The Gilmer Mirror Gilmer, Texas Sideglances column by Sarah Greene August 7 and 14, 2002 AT TWILIGHT on the evening of June 28, a traveler from South Carolina visited Sunset Memorial Park to put flowers on the grave of Sue V. Dodson, who was fatally injured in a car wreck near Mineola in July, 1979 when she was only 25. And therein lies a story of friendship that spanned long distances and many years. Barbara Watson of Spartanburg, S. C., the visitor, was "best friends" with Sue Dodson of the Upshur County Dodson family for ten years in their youth and young adulthood. As high school students they were neighbors in Irving, where Sue lived with her parents, Ruth and Clark Dodson. AFTER GRADUATION, Sue entered Abilene Christian College and Barbara, whose family moved to New York, became a student at Eastern College in Pennsylvania. They kept their friendship going by the old-fashioned method now known as "snail mail." Barbara met and married Ralph, a fellow student, who took her on a medical mission to the Dominican Republic. Sue graduated from college and returned home to teach in the Irving public schools. Now the intimate thoughts that these two idealistic young women shared are part of Barbara’s book, Wake Up Barbara! And Help Me Find this Snake!, published in January by Infinity Publishing.com. It's an "epistolary" memoir, meaning that most of the content is in the form of letters the author wrote to Sue and her family, and received back from them. ABOUT TEN YEARS ago the author's mother gave her two large boxes full of letters she had written home during 1974-1978, their years as missionaries. As she gradually reread them and memories came flooding back, the book project was born. In an interview with The Weekender, weekly published in Sioux City, Iowa, Barbara said she wrote the book partly to educate people about the Third World and how they could help, as in saving their used eyeglasses. But the memoir also, in focusing on relationships, deals with the choices one makes in life. The book begins with a letter from Barbara to Sue about Ralph, a young man whose extroverted ways are totally different from her own personality. "I've been searching for love like this all my life, and what I'm feeling is unlike anything I've ever felt before. I've often 'fallen in love' or felt like I was in love with one guy or another, but this is beyond all that. I've seen Ralph's faults (in fact that's all I saw at first!) and love him in spite of them. What a way to start a relationship. . . "I've always wanted to find a good husband, and I guess you could say that's always been my first goal in life. Might not sound too inspired, but that's what I've wanted, to be loved by a Godly man. And Ralph is a Godly man - in his own rogue way." THAT WAS IN early March, 1974. By the end of the month, Barbara had written Sue of her engagement, and asked her Texas friend to be her maid of honor. Sue happily agreed, and after the event wrote from back home in Texas: "Your wedding was beautiful. You are right about Eastern College having a romantic campus. My favorite part of your wedding was when those white birds flew down from the stone tower and swooped over your heads as you said your vows. . . They looked like doves, and I thought it looked like God was sending His blessing for your marriage. It was beautiful. It was good to be able to meet Ralph. He will be a lot of fun for you, and I hope you have many happy years to come." <Click here to continue> |
| Wake Up Barbara! And Help Me Find This Snake! Barbara Watson |