Counting My Blessings | by Linda Brendle
Published in the Rains County Leader on May 23, 2017:
The last couple of weeks have been a bit rough for the Brendles. Actually, David has been struggling with one thing or another for most of this year.
He caught an upper respiratory infection from me toward the end of December, and he didn’t begin to really feel normal again until the end of March. Because of that, the early spring weather, and all the rain, the weeds were way ahead of him by the time he felt well enough to do anything about it.
Finally, about two weeks ago, he hauled out the mower, donned a protective mask and hat, and went to work. He knocked out the front yard in nothing flat, and the back yard up close to the house went well, too. Then, he ventured back a bit further where he made a couple of circuits before I heard him cut the engine and begin walking toward the house. I knew there must be trouble. If he was taking a water break, he would have driven up closer. I stepped out on the porch. (more…)
I entered a new decade of my life on Easter Sunday this year, but the celebration of the Resurrection took precedence over my birthday. Still, it’s hard to ignore all the signs of the advance of time, especially when events conspire to remind you. There were several events like that this past week.
Shortly after David and I moved to Emory in February of 2011, we were told that, even though Rains is one of the smallest counties in Texas, it contains approximately twenty churches.
There was a time in the history of this country when people knew their neighbors and were involved in their lives. Unfortunately, that time is long gone, at least in the city.
Spring doesn’t officially arrive for another few days, but the East Texas vegetation doesn’t seem to care. The daffodils came and went several weeks ago, and although I haven’t seen any yet, I’ve heard that the bluebonnets are in bloom. Blooms are popping out on a lot of the trees, and many of the others are taking on that pale yellowish, green color of fresh, new leaves. 
The Rains County Leader always closes for the last week of the year, so this will be the last issue of the paper until 2017. Following the example of many of news programs and talk shows, I did a quick review of my columns from the last year. Here is a brief overview of what I shared with your during 2016. 
