uch of what I record of the decade of the seventies will be for Pop Troy's and my enjoyment. This is especially true of our travel trips. Just listing events and names brings back a lot of memories to us, but they would not mean much to others. Zylpha paid us a visit in Winter Park from Lakeland, where she was spending the latter part of the winter of 1970. She came on March 12th and stayed for a few days. I have often wondered when I bought the white blouse which I still wear occasionally. Now I know! It was just before she came. She wanted one like it but did not want to pay $10.00 for it. That was quite high twenty years ago.

In June of 1970 Troy had a light stroke which affected his speaking. We thought we should retire at that time, but the congregation would not consent to this. After discussion, the suggestion was made that we take two months off, return to Virginia and relax and work on our home, then return and finish out the time until conference the next year when he would normally have retired. This we decided to do. A retired couple came from Lakeland to supply for him those two months and lived in the parsonage while we were in Virginia.

I am not sure of the exact date of the very first of the reunions of the Walter Brady siblings, but I believe it was in 1970. We hosted it at Phil's restaurant in Elkins, W. Va. Robbie was with us at that time. He sat by Arthur Sturdivant and said to him, "Uncle Arthur, how old are you? You look like you're a hundred" Robbie was around fourteen and was sometimes not too diplomatic in his questioning. (I was twelve!)

We accomplished quite a lot of work on the house with the thought of selling it. We still planned on building on our choice lot back of the church after our retirement.

On July 1st we left Singers Glen to visit our siblings and other relatives in West Virginia and Ohio. We had our 44th wedding anniversary dinner at Ted and Shirley Clintons, with Beulah and Buddy. On this trip we had visits with both couples of McQuains in Elkins, the Smiths near Morgantown, and the Newlons and Shomos in Parkersburg.

On July 5th we went with Ted and Blossom to Wooster to hear Sonny preach and to Park Church with them that night. We spent the next two days with Elma and went on to Lore City to the Clintons on the 8th.

On July 26th we drove to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina for Troy to attend the Board of Evangelism meeting there. He was the representative from our Florida District of the United Methodist Church. We returned to the Glen on the 31st. The Brady family reunion was at Bland and Helen's in Weston and as usual we had a great time. It was on August 2nd and we got to hear Bland preach in the morning and Troy that night. I'm sure the girls were proud of their brothers, as Helen and I were of our husbands. Bland was serving the church we expected Troy to go to as pastor when we went to the Freemansburg Circuit. We stayed that night with Ethel Flesher who had been our good friend from the years we spent in Pricetown.

We visited Bland's daughter in Oxford, West Virginia. Our good friends, Ruby and Clellie Rexroad, were her parsonage family and she thought as much of them as they did of her.

On July 24th Allen and Rachel Wright and their two teenage sons, Mark and Preston, came and spent the night on their way to visit relatives in Pennsylvania. They belonged to our Winter Park Church.

We packed the car and got the house ready to leave for almost another year and spent the last night of our stay in Virginia with our friends, the Hahns, in Waynesboro. The next night was spent in Bamberg, South Carolina. We stopped at Howard's for the night of the 29th and reached Winter Park at 11:00 a.m. the next day.

Another entry from Winter Park brings back both pleasant and sad memories. James and Beverly Bonar and their three children were very faithful members of the church. Both parents sang in the choir and were active in other activities in connection with St Andrews. The children were rather widely spaced in ages. The daughter was in high school; Douglass was around four years younger and Scott was still in the lower grades, I believe.

St. Andrews is a small church. Everyone knows everyone else and there is fellowship between members, aside from their church connections. All of us were thrilled when we knew there was going to be another baby in our church family. Beverly was in her usual place one Sunday morning and the next Sunday they carried in Michael Todd.

Troy stopped recording baptisms in 1950 in his "Pastor's life Record" book because they were all recorded in the church membership book at each church he served. Under the date of February 21, 1971 his little appointment book simply says, "Todd Michael Bonar baptized." In different colored ink is written, '11-28-70.' I judge that was the date of his birth. (I think I should be entitled to a detective license when I finish this "book” ETB )

After we retired we received the sad news that Todd had leukemia. We were entertained in the home at one period of remission, while we were visiting in Florida. He seemed fine, but after many painful treatments he passed away at around four years of age. When talking to the parents later Beverly said, "We were ready to give him up and he wanted to go."

NEXT - 1971 - RETIREMENT FROM THE MINISTRY