Your Aunt Michele loves the Fourth of July. Picnics with family, fireworks, flying flags - it's all great. Grandaddy's birthday is only two days away on July 6th, so many times on the Fourth there was always lots of fun with birthday cake and ice cream.
The holiday also has a lot of sentimental value for me as it was the day that Uncle Byron asked me to marry him! It was on July 4, 1986. Uncle Byron and I were both students at Piedmont Bible College. I was home on summer break - home there at Grandaddy's house. Uncle Byron always stayed on campus even during holidays as his parents were missionaries in Brazil. He drove up to Grandaddy's for a picnic with the family. Even my Grandma Beckner was there that day - your great grandmother.
Sometime during the afternoon when I was inside the house and everyone else was outside at the picnic table, Uncle Byron asked Grandaddy if it was okay to ask me to marry him. Daddy apparently said yes rather too quickly and Mommy and Grandma had more questions to ask! But Daddy said okay.
That night Uncle Byron took me to the old Victory Stadium that was near Roanoke Memorial Hospital. It was torn down on July 5th, 2006. But that night the stands were full for an American sing-along and fireworks celebration. We enjoyed hearing the patriotic songs and singing with hundreds of others. Sometime just before the fireworks started, Uncle Byron asked if I would marry him and gave me an engagement ring.
I knew that marrying him included a commitment to foreign missionary service. It wasn't a difficult choice because we both knew what God wanted for our lives and were only confirming that we would follow God's will as missionaries together.
Here in Brazil we don't always celebrate like we do when we are in the States but we always remember to appreciate our home country and that one special night!
My last Fourth in the States was in 2014 in Eden NC. One of my best memories of Fourths gone by are of watching fireworks over Fort McHenry in Baltimore from a boat in the Chesapeake Bay with all my cousins when I was a girl. Another good memory is the time Uncle Byron and I with little William and Dalton went to see the fireworks with Grandma and Grandaddy down at the D-Day Memorial near Bedford, VA. These photos are from 2014...
The holiday also has a lot of sentimental value for me as it was the day that Uncle Byron asked me to marry him! It was on July 4, 1986. Uncle Byron and I were both students at Piedmont Bible College. I was home on summer break - home there at Grandaddy's house. Uncle Byron always stayed on campus even during holidays as his parents were missionaries in Brazil. He drove up to Grandaddy's for a picnic with the family. Even my Grandma Beckner was there that day - your great grandmother.
Sometime during the afternoon when I was inside the house and everyone else was outside at the picnic table, Uncle Byron asked Grandaddy if it was okay to ask me to marry him. Daddy apparently said yes rather too quickly and Mommy and Grandma had more questions to ask! But Daddy said okay.
That night Uncle Byron took me to the old Victory Stadium that was near Roanoke Memorial Hospital. It was torn down on July 5th, 2006. But that night the stands were full for an American sing-along and fireworks celebration. We enjoyed hearing the patriotic songs and singing with hundreds of others. Sometime just before the fireworks started, Uncle Byron asked if I would marry him and gave me an engagement ring.
I knew that marrying him included a commitment to foreign missionary service. It wasn't a difficult choice because we both knew what God wanted for our lives and were only confirming that we would follow God's will as missionaries together.
Here in Brazil we don't always celebrate like we do when we are in the States but we always remember to appreciate our home country and that one special night!
My last Fourth in the States was in 2014 in Eden NC. One of my best memories of Fourths gone by are of watching fireworks over Fort McHenry in Baltimore from a boat in the Chesapeake Bay with all my cousins when I was a girl. Another good memory is the time Uncle Byron and I with little William and Dalton went to see the fireworks with Grandma and Grandaddy down at the D-Day Memorial near Bedford, VA. These photos are from 2014...
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