Photograph Dated March 26, 2016

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

This marker occupies a spot on the grounds of Fellowship Baptist Church, Americus, Georgia.  The pastor, Wendy Peacock, presided over the interment of his ashes on the morning of Holy Saturday, March 26.  She used the service from The United Methodist Book of Worship, appropriately.  I covered the container of my father’s ashes with soil.  It was an emotional moment.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 10, 2016 COMMON ERA

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A Related Post:

https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2016/03/28/my-easter-triduum-2016/

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All Photographs by Kenneth Randolph Taylor, May 8, 2015

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In 2006 my parents moved into a ministerial cottage at Magnolia Manor in Americus, Georgia.  He was already declining due to Alzheimer’s Disease, although that diagnosis came later.  I had moved to Athens, Georgia, in August 2005, so I visited occasionally.  Geographical distance protected me from the worst of my father’s dementia and physical problems (some of them related to it) most of the time.  My mother, however, was not as fortunate.  Being his caregiver was quite difficult.

A friend in Athens lost her father to Alzheimer’s Disease also.  She told me that her father had died about ten years before his physical death.  I have come to understand what she meant, for the man who died in October 2014 occupied my father’s body yet was quite diminished from the man who had raised me.

My mother occupied the ministerial cottage until the beginning of June 2015.  I paid my last visit, mainly to help her pack, in early May of that year.  Looking at the rooms stirred up difficult memories related to my father’s illness.  I recalled, for example, that, on Thanksgiving Day 2013, shortly before my father left the house for the last time and entered the nursing home (visible through the kitchen window) involuntarily, his behavior prompted me to take a long walk up and down the sidewalks beside Lee Street just to get away from him.

It is unfair that often the last memories we have of certain loved ones are difficult.  When these loved ones die physically, they have actually died already, for the people they were have ceased to exist.  Trying to conduct a simple and intelligent conversation with such a loved one in the final stage of life might prove impossible.  One seeks to treat him or her with respect and dignity, but he or she, as he or she is at that phase, makes that difficult.  I have compassion for these loved ones and for those who struggle to treat them properly, for I have had a taste of what that is like.  Even visiting my father in the nursing home for an hour at a time was emotionally and physically draining.  Repeating myself too many times due to his confusion, bad memory, and bad hearing was difficult.  I tried to be kind, but I realized that I did not know what do in that moment.  A sense of futility had set in.

Fortunately for everyone, especially my father, he died before Alzheimer’s Disease had a chance to do its worst.  He knew his family until the end.  I had suspected that the end might come in late 2014, as it did.  His death was merciful for all involved.  I recall watching him struggle with confusion and become frustrated.  But what did he feel that he could not communicate to anyone?  What was it like to be him at the end?  That struggle ended in October 2014.

We humans associate memories with where events occurred.  I associate my father’s end and the final stage of his decline with Magnolia Manor, Americus, Georgia.  Now that no member of my family lives on that campus anymore, I have little reason to visit the place.  That is fine, for I seek to build positive memories when I visit Americus.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 2, 2016 COMMON ERA

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All Scans by Kenneth Taylor

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Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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My father served as pastor of the Warwick United Methodist Church, Warwick, Georgia, from June 1998 to June 2001.  Here is one of his columns from the Cordele Dispatch, Cordele, Georgia.

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The True Citizen, Waynesboro, Georgia, October 28, 1981, Page 6B

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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My father served at the Alapaha United Methodist Church, Alapaha, Georgia, and the Glory United Methodist Church, in the Glory community outside of town, from June 1989 to June 1991.

All scans by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Until recent years The United Methodist Church had Diaconal Ministers (who were a stole over one shoulder) and Deacons, who were ordained ministers between the ranks of Local Pastor and Elder.

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My father is the third person from the right (the second from the right in the back).

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Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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From June 1982 to June 1985 my father served the Hopewell and Crosby Chapel United Methodist Churches in rural Appling County, Georgia.  The parsonage was on the same lot as the Hopewell Church in the Red Oak community.  Another church in the community was Satilla Baptist Church.  As I recall, the pastor of Satilla Baptist Church was, for some time, unable to make certain pastoral visits, and Dad made them for him.