WINGATE, TEXAS: Bill Cathey is a man who takes Texas sized pride in his family history. His great-grandfather, Walter George Cathey, moved the family to the Wingate area in 1879. For the last 143 years the Cathey family has been proving that they still have that spirit that is required of people who settle new lands and raise their families.
ROANOKE, Va. – Quinton Cruse and April Ragan drank beer and sulked by a downtown Roanoke bridge the morning of May 5, dispirited by the difficulty of moving from the streets into Section 8 housing. • Years without housing had cost them – he the use of an arm, her a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. A home would mean safety and not postponing dreams, like getting married. • They never got the apartment. But life did them one better. • Unknown to Cruse, three members of his family who hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years were driving toward the city to reunite at that hour. They learned his whereabouts from Roanoke Times coverage of homeless people camping downtown and from the reporter who wrote it last year. • As reported, Cruse, 58, and Ragan, 34, met last year at the Greyhound bus station and lived together in his tent near the Taubman Museum of Art. She became pregnant. He was shown in a photo with a black cast over a knife cut to his arm received in a fight. • For his part, Cruse would later say that he didn’t think his family wanted contact with him, citing “the way I’ve been living.” He lived on the streets of Roanoke or in a jail cell since his marriage ended in 2009, he said. Multiple drinking in public and trespassing charges appear on his online court record.• Ragan marked three years as a homeless person this year, an odyssey that began with the death of her grandmother with whom she shared a home, she said, and has been summoned to court on multiple alcohol-related charges, online records show. • Family members wondered before visiting Roanoke whether Cruse would welcome them after years of estrangement. They had no idea where he was, much less the knowledge that he was homeless, before discovering the mention of him in the newspaper.
Easy old-fashioned Southern broccoli salad is a crowd favorite and always a hit at potlucks and summer cookouts. It’s irresistibly delicious with crisp, chopped fresh broccoli, juicy cherry tomatoes and Craisins.
My old Uncle Mort is nothing if not analytical, even when he’s not even looking for ways to make easy bucks. He called recently to provide his analysis of members of the Thicket Community Church whose pastor called for a special midweek prayer session appealing for rain. It would be at high noon on the church lawn.
Order flowers or make a restaurant reservation: Sunday is Mother’s Day, the time to celebrate the person who read you stories, tucked you into bed and drove you to soccer practices. Since 1914, Americans have celebrated Mother’s Day as a national holiday, thanks to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, a Philadelphia woman who campaigned for a holiday to honor mothers, but later was disappointed by how commercial the day became. • You may not be able to count all the things your mother did for you, but you can count some things about mothers. Here is a look at U.S. motherhood by the numbers: