Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Blackie, my mother’s rescue cat, enjoys watching the avian visitors.

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Source for All Images = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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Source of All Images = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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Above:  First Presbyterian Church, Athens, Georgia, After 1933 and Before 1965

Image Source = Library of Congress

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John Dodson Taylor, Jr. (1905-1976), my paternal grandfather, studied law at The University of Georgia (UGA) in the late 1920s.  He was a lifelong Presbyterian.  Presumably he attended church while in Athens.  He might have worshiped at the First Presbyterian Church, founded in 1820.

The physical plant has expanded since the construction of the present sanctuary in 1855-1856.  I have lived in Athens since August 2005, and I have noticed additions to the structure.  The interior of the sanctuary retains box pews, which families used to rent; I have noticed the names of prominent people on small plaques inside box pews.  The session of the congregation has done much to maintain the historic nature of the sanctuary while updating the physical plant to keep up with the times and the needs of the congregation.  (The elevators in the educational building are quite nice!)

I am an Episcopalian and an active member at St. Gregory the Great Church in town, but I have had occasion to visit the First Presbyterian Church, most recently on a Sunday afternoon for a concert of fine organ music.

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

The historic and active nature of the place impressed me, a fan of old buildings.  As a former priest of mine said, many congregations are functionally memorial societies.  The First Presbyterian Church is not a memorial society, fortunately.  Furthermore, according to the self-appointed rankers of church choirs in Athens, First Presbyterian has the best church choir and St. Gregory the Great has the second best church choir.

One reason for my interest in First Presbyterian is the possible link to family history.  Have I been in the same space in which my grandfather worshiped during his law school days?  Have I perhaps sat in the same box pew?   The UGA School of Law is on North Campus (with the famous arch), which opens up onto downtown Athens, where First Presbyterian is located.  One can walk from UGA’s North Campus to the front doors of the First Presbyterian Church in just a few minutes.  My theory is plausible, if unproven.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 6, 2016 COMMON ERA

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Photograph Scanned by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

In the dining room at the family house in Summerville, Georgia

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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