In my last column, I talked about my trip with my son Andrew to Jackson, Mississippi for the Celebration of Life for Andrew’s mom, Joy Ransom, who passed away in Late June last year. While she and her family lived in Davis, California, home was Jackson where her 101-year-old mother — whom everyone referred to as Mother — still lived along with aunts and uncles.

When we arrived in Jackson, we were picked up by Andrew’s step-father John. He proved to be a very amiable person who gave us a ride to the Enterprise car rental place. While we expected to be there for a relatively short while, we were there for over an hour as the staff dealt with a situation where there weren’t enough cars to go around due to people not returning their cars on time.

To pass the time, I ended up striking up conversations with the staff who while busy and trying to not let anyone see them sweat also had time on their hands. There is only so many times that you can check on the status of the same car that hasn’t driven into your lot. In spite of not getting any sleep on the long train ride, I was still pretty good natured. I enjoyed the conversation. It had been a long time since I was in a room of people who had beautiful Southern accents.