By Vicki Scott
Because of the phenomenal team God put together, our Veterans Day program turned out to be a huge success! My oldest granddaughter Ava Jaymes was a big help. When she, her mother Machi and her sister Addie (a.k.a. Beans) surprised us by turning up at the event, I put Ava to work giving away prizes. She asked about the seniors at George Wallace Senior Center in Glencoe, where she used to help me run bingo. Ava misses those folks and wants to visit them. She loves to play, just like her Nana.
What Ava Jaymes might not know is that I’ve been missing the old center as well. Everything I do with our seniors at First Baptist Reeltown is due to my training at the Glencoe center. So, earlier this week I called Pat Hill, the center’s director, and we ended up talking for almost two hours. I wanted to hear about everyone and everything going on in Glencoe, and Pat wanted to know what was going on with us down here in Dadeville. We shared new things and discussed the pros and cons of several ideas. Pat was excited to know that Ava remembers the Glencoe seniors and that she wants to visit.
Ava Jaymes recently shared her new love for bingo with her friends on her birthday. I wrote in last week’s column how the girls shouted out whether they had the number every time I called out a number. Beans used her card dabber to stab all the numbers on her card before she was ready to move on to something else.
During the Veterans Day bingo game, Beans yelled out every time I called a number just like she remembered how Ava’s friends had at the party. She asked her Papa (a.k.a. my husband Alan) a few times if she had the number before she let us know her status. When one of the seniors yelled “bingo,” Addie stabbed her card. Her dabber was so red that it looked bloody. The other seniors said it looked like she won the game and started calling her Vicki Junior.
On another subject, Pat told me the Glencoe seniors just got back from a trip to Ellijay. I was floored! Alan said that trip would be too far for us now that we are in Dadeville, but I want to take my new seniors (FYI, I’m wearing my Ellijay tee shirt as I type this column). Pat said they visited the Panorama Apple Orchard and ate at Mike’s, just like we always did. This is outrageous – I wanted to go! Pat said they missed us all the way up there and all the way back. I could just cry – wait, I did.
I also missed Ms. Betty Woodward’s 95th birthday celebration. Betty still volunteers in the Glencoe kitchen every Wednesday. She has not changed a bit, and that is the truth. She continued to work at the senior center all during the COVID closings, noting all the while, “If I die, I die.” I could just squeeze Betty in a great big loving hug, but I will be gentle. Seriously, she is an inspiration and a blessing to so many people!
Pat also informed me that Glencoe center’s own Avon Lady, Rose Jenkins, is still going strong. Rose is the only person I buy Avon products from, and Christmas is coming! Rose, who is a cancer survivor, would wear out the Energizer Bunny. She is very generous with her time and gifts.
The Glencoe seniors are Pat’s life, and I can totally understand that. She goes overboard when the seniors stand to benefit from something and she has done so since dirt was formed, or somewhere close. I’d just zip to Glencoe without using gas, but I cannot. However, my new seniors told me that they were my seniors now. I’m truly blessed and have been for some time.
To answer Ava Jaymes’ original question, no, the Glencoe seniors were not there physically in Reeltown but they were in my heart. It the Lord is willing, we’ll soon get up some prizes, zip up to Glencoe and play some bingo. Ava not stop asking to see y’all until it happens, so look out, you Yellow Jackets!
Y’all are in my prayers and praises every day! Stay safe!
Vicki Scott may be contacted at lily200383@yahoo.com.