Broke My Heart
Open Hearts [February 2017] hit very close to home for me. I was diagnosed at age 26 with a massive atrial septal defect. The hole is the size of a tennis ball, but I never knew I had it.
I have had open-heart surgery, and the thing I remember the most about being in the cardiac intensive care unit were the babies crying—and feeling so bad for them. I knew why I was hurting, but they didn’t, and as the mother of a 16-month-old at the time, it broke my heart to hear them cry.
I would love to knit some hats for the cause.
Donna Wright | Burleson
United Cooperative Services
Editor’s note: See the How to Help sidebar for ways to contribute.
Blessed To Be the Builder
What a beautiful surprise to see your page of photos [Focus on Texas: Churches, January 2017], especially the one submitted by George Littrell, a member of Grayson-Collin EC. My husband, Chris, built that church about 15 years ago. He took such great pride in building it.
Tracey Osborne | Argyle
CoServ
Bonding Over 42
The Top Spot [January 2017] sure did bring back memories of when we moved to Old Glory in 1969. A cousin taught us how to play 42. We were hooked.
Not long after we moved here, we entered a 42 tournament. Surprisingly, we ended up winning the tourney and were afraid we had alienated ourselves with our new neighbors. They were avid 42 players.
But they were forgiving, and we enjoyed many nights of 42 and 84 with them.
Mittie Dunham | Old Glory
Big Country EC
Nazareth also has 42 parties twice a year. I enjoy participating and visiting with old and new friends. I’m impressed that young people and even children play.
Yvonne Wakefield | Dimmitt
Bailey County EC
I love to play 42. I grew up playing; now I’m 80. We played with our parents a lot on cool winter nights.
Vlasta Bartos | El Campo
Wharton County EC
Worse Than War
Growing up in the 1950s in Odessa, I remember watching my parents and their family and friends play 42 dominoes for hours at a time and really enjoying all the camaraderie they had.
I was also very interested in the history behind The New London School Explosion [January 2017]. I heard many stories from my father, uncle and grandfather, who were among the oil field workers called off their jobs to help search for and recover the bodies of the children and adults who died that day.
It was very hard on my father, who knew so many of them because he had graduated the year before. I remember him saying it was much harder on him than what he underwent in World War II as a Marine sergeant.
Jean Rinehart | Kingsland
Central Texas EC
Before recently retiring as a law enforcement officer, I frequently taught classes on school safety. The tragedy at New London was always a part of the curriculum. Odorized gas was not the only requirement that came out of that tragedy. Mandated, monthly fire drills and classroom doors that open outward were also a result.
Steve Garst | Willis
Sam Houston EC
Longleaf Legacy
I have two giant longleaf pines that were planted over 40 years ago from a donor in East Texas [Long Live the Longleaf, January 2017].
Jean Livesay | Wills Point
