Before vascular dementia had weaved a web of confusion around Momma’s mind, she loved to share a Looneyville Sunday morning memory.

Dressed in shorts and sleeveless shirts Momma and Aunt Peggy were sitting on the front porch swing when a station wagon stopped in their dirt driveway. A tall dark-haired man dressed in a suit got out and came to the porch. They soon recognized him as Preacher Kesler of the Jefferson Holiness Church. He asks them “Would ya’ll like to ride with us to church?” His wagon was already filled with his wife and their children, but he was inviting them to ride along.

Momma and Peggy replied to him, “We ain’t dressed for church.” Preacher Kesler told them they were dressed just fine. God didn’t care what they wore to church. Despite her dementia diagnosis, Momma remembered this memory until a few years ago.

Preacher Kesler had a love for others and did not pick and choose who God would or would not accept. He did not care if you were poor or rich, young or old, or how you dressed. These actions were the reasons that she recalled that Sunday morning and all the subsequent Sunday mornings when she and Aunt Peggy attended church into adulthood.

When Preacher Kesler moved from the Jefferson Church to the Nicholson Church Momma and Peggy were married with homes and children of their own living back in Looneyville. They took us Looneyville children to church. All of us. They filled up whatever car they were driving and off to church we would go. Aunt Peggy didn’t work a public job so she made sure we went every Sunday morning, night and Wednesday night.

A wagon load of youngins. No seatbelts. No carseats. Only faith in God. Praying the love and protection of God over our lives. Planting the seeds of God’s word.

Load up your wagons my friends. Load up your wagons.