My mother made a trip to New Orleans before Carol’s wedding so she would be able to drive down with us to see her first grandchild get married. While she was with us, we took her to the World Fair.

A couple of years before she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and after a partial removal of the thyroid, the doctor said she also had lymphoma. She started chemo but after a few treatments, she and the doctor had a falling out. He said Mom asked too many questions. He told her she was terminal. He would no longer treat her because he felt she was questioning his judgement. She discontinued the treatments and tried juicing. She didn't bother looking for another doctor. While she was in New Orleans, she made an appointment to visit Ochsner Medical Center, a world class diagnostic hospital, to have them check her for cancer. After extensive tests, they found no signs of cancer.

After the wedding and one night in Valdosta, Georgia, Carol and Glen came to New Orleans to continue their honeymoon and to see the World Fair. Glen hadn’t been to our house before and don’t think he’d been to New Orleans before either. On their way home they went back through Mississippi and spent one night with my parents and another at a hotel along the way before heading back to Georgia.

Glen had a job but decided, he wanted to get into college and get a nursing degree himself. His father had been a nurse anesthetist before becoming a doctor. He had a brother in the medical field, as well. Glen was a couple of years younger than Carol, so he was later in getting started with a career. They rented a place in Valdosta, Georgia where Carol continued to work as a nurse.

Since our house was convenient, we ended up hosting a lot of guests as long as the fair was around. When the camp session ended, Christi came back home from Virginia and her Australian friend, Glen, came with her. I was fascinated with his Australian way of speaking. Some of his expressions, particularly the slang, were foreign to me.

After that, Don brought about eight of his fellow camp counselors from Texas, so they could go to the fair. Our house was small, so all of those kids came with their sleeping bags, and my house was wall to wall people for a few days. Since Evan and I both worked, they were on their own during the day. Thankfully, not all of the visitors came to our house at the same time. One of the female camp counselors bought Don’s Kawasaki dirt bike, which we’d given him when he  was fourteen. She was from California and had no way to get it home, so her parents made a trip later to pick it up and also stayed overnight with us. I think they wanted to see New Orleans and go to the fair as well.

The fair lasted from May to November. The space shuttle, Enterprise, was on display at the front gate. In spite of the fact, I was thrilled and impressed with the fair, it lost money. Its opening was competing with the Los Angeles Summer Olympics and the opening of Epcot in Orlando. Also, Tennessee had hosted a World Fair in Knoxville only two years before.

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Once 1985 rolled around, Christi was determined to make a trip to Australia to see her boyfriend who was now back home and begging her to come visit. He said he would even pay for her flight and that she could stay with his grandparents in Sidney. There was no talking her out of making the trip. We paid for the flight, because we didn’t like the idea of her accepting such an expensive gift and obligating herself. We had been impressed with Glen Townsend. He was the son of a minister in our denomination, who held an impressive position with the Church for all of Australia, and New Zealand as well.

In late Spring, Christi was packed and ready to leave, planning to stay at least six weeks or until her visa expired. The day arrived that we would be taking her to board the plane. She had stuffed so many clothes into her large suitcase she had to sit on it to close it.

Christi was someone who never worried about time, and over the years, she had been consistently late for classes and her work. If she went anywhere with us, she always made us late. I was a person who wanted to be everywhere I went a little early. It drove me nuts to have someone make me late.

Christi had developed this habit after Connie was born. I was convinced it was, perhaps subconsciously, her way of punishing us for daring to bring another child into our home and disrupt her birth order as the baby in the family. She and I were often at odds, and many times she got left behind when she kept us waiting too long. Since she was so excited about this trip, I hoped, for once, she would try not to miss her flight.

However, one can’t seem to change their habits overnight. When it seemed likely she’d miss her flight, she finally started to panic. Evan struggled to pick up her overpacked suitcase, only to have the zipper break and everything tumbled out onto the floor. Now, we were all in a panic mode. There wasn’t another large piece of luggage. We managed to find two smaller suitcases and repack everything. Evan broke speed limits as we raced for the airport. He and I followed her as far as non-passengers were allowed to go and kissed her goodbye.

It appeared we’d made it with 10 minutes to spare. It wasn’t until she got back in touch with us at the end of the long flight, that we learned she missed the plane after all. She’d spent the night in the New Orleans airport awaiting another flight. After all our efforts to get her there, she wasn’t willing to admit she’d fooled around and missed her flight. I guess she realized we wouldn’t take too kindly to having to go through that nerve-wracking trip to the airport again.

In those days before personal computers and cell phones and with the time differences in that part of the world, plus expensive long-distance calls, we would not be spending a lot of time communicating with her.

The story continues with visitors from down under.