to always know where his relatives lived and how they were related.  During his travels if he was ever in an area where he had family he would make contact with them.  That's why if there had to be one word in the English language that I had to choose to describe my Daddy it would be glue.  Webster states that glue is a solution that is used to stick things together.  He made sure that his family bonds were not broken through time and distance.

He often talked about the things that he did as a boy such as going to school without shoes, working in the hot fields picking cotton, stealing watermelons from watermelon patches, etc.  At the time it didn't sound like much but it you were around when a few brothers, sisters, and cousins would get together and talk about their childhood experiences and how the experiences within the family helped to shape their adult lives, you'd wish that they would never shut up.  That's what I miss most about my Daddy.  He was the only one of his brothers or sister here (in Ohio) that knew what was going on.  The others knew some things but Daddy kept in touch with everyone.

In 1983, Daddy received a call from his doctor requesting that he come in to see him.  It sounded really serious.  Two operations and two years later, Daddy was dead from cancer.  I didn't know that his death would cause such a large void within our family.  He was one link in a mighty chain that harbored valuable information and unconditional love for his family.

Ernest Jesse Anderson

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