Happy Birthday, Estelle Rice

I had a birthday this  month and celebrated in the best way I can imagine.

My friend, Mary Mike and I hosted a lunch for our dear friend, Estelle Rice. Estelle is celebrating a big one, but we don't talk about numbers.

The group that gathered was just large enough and not too large to carry on some great conversations.

Some of Estelle's oldest writer friends attended, including Paul Donovan and Glenda Barrett. Paul read a cute piece that had us laughing at ourselves. Mary Mike read two poems by Estelle from her book, Quiet Times. 

Age has no bearing on following your passions and continuing with what you enjoy doing as long as you are healthy enough to pursue your goals. Estelle is still writing poems and revising short stories. She still works on her family history, the genealogy of her lines. And  most importantly, Estelle keeps smiling and stays positive even when her life is not as cheery as her voice. 

From left: Paul Donovan, Glenda Barrett, Estelle Rice, Glenda Beall,Carole Thompson, 
Mary Mike Keller, Staci Bell

GENEALOGY - WE LOVE THE PUZZLE

Many of us are involved in researching our genealogy, finding our ancestors and learning about their lives. At Writers Circle next Wednesday, Mary Mike Keller will begin a series of classes called Bones to Flesh. She takes the dead ancestor and fleshes him/her out with all she learns about this person through research. She is very good at this, and I want to find some of my Council and Robison ancestors in her classes. 

I have traced my family back to my great, great grandparents who lived in the eighteen hundreds. 

Great, great grandpa John Cecil Council lived a long life, two wives and two families, in north Florida. But no one I  know has a clue to his father's name. His mother was Temperance Council, no maiden name. 

On my mother's side, I know the name and some other information about her grandfather, John Monroe Robison. He served in the Confederate military and I have papers showing his records. But who was his father? 

These are some of the questions I hope to answer in the class Bones to Flesh.