James Martin:  

It has been like forever since I was in High School. Graduated in 1974. Like a million years a go. Like most of us that have reached the other side of life we want to re-connect with our past and relive some of the memories. It is hard to believe this much time has gone by. I went into the Air Force that November and stayed in the Air Force till retirement in 1994. I meet my wife, had two children and went through all the things you go through raising your kids. Having retired from the Air Force in 1994 did not mean a retirement from bills. So, I worked at temp jobs in Newnan, Ga. Then I got an assignment to goto NCR Corp and work in the reseller group. I guess they liked my work and I was hired on full time. It was a year later I was given the opportunity to work in their Rapid Response Team. At the time it was manned by their most trusted employees. What they did is find and move equipment when a Walmart Store went down and could not process any purchases. I was there till 2010. My wife got sick and I had to retire again to help her at home. My father passed away and my mother who lived in a Florida retirement community moved up with me and my wife. For years we lived in our home in Senoia, Ga. Till about 2018 when my wife got sick again and had to go to hospital. She was sick for almost a year moving from one hospital to the next. Then in 2019 she passed away. My life has never been the same. It was just me and my mother then. My mother and I stayed at home hiding from the Covid-19 virus. We only went out masked up and then only to places of low traffic. Like Walmart opening it’s doors to seniors at 6am to shop before the crowds came in. We made it through without getting the virus. My mother turned 90 years old September 2021. It was not long after that that she started having problems .She had Brest cancer about 10 years earlier but had both breast removed. Now it turns out the cancer went south and into her ovaries. At 90 she was not going to fight it and passed away February 2022. Now I was truly alone. I have been in that home since 1994. My wife’s father and mother lived in Fayetteville Georgia. About 30 minutes away. My mom and dad in at their Florida Retirement Community. We when through all those years together. Our kids grew up and started having their own kids. The place was full of life. Now as I looked around everything was the same. Nothing was different but now the walls were silent. Nothing moved or bothered me about some new problems. Everyone, my parents and her parents have passed away. Our kids moved up north to Cartersville Ga. There was absolutely no one their anymore. The place was empty for the first time in decades. Not only the house but you as well. You had an empty feeling without anyone around to make fun of you or tell you what happened today. I thought of all the times we had fun and all those things we did for each other to make each other happy. All of that was gone. I would have to drive...Expand for more