Tag Archives: Wendy Welch

Kiss me – I’m Irish (kinda!)

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In his weekly guest post Jack reflects on his Irish connections

Since I have a fairly distinctive Scots accent it’s not unusual for folk to come into the shop and ask if I’m Irish – go figger. begorrah and jings !

But, actually, I don’t particularly mind as the Celts tend to hang together and I have cousins who were born and live in Ireland so that’s OK. Of course it’s also the time of year when we are approaching St Patrick’s Day so everything is turning green and even Big Stone Gap will have its annual St Pat’s ceilidh dance this Friday. That’s something Wendy and I are involved in organizing since it actually started out in the bookstore. As the space available to dance got smaller we eventually moved a block up the street to a local Church hall and, with the help of our good friends in the Celtic band ‘Sigean’ as well as dance leader Cynthia a goodly crowd have a great time.

However, this year the Irish season gets extended a bit as it’s the Centenary of the 1916 ‘Easter Rising’ – the failed rebellion against British rule which resulted in the shooting by firing squad of the seven leaders but also led eventually to Ireland’s independence.

Even here there is a Scottish connection, as one of the seven executed was James Connolly who was born in Edinburgh. Poor James was badly wounded in the battle, which centered on the General Post Office in Dublin. Not expected to live anyway, he was nevertheless tied to a chair and shot for treason.

Of course it’s hardly surprising that there should be interest in things Irish in this part of the US. We’re very close here to where Danial Boone’s wilderness trail branched off westward from the great wagon trail which brought the ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers down from Philadelphia. Some continued further South, some headed West into Kentucky, but a great many just stayed hereabouts. They brought their thrawn Presbyterian attitudes with them and being a thrawn Presbyterian myself I find that I fit in real well here!

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If you’re within traveling distance our ceilidh dance starts at 7 pm and is in the Big Stone Gap Presbyterian Church hall just one block up from the bookstore. You aren’t required to dance – you can just come and enjoy the music.

 

Crime and Punishment

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Jack is again deputizing for Wendy while she battles to meet her writing deadline –

The small Quaker group that meets monthly here at the bookstore believes in community service as a fundamental part of our daily lives. We try to do that in various ways from pet rescue to refugee resettlement and more. However, three members of the group have for years now been regularly visiting with inmates at our local Federal prison in nearby Lee County.

The three who carry out the visitations do so as part of ‘Prison Visitation and Support’ (PVS), a long established national organization based out of Philadelphia.

We (for I am one of them) who do the monthly visits meet with two inmates each and for 45 minutes per inmate, trying whenever possible to go on the same day. Once we start visiting with a particular inmate we carry on visiting him for as long as he is held in that prison, which can mean for quite a long time.

All the foregoing is simply to give context for what follows –

There is one guy who I’ve been visiting for three years now, who I will call ‘Brian’ to preserve his anonymity. He epitomizes something all three of our team agrees is what makes life bearable for our ‘visitees’ – hope. No matter that he has a whole life sentence with no parole he has continued to rely on fairly tenuous attempts to have his case re-opened or sent to appeal and our monthly visits have always ended with his latest news on that front.

So far, so normal – until last Saturday.

When Brian arrived another of our team, who’s inmate had refused a visit (it happens occasionally) was able to join our conversation which turned out to be very different from usual. He had been suffering from some throat discomfort and had been taken to a local hospital for an examination and biopsy. Naturally he had been very worried, but the results were waiting for him when he got back to the prison and he was told they were clear – not cancer. At times during the conversation he was close to tears of relief as he explained his feelings and for once there was no running commentary on his attempts to appeal his sentence. On our way back to our lives of normality in the car the three of us were discussing the visit and how Brian’s experience might affect his attitude to prison (he had commented on how caring both prison staff and hospital staff had been).

But then –

Yesterday a guy who also visits the prison regularly (not part of PVS) dropped into the bookstore with a message Brian had asked him to pass on. The hospital had redone the biopsy and it had turned out positive for cancer after all – and at an advanced stage. Brian is being transferred to a different prison today to be close to a cancer center with a very good reputation and, knowing he wouldn’t be visiting any more with me, wanted to say how much he’d appreciated our conversations.

There will be some folk (in fact I know some) who will say that he deserves no sympathy – that he was found guilty by a jury of his peers of terrible crimes and is justly suffering the appropriate punishment. They might even say that the possible death sentence this 52-year-old is facing is simply a further judgement from ‘on high’.

But I had grown to like Brian and I was stunned when I heard the news. I was also very moved that, in the midst of his traumatic situation, he made sure that I was made aware how he valued our friendship.

As a Quaker I will be holding my friend Brian ‘in the light’!

PVS is always in need of volunteers – their website is http://www.prisonervisitation.org/