Page 110 - Tattnall County

Tours group. She visited Washington, D.C. and enjoyed every minute of it. When Kenneth got sick, the doctors told Marjorie there was nothing they could do for him. He had bought himself a tractor and insisted on driving it even though his daughter and grandchildren didn’t think he needed to be driving it in his condition. But Marjorie knew no one could keep him from it. Tragically, he was killed after a fall from the tractor in 1990. It was a diffcult time and Marjorie’s grief was multiplied through the suffering of her whole family. Even though she and Kenneth were only able to have one child, they ended up with the house full of family just like they’d always wanted. Their daughter, Winona Oneal, had four children. Today Marjorie has ffteen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. Rarely does a day go by that Winona doesn’t come out to visit with her mother. When asked if she would change anything if she could live her life over again, she said, “I don’t think I’d change anything. I’ve just enjoyed it all through life.”

“Do you miss farming?” asked Mr. Lynn, who has been the Nursing Home Administrator at Glenvue since 1980. “Nope,” she answered without hesitation. Ms. Marjorie spends her days exactly as she planned to. She no longer has to drive out to visit the family and friends she used to come out to see. “[Glenvue] has a lot of games to play and I go to all the church meetings and all the programs they have,” she said. Sometimes she goes to watch others do chair aerobics. She fgured she gets all the exercise she needs visiting up and down the halls. “I’m just happy. Couldn’t be any happier I don’t think.”

The life Ms. Majorie lived was not an easy one. Why wouldn’t she change anything? I imagine Ms. Marjorie’s perception of a fulflled and happy life is something other than one without hardship or pain. From what I could tell, it has more to do with the capacity to give love and attention to those some have forgotten and then to fnish life surrounded by those she served. It’s her ending the way she wanted it. And it’s a great one at that.  TCM