Taiwan - Taiping Suspension Bridge, Bamboo Stalk / Charles Westbrook at East Main

This is the story about an interesting fellow I met while attending the East Main Church of Christ in Nacogdoches, Texas.  As stated in this post, I switched from the Lutheran Church to the Church of Christ in the summer of 1978.  So upon returning to Nacogdoches I began searching for a church home.  Not being one to fit very well in the mainstream congregations such as North Street, which focused on the student population with its Yellow House, or Mound Street, which was also large but a bit hung up on doctrinal fine hairs, I hit the phone book and called the smallish, more rural congregations dotting the countryside.  The preacher at East Main seemed to be excited that I called, so there I went and never looked back.  One of those times in life where it felt good to be in the right place at the right time.

In those days there were probably 35-40 in attendance on a given Sunday morning, with the usual decreases on Sunday evening and especially Wednesday night (which I rarely attended).  Names that come to mind are Kurth and Jackie Booker, Inez Campbell, Marie Lundsford, Daisy Chancellor, Thelma Reid, Kennie and Donie Sanford, and of course Charles Westbrook. Those were the older members, with whom I got along best, but there were a few other families of varying ages.  These were all town folks not associated with the university or college population in any way, with the exception of Kurth Booker who worked in the chemistry lab.

Charles Westbrook was singled out in the list above because there are a few things that stand out about Charles:  he never sang, he always had a tickle in his throat that caused him to lightly cough every few seconds, and he was a mortician.  His mother, who was probably in her late 80's or early 90's, lived in an apartment he'd set up next to his in town.  Being a mortician, it was no surprise to anyone that when he discovered her dead in her bed one morning he simply wrapped her body up in a blanket, plunked her in the back of his old green pickup, and drove her to the funeral home to be processed.

But what I remember most about Charles is what happened during a visit to his apartment one day very soon after joining East Main.  I'd stopped just to say hello and found him sitting outside his door whittling on a piece of wood.  We chatted a minute or so and someone he knew stopped by.  Who was this young whippersnapper?  Charles introduced me as a college student that was going to East Main, and was a "hard worker" for the church.  Wow.  I wasn't really doing much for them at the time so hearing that was a surprise.  But it's the little things that stand out, and the affirmation felt good, confirming that it might have been the right decision to hook up with these folks...