Maywood News

By Rachel Bringer

We have had some cool mornings this week, and we are having some dramatic spring lightning this evening. The peonies have begun to bloom. They are so cheerful and bright, but they may be finished blooming by Memorial Day.
South Union Baptist Church gathered for worship today, and Brother Dan preached a message from Hebrews 10:25 entitled, “Make Sabbath and Worship Your Priority.” Bobby Shepherd was added to the prayer list, and Sharon Rathbun remains on the road
to recovery. Luke accompanied the congregational singing for “Grace that is Greater Than Our Sin,” as well as the offertory, “Nothing but the Blood.”. In Sunday School, the
children ate mini donuts and studied the ten plagues in Egypt before Moses and the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. For a craft, the children decorated homemade bulletins (because I had forgotten to type them on Saturday night)!
Children’s Sunday School begins at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday, and all are welcome!
Next Sunday will be a special Mother’s Day service at 10:30 a.m.
Farmer’s Market season has begun, and Rachel, Jacob, and Elijah Shepherd travelled to the Hannibal Farmer’s Market on Saturday with duck eggs as well as beef. They visited with several people from the area, including Sheriff Shinn and his daughter; and they enjoyed meeting Isaac Rodriguez and his son from Brighter Futures Farm in Emden. Their icicle radishes made a wonderful addition to Sunday dinner!
Isaac is a twenty-two year military veteran, and he and his wife, Connie, have a terrific website about their farm to explore.
I enjoyed a phone visit with my aunt, Erma Dee Jones, of Lewistown, this week.
She was a long time correspondent for the Lewis County Press News Journal, and she encouraged the boys to keep playing the piano at church!
Seeing the blooming peonies reminds me of my mother and grandmother, Beulah Jones, preparing for Memorial Day when I was very young. They would cut flowers from their yards, like peonies, irises, daisies, and roses; and then we would gather at my grandmother’s house and place all of the flowers on a kitchen table covered with newspaper.
Sometimes, ants would crawl out of the peonies onto the newspaper, and my job was to eliminate the ants! Grandma had saved coffee cans and some smaller cans throughout the year, and she would carefully cover them in aluminum foil to serve as vases. Mom
and Grandma would then make flower arrangements in the cans for each of the family graves we were going to visit.
We would carefully set the coffee cans full of flowers in cardboard boxes in the back of the car and travel to several cemeteries where aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents were buried. Grandma also brought a couple of saved milk jugs she had filled with water
to make sure the flowers had plenty of water to last through the weekend. The roses and peonies made the bouquets beautifully fragrant, and the bright colors of the flowers made the day seem like a fun celebration for a child, although I am sure it was bittersweet for the adults.
Happy Birthday to Martha Jo Strickler on May 6th!
“[The peonies] open—pools of lace, white and pink—and all day the black ants climb over them.” Mary Oliver