I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Life

  • Surprise 80th Birthday Bash: A Night to Remember

    Surprise 80th Birthday Bash: A Night to Remember


    Next Tuesday, April 21, 2026, is my 80th. birthday. Thank you very much for your well wishes, dear cyberspace friends, but let me say you would be late for that party – no, seriously, really late to that party – because I have family and friends who gave me a fabulous Surprise Birthday Party on Friday night, the 20th. of March. Well wishers from every decade of my adult life, well wishers galore.

    Despite several hints that appeared by mistake in my text messages, speaker phone in our car, and confirming to me that they wouldn’t miss my party several weeks before the actual event I had no knowledge of, I never suspected a thing when Pretty insisted we go to a “pop-up” for our daughter-in-law and her twin sister on a Friday night in March. I am always reluctant to participate in activities away from the comfort of my recliner, or my “happy place” as Pretty calls it. At the same time Pretty knows I would do anything to support Caroline and Chloe’s business venture into the world of selling their delicious goodies. Yummy.

    When we entered the large venue at 701 Whaley Street in Columbia at 7:00 o’clock, I stopped at the door of the ground floor, peeked inside, and told Pretty I thought this was the wrong place. The room was full of people who apparently were having a meeting of some kind as all were looking expectantly toward the door. I assumed they were waiting for a speaker until Pretty nudged me in.

    The room erupted in Happy Birthday singing which I later learned was led by our six-year-old granddaughter Ella and four-year-old granddaughter Molly. They had microphones, but I couldn’t hear them above the adults who had chimed in. I recognized all of the people who were standing closer to the entrance, but it honestly never dawned on me that this was a party for my birthday until Jo Ann, one of our California Tahoe Ten friends, came up to hug me and say Happy Birthday! Jo Ann was as happy to see me as I was to see her!

    Six women flew from California to surprise me for a birthday bash.

    four of them were new friends from our Tahoe Trip in 2023 –

    (Audrey and Debra were with Pretty and me for my 60th. birthday!)

    Tahoe Ten in Tahoe in August, 2023

    (l to r) Debra, Pretty, me, Audrey, Jo Ann, Chris (back row)

    Angie, Joan, Nekki, Francie

    me, Chris, Nekki and Francie

    Every great surprise requires inspiration, planning, and execution. The California girls stayed for the weekend, and I found out Audrey, a South Carolina native who has lived in California for most of her adult life, provided the inspiration when she called Nekki and Francie to suggest the California contingent of the Tahoe Ten would head across the country for a birthday celebration if we could celebrate in March?

    Francie and Nekki jumped on board and generously offered their home as vacation quarters for the trip. Pretty, of course, had to be part of the planning, but I understood she was in charge of security which had several breaches that she miraculously used her powers of spontaneous fabrication to cover up. Finally, someone had to be in charge of “memories collections” and presentation. Enter Rob, a great friend in Columbia, who had the tedious chore of sifting through eighty years of memories to create the following presentation I finally managed to enjoy last week. I invite you to watch if you want to make the journey with me. And have a few minutes to spare.

    https://www.facebook.com/reel/1625052428643610

    I tried to speak and take pictures with everyone who came, but that was impossible. The party co-conspirators said more than a hundred people came to surprise me on a Friday night in March. I was overwhelmed by the decorations, fabulous music played by a great DJ, tables for everyone who wanted to sit to enjoy the incredible food and adult beverages – no stone left unturned for fun together in the salute to my Texas heritage with a Rhinestone Cowboy theme.

    Nekki, our head wrangler/emcee, encouraged people to give “testimonies” and share memories. Dick Hubbard, Linda Ketner, and Carmen Del Valle were among the speakers – I had known them over several lifetimes in my South Carolina adult life, and they were all very kind. Who was this person they remembered??

    I was especially stirred with feelings of love and gratitude for not only the words Drew and Caroline, Ella and Molly spoke that night in front of the large gathering of people who knew our family mostly through Facebook pictures, but also their smiles. Memory makers. When T spoke, she had to know the happiness we shared during our twenty-five years together. These smiles are our dream keepers.

