Lan, Lily, and I took a road trip to Mobile and the Eastern Shore over the weekend. On Saturday I visited my nephew, who is the son of my second youngest brother. Tyler was five years old when my brother died, and the last time I saw my nephew he was three years old. A couple of weeks ago he graduated high school. It was a very good visit with Tyler, his mom, and his little brother. He earned a scholarship to pay for some of his college and has been working and saving his money. On Saturday I let him know that I would help cover the cost of his education. He’s a smart, hardworking kid and looks like my brother did at his age.
We went on a three-hour food tour (Bienville Bites Food Tour) in downtown Mobile. We visited six restaurants and had everything from biscuits to oysters to barbecue to beignets. The walking tour also included a history lesson on the founding of Mobile, a study of the architecture, and some ghost stories. We walked through the Battle House hotel and a couple of the cathedrals. Most of this I already knew, but I got to enjoy watching Lan and Lily experience the food and history. And watching Lily interact with her cousins for the first time was very special.
Sunday morning, I visited the graves of my two youngest brothers, whose tombstones are side-by-side under an oak tree and facing a pond. I cleaned the tombstones, did some weeding, and spent a couple of hours in quiet conversation with them. I’d like to think the conversation was real.
Three years ago, as I was coming back to the area every other weekend for more than a year to deal with my mom’s estate, my wife asked me to visit a gentleman named Jere Trigg.
https://mobilebaymag.com/meet-jere-trigg-the-violet-guru/
Lan has developed a passion for gardening, and one of her favorite flowering plants are African violets. She happened to connect on FB with Jere, who has created several hybrid AVs, including one called “Jere’s Roll Tide.†Lan asked me if Spanish Fort was close to where my mom’s house is. It’s the next town over, so I visited Jere at his house to buy several plants and get a basic botany lesson.
Lan communicated periodically with Jere, and when we planned this trip, she wanted to visit Jere and buy some more AVs and learn more about the caring and propagating of the plants. But mainly she just wanted to talk to him about their shared enjoyment of gardening. Unfortunately, Lan could not get in touch with Jere this time. She found out he recently passed away. There is a FB group dedicated to keeping Jere’s legacy alive. Lan reached out to them and has joined their group, and we visited with one of the members while in Mobile. Lan bought some more plants that once were Jere’s, and she will try to propagate them. Lan is very much a novice but is determined to get her skill up. RIP Jere.
On Monday’s drive back home, we stopped in Pensacola for an early lunch at The Fist House. Good food and very nice water view.
The trip was brief, emotional, and awesome.
