A Heartbreak Story of Love, Loss, and Life
This book was rough, I am not going to lie. I generally have a book to listen to while at work to keep noise out and my mind focused. I googled best non-fiction books of 2022 and “In Love” by Amy Bloom was listed number 1 by Time magazine. The synopsis of the book was accurate and I have no idea why I thought I would want to listen to this book about the author’s journey of helping her husband end his life with assisted suicide due to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The audio book itself is short and I cannot stress this enough… HEART WRENCHING. The only reason I would suggest someone listen to or read this story, is it is a real look at life. The author is real and angry and sad and at the end, life just seems a more real. This book is not for everyone, but once I finished, and the swelling of my eyes from crying relinquished a bit, it made a difference. It was rough, but it was worth it.
Chasing Your Own Tale
After Christmas, we loaded up and headed to the beach. Along the way, I wanted to stop at a couple cemeteries to see if I could locate the resting places of some of my mother’s ancestors. In looking for particular relatives, I came across many surnames I knew to be some relation thanks to the writings of Dr. Victoria Bynum. In each cemetery, I found the surnames of Welch, Valentine, Collins, Sumrall, Bynum and the name I was looking for… Bush. My second great grandmother’s maiden name was Bush and I had really not paid much attention to that surname when reading and watching Dr. Bynum’s work of Free State of Jones. Curiosity got the best of me and I started my initial search of the name Bush as it related to Jones County.
My search lead me to Dr. Bynum’s 2001 release of Free State of Jones. This book gave more background of the people that made up the company of Captain Newt Knight as he opposed the Confederacy. The in-depth look of the people behind the names that I see in the cemeteries of my relatives made history come alive. Not only did I enjoy the deeper look into the socio-economical climate that shaped the viewpoints of the Jones County residents, but also how families being divided of politics is not new. More than a few of the people detailed in this book are ancestors in my family tree.
I do not know if temperament and being loud and opinionated to the point of abrasive is hereditary, but until proven otherwise, I am going with I was born this way. For anyone even slightly interested in antebellum Southern history that is different than plantations and Scarlett O’hara or simply wanting a different view of southerns mindset during the Civil War, I would suggest a listen or a read. (Just as a note for any of my mother’s family that may read or listen, she is a direct descendant of Stacey and Collins and Benjamin and William Bynum. Williams’ son Benjamin Bynum married “Peggy” Collins, daughter of Stacey and Sarah Collins.)
