On Saturday after baseball, we made the 6.5 hour drive to Conway, Arkansas to celebrate my dad. He passed away 1 year ago and I think it took us a full year to be ready to lay him to rest but it all turned out to be just perfect. The drive was long and we were tired but Robert was awesome as always and got us there safe and sound!
Hendrix College has always been a big part of my family. Many of my relatives are graduates of Hendrix including my brother and both GJ and Daddo. I even spent a summer living on campus at Governor’s School. Daddo also served on the Board of Trustees at Hendrix for many years, was the commencement speaker at Keath’s graduation ceremony, and he received the Distinguished Alumni award in 2005. He’d probably also like me to add that he got the Freshman Math Award in 1969!
Most importantly, Hendrix is where GJ and Daddo met…going to a funeral no less! They were both students and Susu and Grandmother somehow made the connection that GJ needed a ride to the funeral of a mutual friend and Daddo was going and the rest is history! Even though Daddo was one year older, he did a 3/2 plan with Columbia so they both graduated from Hendrix in 1973. So, this year is the 50th anniversary of their graduation! My mom had learned earlier this year that Hendrix put in a columbarium in a new memorial garden right by Greene Chapel. It just seemed like the right place for Daddy to be forever. My mom will join him there eventually many, many, MANY years from now! This was alumni weekend at Hendrix and that included a service on Sunday morning where they recognize all of the alumni that passed away in the previous year. Once we learned of the service and found out that Rock Jones was going to be in town, it all came together to be the perfect opportunity to lay Daddy to rest. Rock worked at Hendrix for many years and was someone Daddy always thought very highly of. He agreed to meet us there that morning to say a few words in the memorial garden. The entire family ended up being able to come and it was a wonderful – albeit chilly! – time spent honoring Daddy.
The campus really is so pretty and we enjoyed checking it out.
In case you didn’t know it, GJ is the best.
We followed the service up with a burger at Purple Cow and Daddo would have loved that too! It all felt so right and we are at peace knowing he’s back at Hendrix on the beautiful campus forever.