    Drew holding Molly, Caroline, Ella

    who knew four-year-old Molly would love a microphone?

    Thank you, thank you, thank you – a thousand times thank you to the friends and family across the years who took the girl out of Texas to give her a forever home in South Carolina. I have a grateful heart and understand the meaning of feeling blessed. Whether from near or far, your presence was a gift at 701 Whaley Street on a Friday evening in March, 2026.

    *********************

    Bonus Pic nothing to do with anyone’s birthday – just a favorite of mine

    Please stay tuned.

  • March Madness at Women’s Final Four: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

    March Madness at Women’s Final Four: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly


    Huge congrats to the UCLA Bruins for their spectacular performances in Phoenix at the NCAA Women’s Final Four basketball tournament! If our Gamecock Women couldn’t win it all, I was personally pleased that a team coached by another woman, Cori Close, who had pursued the trophy with 15 years of patience and persistence, was able to cut the net.

    Our Gamecock women overcame adversity during the 2025-26 season and were thrilled to make the Final Four for the sixth season in a row. Although the team fell short by a game during March Madness, I congratulate Coach Dawn Staley and her staff for perhaps, in my humble opinion, the best coaching job of their careers. Three of our players are headed to the WNBA Draft in New York City on Monday, April 13th.

    Ta’Niyah Latson Madina Okot Raven Johnson

    Gosh, I will miss these young women who have exceeded my expectations with their grit and determination to win. I wish them every success as they pursue the exciting paths ahead. Forever to thee – you’ve given us great joy during your time on and off the court at The University of South Carolina. Please come home to visit when you can!

    Finally, the spectacle created by UConn coach Geno Auriemma at the end of their loss in Game 1 of the Final Four showed his lack of respect for his coaching staff, his players, and the game of basketball itself. I felt the pain of basketball fans everywhere for having to endure what became a major distraction through excessive media coverage of a grown man’s poor sportsmanship.

    The young women who play basketball at the collegiate level make tremendous sacrifices to entertain their fans. We feel the energy and excitement when our girls win, the disappointments when they lose. Regardless, the game should always be the winner.

    Onward.

  • the Iceman Cometh? or is it Mother Nature?

    the Iceman Cometh? or is it Mother Nature?


    If you remember Eugene O’neill’s American tragedy, The Iceman Cometh, you might have been in a high school drama class in the 1960s in West Columbia, Texas, with a teacher who believed O’neill’s work was brilliant. O’neill in her opinion belonged in the same conversation with Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, and Thornton Wilder. Mrs. Juanita Roberts had fiery red hair cut in a pixie and always let her class chat quietly for a few minutes before the bell rang to end class so that she could race to the teachers’ lounge for a smoke. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end.

    Today the state of South Carolina where Pretty and I live has been deemed by the governor to be in the grips of another Iceman who is controlled by Mother Nature and promises to create a nightmare for the entire state. The governor has declared a state of emergency throughout the weekend. Wintry mix, freezing rain, and snow will be the culprits, but the largest blow in the forecast is the ice that will cover everything when the rainfall freezes in places predicted by American meteorologists in whatever model they use to foretell Mother Nature’s fancies.

    calm before the storm – looking across the street at naked trees

    Pretty made the blue bottle tree in our front yard

    our big oak tree in the back yard before the Iceman Cometh

    Mother Nature will have her final timing for the Iceman and/or the Weather Person; but for now we cross our fingers that everyone will be safe and that any birthday parties planned for Saturday morning can be continued as scheduled.

    Stay tuned.

  • We are all just walking each other home

    We are all just walking each other home


    The sun was a gigantic circle of intense bright light as I walked on Old Plantersville Road tonight and the colors in the sky surrounding it took my breath away.  They were all that – and then some.  No camera this evening.  Just me and the Texas sunset.  It’s as close as I came to a spiritual moment and not surprising that the words of a hymn I sang over and over again during my Southern Baptist days played in my head while I walked.

    Now the day is over, night is drawing nigh.

