Welcome to the World....

I have a new nephew!!!! That makes five, yes, FIVE nephews. Apparently, my brothers are just too damned manly to have girls. Yeah, right. Anyway… Congratulations to my brother, Kevin and his wife, Trish, on the birth of their son. The newest addition to the family is named Jason Wesley Jones, in honor of our brother, who passed away last year. We will be calling him “Wes” and that makes me smile. The above pic is of Baby Wes and Jayden (Jason's son)

Wes was the name of one of my most favorite people in the world. My great-grandfather, or “PaPaw Wes”, as we called him. Do you remember the Randy Travis song, “He Walked on Water”? There couldn’t have been a more perfect song to remind us of him. He was one of those old guys that you never saw without a hat on his head. He was also a man that NO one had a bad word to say about. My brothers and I ADORED that man. An incredibly hard worker, he built the last house that he and my great-grandmother lived in when he was in his 70’s. No, I’m not kidding. He drove every nail and dug the basement out with a shovel!!

I remember a story that my dad used to tell about him. My dad was home from the Army, when he looked out the window and saw Papaw Wes chopping wood. He thought, “Oh, I’ll go out and help the old man.” My dad said that they didn’t stop chopping wood till after dark and that was only because there was no outside light. Dad was totally worn out, but my grandfather was still going strong. Hmm... if my dad was in the army, that means that Papaw was in his 80’s. (I’m 36, and I would probably drop dead within an hour.)

He was just a wonderful person and he was an amazing grandfather. He passed away in 1992, at the age of 102, and as most of you know, my brother Jason died last year, at the very young age of 30. I’m sure that they both would be so proud that their names live on, in the hope and promise of a brand new life.

Welcome to the world, Wesley Jones!