This will be the last column of the year, and I cannot help but reflect on some of the great people we lost this year.
The first one to come to mind was my neighbor, Pete Warren.
If I had set out to design a better neighbor than "Mr. Pete," I don’t think I could have done it. Since my grandkids played daily in his back yard, he knew them almost as well as I did. When Blayke started playing sports at the high school level, he always asked how he was doing.
During football season, he listened to the radio broadcasts. He listened well because he could always tell me what Blayke did during the game. But there were other things that he did that I will always remember.
He bought a new Mercury with all of the bells and whistles, a really nice car, one that anyone would be proud to ride in. Shortly after he parked this new vehicle in his carport, I decided to see just how much he loved it. So one morning, I walked over and rang the door bell. He came to the door and invited me into the kitchen.
"I don’t have much time, Mr. Pete. My car won’t crank this morning, and I need to borrow yours. I have an appointment in Jackson." I thought he might ask if I had called a mechanic, or ask if I had lost my mind, but he simply got up from the table, walked over to his key rack, and handed me a new set of car keys. "The gas tank is full," he said.
When a neighbor lends you his new car with no questions asked, you know you have a great neighbor. I almost felt bad about telling him that I was just kidding.
We lost Orrin Hayes Swayze. We had hunted and fished together since I was 18 years old. If you just happened to be around listening to our conversations, you might think that we disliked each other because we were always bantering with each other. But it was all in fun, and if you hunted or fished with Swayze, you were going to have fun, too.
I took him on his last fishing trip. We went to Bee Lake and caught an ice chest full of catfish. When we headed for the landing, the wind had begun to blow, and the water was choppy. I was running the motor, and I was “letting the hammer down" all the way to the landing.
Swayze stepped out of the boat and started walking up the ramp. All of a sudden, he started walking backwards. I thought that this was odd behavior for an 86-year old man. I recognized that something was wrong, so just as he backed into the lake, I caught him.
"Are you alright?" I asked. "Yeah, I’m fine," he said with a sheepish grin on his face. I turned him loose. He took two steps and went headfirst into the grass, missing the concrete by inches.
It was his inner ear. The ride had made him dizzy. As soon as his head cleared, I asked him the $64,000 question: "Orrin Hayes, if you ever get Alzheimer’s disease, how will we know?" Of course, he had some smart answer to this profound question.
"But I think that this is my last fishing trip." Sadly, he was right.
Charles E. “Sonny” Farmer passed away in January.
I never thought my dad, John Wayne, or Sonny Farmer would die. They were all bigger than life.
Dr. Sonny Farmer was our medical consultant, and over the years, Judy and I got to know him and his wife, Kay, and became good friends. Sonny loved Mississippi College and Kay loved Arkansas. Some of our best times together was when we attended the Delta State vs. Mississippi College games. The winner had bragging rights for an entire year.
One day I had to go to his office to staff some cases, and when I walked in, his nurse told me, "You might want to keep it short today. There was a multiple shooting last night, and he was called out. He has been operating all night, so he may not be in the best mood."
I got the message. But when I walked in, I knew immediately that he was not in a bad mood. Just the opposite. In fact, we had a long conversation about who the next governor was going to be. He even mentioned the name "Kirk Fordice" long before I had heard it.
Sonny Farmer was a skilled thoracic surgeon and a great human being who loved what he did. Like I said, I thought dad, John Wayne and Sonny Farmer would live forever. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
The Christmas season, after all, is a time to remember our friends, and cherish our families. Have a happy and prosperous New Year.