    Shadows of the evening steal across the sky.

    Jesus, give the weary calm and sweet repose;

    With thy tenderest blessing may mine eyelids close.

    —-Sabine Baring-Gould, published 1865

    A few raindrops fell on me as I turned toward home from the railroad track which was my usual turnaround spot.  I didn’t even care.  The colors changed quickly in the sky as the sun went down behind the trees across the pasture.  I slowed my pace to catch as many of them as I could, and the rain stopped for me so I wouldn’t have to hurry.

    The day was over, and shadows of the evening stole across the sky right in front of me.  Jesus, give the weary calm and sweet repose.  My Random House Dictionary defined repose as, among other things, a dignified calmness…composure.  Yes, give the weary a sweet repose.  Let all who work hard and all who are tired of fighting the same battles or any whose pain leaves them exhausted – give them a sweet repose at the end of this day.

    And may our eyelids close.

    *****************

    In September, 2013, when I first published this piece, I called myself a “bi-stateual” because Pretty and I had bought a place in Texas on Worsham Street which was a block off Old Plantersville Road, a favorite walking place for me when I liked to ponder the vicissitudes of life, as my daddy used to say.

    Today, thirteen years later, I was reminded of a truth I think my daddy would have liked:

    We are all just walking each other home.

    Some of us just have four legs, and a little less time to do it.

    (Pawprints of my heart)

    When the noises of the universe trample the joys within us, let’s remember we are all just walking each other home. What can we do to make the journey joyful for ourselves and for someone else today?

    Ollie, me, Red, Pretty, Chelsea, Drew, Annie in 2009

    Ollie, Red, Chelsea and Annie walked each other home ahead of us

     

  • Joyce Vance: Speaking Truth About January 6 Events

    Joyce Vance: Speaking Truth About January 6 Events


    One of my personal sheroes, Attorney Joyce Vance, speaks truth to power today in her piece in Civil Discourse on substack.com. regarding the events that took place at the Capitol of the United States five years ago today. Lest we forget…here are excerpts from her essay.

    Donald Trump is the President no one has ever said “no” to in a big way. Not Congress, not the Court, and certainly not the people around him in the executive branch. It didn’t happen even after January 6, 2021, which seems to have greenlit the fact-averse, law-free, and profoundly antidemocratic behavior that has come to characterize his second term in office…

    Now, with the fifth anniversary of January 6 upon us, we live in a world where the president has pardoned the “patriots” convicted for planning an insurrection and storming the Capitol. Trump has made sure that no one faces accountability for January 6, least of all himself. He has nothing but praise for the people who overran the Capitol—they’re the good guys, the heroes. His people.

    On the very first day of his second term, Trump granted pardons to some of the most dangerous among them, convicted felons like Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, beginning with these words: “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” In all, more than 1,500 people received pardons or commutations on Trump’s first day in office…

    …there was no moment where Donald Trump was forced to face the truth of what he had done to the country. He has never publicly apologized or even acknowledged he was wrong. There was no moment like the surrender at Appomattox or the withholding of restoration of citizenship for a time for Trump, as there was for leaders following the Civil War.

    That’s no way to fix a democracy and keep it whole.

    So, we will go through this same painful exercise every year on the anniversary of January 6, remembering and reciting the facts, until we get it right. The people who mobbed Congress are not praiseworthy people, heroic victims who fought a last stand for a lost cause. Trump is not the leader of a legitimate American political movement. We must keep on saying it. We have to refuse to let Trump’s narrative prevail. In the time of Trump, be a warrior for the truth…Take people out to lunch and talk about it. Refuse to sit on the sidelines.

    We’re in this together,

    Joyce

    *******************

    I vividly remember the attack on our nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021, because I watched it in real time – a reality show orchestrated and directed by Trump, with a worldwide viewing audience. Ratings out the roof of scenes never imagined in the minds of most American citizens. And yet, we are asked to suspend belief, forget what we saw and heard, forgive the person responsible even though that person never once asked us to forgive him.

    Not this American.

    I’m in it with Joyce. I hope you are, too.