My Heart Will Be in Reynolds

Tonight I am in Oklahoma City which is about 1100 miles away from Reynolds, GA. Tomorrow I will be in Wichita KS where I will be further away.

I am doing what I get paid to do and enjoying every minute of it at a very critical time in our company’s history. As of today our company, which is the largest funeral provider in the United States, now owns the second largest funeral provider in the United States. We are in the process of assimilating all the new locations into our company.

I am responsible for eight markets in seven states. Oklahoma City is one of them and in the OKC market alone we now own 18 funeral homes and 7 cemeteries with 265 employees. My market director and I met with most of those employees tonight in what we call a “town hall meeting.”

Tomorrow night I will do the same with another market director in Wichita.

I am a long way from Reynolds Georgia as far as geography tonight. And I am a long way from what I used to do in Reynolds in the funeral business. I pretty much waited on every family and conducted every funeral for people I had known and loved all my life. As you can imagine it was more than a job for me. It was my life.

The neat thing is I now get to share my passion for this business with people all over the country. I surely am not insinuating that I know more than other folks but I get to communicate my passion and my life and I am in a position to have the potential to make a difference. I was born to do what I am doing.

As good as all that is, my heart will be somewhere else tomorrow.

Dorothy Brunson died this past Sunday night. I cannot imagine not being able to attend her funeral.

If you have read my book or these articles on this blogsite, you know I have written about the most secure times in my life as a young boy. It was when my parents would have friends over to eat (everybody would bring their own steak to grill) and my mom would tuck me in bed at night and I would say my prayers. I would go to sleep with the sound of laughter in the living room.

Willard and Dorothy Brunson would usually be one of the couples in the living room.

I remember as a kid the day I had to put on my Sunday clothes to go to Atlanta to see Gone with the Wind when it premiered at Lowes Grand Theater. My brother and I sat in the back seat. My mom and Dorothy Brunson were in the front seat.

When I got married almost 30 years ago, Dorothy hosted a pre-wedding party for us around the swimming pool at her house.

Dorothy worked at the local post office. I saw her literally every day of my life for many, many years.

I have never met a sweeter lady.

Every year on September 20th I got a birthday card from her. I have a feeling she sent birthday cards to a lot of people but she sure did make me feel special.

Dorothy was one of the few folks who got tickets (badges) to the Masters Golf Tournament. She got six of them and she made sure my family got those badges on one of the days of the tournament every year. I attended that tournament every year since I can remember and I had some of the best times of my life there.

In the last 15 or so years, it became a ritual for me to drive to her house to pick up the Master’s badges. We would always visit and get caught up and I took my time doing it. And I always thanked her from the bottom of my heart for letting me go to the Masters.

She always told me she loved me when I left her house. Always.

And she did. And I loved her.

Her funeral will be held tomorrow morning and I will say a prayer for Gene, Patsy, Derek and Gina and the rest of the family.

My body and my energy will be in Wichita KS tomorrow.

But my heart will be in Reynolds, Georgia.