Meeting the new preacher

I had a delightful afternoon with our new minister. All your advice and suggestions yesterday were right on and I was happy to feel you all had my back.

I want to tell you about my invitation to her. First I though of how my mother would have dealt with inviting a new minister to visit our home. First she would never have been comfortable meeting her alone so she would probably have given a tea.  We would have cleaned for a week and she would have

gotten out the good china and polished the silver. The good lace tablecloth would have been unpacked and the candles on the table lit. In my childhood the ladies of the church would have arrived wearing their pillbox hats and white gloves. There would have been tiny finger sandwiches, homemade mints, cheese straws, nut and small pickles served in the crystal dish currently packed away with my wedding china. My mother would have worked to achieve a charming atmosphere and Tom Duff would have seen her as a perfect lady.

In theory, I miss all that. It’s very nostalgic to remember all that and the wonderful southern ladies from our church that would have attended.  I thought of those ladies today, most are gone, but there are a few left. They wouldn’t have approved of my invitation to the new minister, but they would have grudgingly been proud of the way the afternoon went.

I sent my invite through Facebook message. I told her I’d love to meet and talk and would she like to come over to the pool for cookies, chips and Sundrop. She sounded thrilled. She called when she was on her way over, to be sure I was serious about the pool. I was and she arrived with her bathing suit under her shorts. We hit the pool and quickly began talking as old friends would.

We both discussed out kids. College, life ambitions, soon I was telling her Mollie was in her last year of college and LJ had married the previous November. I said, “ I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned it, but LJ is gay and he and Collin had dated for nine years before they married.” She seemed delighted for them and asked if we’d been able to attend the wedding. I told her certainly, and it was one of the best wedding ever. She was wonderful asking what they did in NY and if they wanted children. I couldn’t have asked for a better response. She says she would love to meet the boys whenever they come down.

We hit nearly every topic – including reading and writing. I mentioned I wrote stories and we talked on. Finally as we continued I told her I had a book published, and that it was about an older couple. But that while I’d let my daughter read it and I would have let my mother, it could still be considered objectionable to some. She didn’t press, but after we got out of the pool and were sunning she did ask, “You said you’d let your mother and daughter read it, how about your minister?”

I just looked at her for while, she grinned and said nothing more. Finally I asked her if she had ever read the ‘Miss Julia’ series. (If you haven’t – DO! They’re fantastic!) They are about a little old lady in NC and though it’s not one of ‘our’ books Miss Julie is a hoot. Not only had she read then she had met the author and gotten to know her rather well. Next I asked,  “ Have you read Fifty Shades?”  Okay, now that made her pause. She looked at me for a minute and said, “As your minister, do I lie about it or just tell you I enjoyed them?”  I had to laugh. I told her my books were Miss Julia meets Fifty Shades. She seemed delighted and wants to read them. Although I would never have believed it, I actually handed her one of my cards with the three books on it.  Maybe I’m too trusting these days, but at the same time I feel I’m a pretty good judge of character. And I’m looking forward to building this friendship, I think she’s pretty cool.