little doggerel and memories on your 60th
                                  from Kira

Here's to a dad
who's really not bad...on your birthday

YOU ARE...
a shiny-headed reader and thinker who is a soft spoken, gentle healer with a bit of wit and dry humor-

a mandolin player, dog walker, cat feeder,marathon runner, anchor of the boat kind of family guy-

foster dad adoptive dad- early riser, endless worker, master of ethics and aches-

king of paperwork stacks on your desk in the afternoons-

geriatric whiz (knowing the difference between the Oh and the Q tongue positions

in the nursing homes), prescription-writer-

who knows when to "take the rest of the day off"...and go get "horizontal,"-

the deep knee-bending kind of dad on family vacations who shrugs off the day with a loud "shoo"-

a doggerel writer, poeeem penner at weddings or other events-

a singer-songwriter who knows the right notes-

round-maker, left-over eater, bio-ethical lecturer and author,

(who put my ninth grade health class to sleep with an enthusiastic euthanasia speech)

YOU ARE
THAT KIND OF DAD
ONE of a KIND
VERY KIND
and very much loved by all those around you!

Dr. R. Henry Williams M.D., F.A.S.C.P.M.A.X.Y.Z.

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

In the year of our LORD, 2013, God has blessed our extended family with a boatload of BOYS!

In February, our nephew, Ben had a son named William.
In April, our nephew, Christopher had a son named Liam.
In early June, our nephew, Micah had a son named Everette.
In late June, our nephew, Matthew had a son named Jude.
Is this beginning to sound like a begat chapter from the Bible?

We truly believe each of these little ones are a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father, made in His image!

Henry and I are pleased to announce the arrival of our grandson, Anders Eliot.
 He was born August 5,2013 at 2:30 a.m.  He was 7lbs 7oz and has brown hair like his dad.
His parents, Tacy and Stephen and their three daughters rejoiced in his safe delivery.
We all welcomed him with lots of kisses and look forward to him meeting his cousin Ivey, when she visits at Christmas time!

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; and called you by your name, You are mine.
...you are precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you..." from Isaiah 43.

Anders is the 25th great grandchild of my mother, Evelyn Johnson.  His name reminds her of her father, Andrew from Sweden and her sister, Esther Anderson.  We look forward to the seeing each of these babies grow into men that will seek to serve the LORD.