RICH: You’re gonna miss me (when I’m gone)

It was one of Mama’s favorite refrains. One that she used less than some but much more than others. “Y’all are gonna miss me when I’m gone.” She’d nod her head slightly and wink. “You just wait and see if you don’t.

RICH: When jury duty calls

Nowhere are the common threads that make up America’s fabric showcased more than in the courthouse in the midst of a vast jury pool. There, the tire store owner sits shoulder-to-shoulder with the high school teacher who is seated next to a grocery store baker who speaks to her neighbor, the farmer.

RICH: The joy of reading

A dear friend told me that his eyesight is being destroyed by the disease. It is vanishing so quickly that, daily, a bit of it disappears, forever. He now can only see shadows. The only print he can read is sizable, and magnified many times. Still, he has to study to figure out the letters.

RICH: A beautiful life’s final place of rest

It’s been at least 20 years since I visited Winston Churchill’s grave in the tiny English village, a stone’s throw from Blenheim Palace, the ancestral seat of Churchill’s uncle, the Duke of Marlborough, where the history- making Prime Minister was born.

RICH: O come, angel band

It was Friday night. We had just walked in from a supper of hamburgers and Cokes, with all the family, at the Soda Fountain. A friend, Barbara, texted urgently that our mutual friend, Dinah, was being rushed to the hospital. Possibly a stroke.

RICH: An SEC fan

Often when traveling, if someone learns that I’m from Georgia, they will ask, “You’re a Georgia Bulldogs fan?” I reply – this is the unvarnished truth – “I’m an SEC fan. I pull for all the SEC schools and, truth be told, I have a special spot for Kentucky and Vanderbilt during football season.

RICH: Tink’s heart: she said…he said

In all my borne days, I have never seen anyone who eats like John Tinker. Occasionally, he has breakfast. Sometimes, he has lunch. But, ALWAYS, he starts eating toward the end of the afternoon and does not stop until he brushes his teeth for bedtime.

RICH: Ronda kills me

(This is the first of a two-part He Said/She Said series.) “You kill me,” I’ll often say to Ronda. Whether it’s her wit, her insight, her fashion or decorating style, or the stories she tells, I am endlessly entertained. In the best way, of course.

RICH: Monroeville, Alabama

About 15 years ago, I was zipping down I-65 South, headed toward a press convention that was being held on the Alabama coast. A mile ahead, I saw an exit sign: Monroeville, Alabama.

RICH: The gift of storytellers

As the years scatter behind me like a box of spilled Cheerios, I reflect on the blessings of the storytellers I have known. When I was five, Aunt Ozelle kept me so Mama could work in a sewing plant. At five minutes to 12 every day, she called me to lunch.