[caption id="attachment_101" align="alignleft" width="222" caption="Salvation Army World War I Poster"][/caption] About 10 years ago a lawyer friend of mine called and asked if I would "volunteer" to stand next to the entrance of the courthouse and ring one of those Salvation Army bells.  He told me that the Peoria County Bar Association had agreed to raise money for the Salvation Army by sponsoring… Read More

I want to thank everyone who responded to my request to pray for my mom.  Her heart surgery (double bypass) was successful and, although it took a couple of days to get her pain under control, she is making very good progress and should be released to go home early next week. She was originally taken to the hospital at around 5 a.m. on Friday (November 13) after experiencing chest pains during the night.  On Friday evening when I stopped by her room… Read More

It happened on a Friday during the third week of August, 1975.  I had loaded up my car to go off to college.  At the age of 18, I was excited about the challenge that was ahead of me.  I went into the house and told my mom I was leaving and she walked me to the door.  I kissed her goodbye and tears started streaming down her face.  She didn't say a word.  She just stood there looking into my eyes.  And the tears kept on flowing.… Read More

On a Saturday night in March of 1999, at around 11:30 pm, the telephone rang.  Our children were all home so my first thought was, “I wonder who that is?  I hope everything’s alright.”  It turned out that everything was not alright.  Georgette answered the phone and it was one of my relatives.  She said that my cousin Harry LaHood was in the hospital and it didn’t look like he was going to make it. We rushed to the… Read More