Paul O'Rear -- Thursday, December 3, 2009, 11:59 PM (6 Comments)
Categories: Ashley O'Rear, Favorite Songs, Grief, Hope, Music
Tags: Ashley O'Rear, Dabbs, Fort Worth Texas, Great Smoky Mountains, Jeremy Pate, Justin O'Rear, Memphis Tennessee, Nashville Tennessee, Randy McCoy, Steve Agee, Susan O'Rear, Tennessee, Texas
About four months after Ashley died, Susan and Justin and I took a trip from our home in Texas to visit some friends in Tennessee and then spend a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains. Driving late at night, somewhere between Memphis and Nashville, the idea for a song began growing in my head. It was a tribute to the remarkable life of my Ashley, her profound impact on our lives as her family, and the deep emptiness left in our hearts by her death. But even amidst the palpable sadness of our grief, I found my thoughts, and the emerging song, focusing on the hope that is inherent in my faith — the promise that, one day, we will see her and hold her once again.
The more we drove, the more the song grew and began to organize itself into verses and a chorus. I asked Susan to find some paper and a pen and start writing down the words so that I wouldn’t forget them. I drove and Susan wrote, and by the time we reached Nashville, “Until Then” was a song.
« Read the rest of this entry »
Paul O'Rear -- Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 2:04 AM (4 Comments)
Categories: Ashley O'Rear, Death, Grief, Memories
Tags: 4H, Ashley O'Rear, Children's Cancer Fund, FFA, God, Justin O'Rear, Kidd Kraddick, KISS-FM, Olympics, Susan O'Rear
It’s hard to believe it has been eight years: November 24, 2001. Sometimes it seems as though it was only yesterday that you left us, Ashley. Then there are moments when it seems that a lifetime has passed since that awful day.
I still miss you like crazy. We’re doing OK, though. You taught us to cherish every day. Most days we remember to do that. You taught us to live life to the fullest, to squeeze every drop of adventure out of every day that God gives us. You showed us that the real beauty of life is living with a complete trust in God. It’s funny how I’ve been a minister most of my adult life, but you figured that out so much better and lived it so much more completely than I ever have.
« Read the rest of this entry »
Paul O'Rear -- Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7:15 AM (No Comments)
Categories: Death, Grief, Memories
Tags: Alice High School, Alice Texas, Atlanta Texas, Baytown Texas, Don Howell, Everything Log, Garland O'Rear, Houston Texas, Mathis Lake, Morningside Drive Church of Christ, Murder, Robbery, Speech Class, William Adams Junior High
I grew up in the small South Texas town of Alice, the “Hub City of Texas”. In the Fall of 1976, I was attending William Adams Junior High School as a 9th grader. One of my favorite classes was Mr. Howell’s Speech class. I remember Mr. Howell as being somewhat eccentric. He envisioned his Speech class as something of an adventure in self-discovery for his students.
One of our assignments was to keep an “Everything Log”, where we would write down our “feelings, emotions, thoughts, dreams, ideas, etc.” on a daily basis. I ran back across that Everything Log recently, and started reading it. What follows is my entry for October 12, 1976. I was fourteen years old when I wrote this.
« Read the rest of this entry »
