Words are free, yet they can buy so much…..
One day, back in the 1970’s, I was standing in the New Way Market, our small town grocery store, visiting with the lady in charge. I looked up and saw Kathy, a new wife of a neighbor, entering the store with a lady I had not yet met. Kathy looked toward the store owner and I and replied "Mother, I want you to meet someone special". Assuming she meant the store owner, I stepped aside to let her through the isle. She headed right toward me and said “Mother, I want you to meet Lois Guffy, this is the first person in this community to make me feel welcome." I was overwhelmed with emotion as she rambled on and on as to how I made her feel so welcome.
Kathy had a sister-in-law who ran the Town Cafe who disliked her new sister-in-law with a passion. She expressed her feelings to her many patrons about how she felt about Kathy. This made things extremely hard on Kathy as well as it made the people cautious of trying to get more acquainted with her.
Then I told Kathy this story...
I married Wayne just two months shy of my 17th Birthday. I was extremely shy and Wayne worked so hard getting started with his farming operation that he never had much time to mingle with his neighbors in our small community. Only a very few people even knew he had remarried. We rarely went anywhere except to visit our parents and to get groceries.
We had been married about two months when we attended a small church revival at Willow Glen. Reverend Bill Keller, a well known local evangelist from Cherokee was the speaker. Wayne worked late that evening so were late arriving at the little country church. When we walked through the door of the completely filled little church, every head turned toward me. It was quite evident that they were wondering who the young lady was that Wayne had brought to church. Adding to my frustration was the fact I had worn my best dress, nylon hose and even my wedding hat. I felt I was over dressed according to those I observed there.
I panned the room and there was not an empty seat anywhere. I literally stood there in the doorway in a frozen state, wanting the floor to open up and swallow me. After much too long of a silence, the wife of Robert Wokaty, an old classmate of Wayne’s, offered me a place to sit. Robert was also a minister
I don't think I heard a word Reverend Keller spoke that evening. I vowed then and there, that when I met a person who moved into our community that I would do my utmost to make them feel most welcome. I have tried very hard to keep my promise for the past 50 plus years.
LLG 12/11/99
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