This morning Mike mentioned he needed a hair cut and we figured we'd go see my friend Amy for that. But then as we were leaving Liberty I thought of this day last year (see the March 8, 2006 blog entry) when I met Mr. Nichols, a barber in Humble. I asked Mike if he would be willing to go to Humble for his hair cut this time. Mike immediately understood the reason and readily agreed. "You mean the singing barber, right? The one who sang to you. What was it he sang?"
"Yes," I said, "that's the one. He sang, 'Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus', and he played his accordion".
"Sure, let's go there."
Pulling up in front of the small barbershop on Main Street, we parked the Z and walked in. Mr. Nichols didn't have any other customers right then and was sitting in the middle barber chair. Upon seeing us walk through the doorway he asked, "Need a trim?"
I took off my sunglasses and said, "Yes, and I was here one year ago today."
"Oh? What's your name?" he asked.
"Linda."
Mr. Nichols' eyes widened as he sat up and asked, "LINDA STREET?!"
Surprised with both his memory and his reaction, I smiled big and said yes. And with that, he jumped out of his chair and gave me a hug. I introduced him to Mike and Mr. Nichols went on talking about how much he enjoyed our visit last year.
"I've been wondering when you would ever come back here. Your nephew brought by the pictures you took last year and I was hoping I'd see you again!"
I had made duplicates of the pics I took and had three of them enlarged and framed for him. Bryan delivered them for me and Mr. Nichols had them up in his barbershop.
He was ecstatic and showed us pictures of his new great-granddaughter. "She's just a few minutes old in that picture and I got to hold her", he said, tears coming to his eyes. "I get emotional about that baby girl. She's the first girl in our family in 47 years. This is a good day! And you know, that day last year when you came in here, we sat for two hours talking. We were talking from two o'clock until four o'clock and that's a day I will remember forever."
Me too, Mr. Nichols, me too.
This time our visit was much shorter than last year, but it was good to see him again. Another customer walked in after he finished cutting Mike's hair so we said our goodbye's, but not before he gave Mike a "souvenir".
"Here, you need a souvenir, so if you're like Linda here, if you'll be back here in a year, in case you forget where it was you go that great hair cut, just look here on this comb and read the name."
Leaving the barbershop with smiles, hugs and handshakes, we snuggled back in the Z and headed for Barnes & Noble. On the way there Mike and I sang "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" together, and thought back on Mr. Nichols singing that to me and how special it was, how much love he expressed as he sang it, saying, "That song just says it all, doesn't it? The things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the Light of His glory and grace."
I wished I had thought to ask Mr. Nichols to sing it again, for Mike. Perhaps we will return there and request that song. I love the way he sings it.
When Lillian was in labor with Mycol it lasted all day long. Finally, in the evening, Corky got hungry and went out to get something to eat at a Mexican food restaurant. While he was dining, Lillian gave birth to Mycol. Corky has always laughed about that, "He waited all day until I got hungry!"
So this evening we had dinner plans with the family.
Corky wanted us all to get together at a Mexican food restaurant in honor of Mycol's birthday. Reminiscing what he was doing when Mycol was born, Corky enjoyed having so many family members join in. There is so much love in this family, in spite of the pain we all share, and I love being part of it.
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