A new journey

It’s Friday, June 24, 1977, about 4:00 PM and I am about to embark on the most amazing journey I have ever taken. I have to admit I am scared. There’s not really much you can do to prepare for this journey. There are classes, but they only prepare you for the physical leg. Nothing can prepare you for the emotional roller coaster that will be the rest of your life. There will be laughter, joy, sadness, tears, grief and a myriad of other emotions.

I look back now and realize I was in no way ready for this journey to begin. It is the most important thing I have ever done in my life. I didn't always do it right, but I feel like I did the best I could. So now if you have time, sit back and take this little trip with me.

I guess you are probably wondering what I am talking about. Some of you may have already figured it out. Thirty-four years ago this afternoon, I gave birth to my oldest son, Thomas Swartz Jordan, III, better known to me and my family and a lot of his friends as TJ.I shared a brief trip through Ray’s life with pictures in May. Today I want to take a short photo journey through TJ’s life. My labor with TJ was long but not really too hard. Since the first of June, my bag had been packed and Tommy and I made sure the truck’s gas tank was always full. But…..needless to say the night, or early morning, I actually went into labor, the truck was empty. While we were filling up at the service station, a highway patrolman, who also happened to be a friend, pulled up beside us. He wanted to know why were out so early…I forgot to mention it was about 3:00 AM. Tommy explained I was in labor and we were headed to Elizabeth City. He asked me how close the pains were and I explained they weren’t very close at all but we had called the doctor and he told us to come on. At this time, there was no hospital or even an urgent care facility on the Outer Banks. This friend gave us a police escort to the Currituck County line and a friend of his picked us up there and led us all the way to Albemarle Hospital. What an exciting ride!

I would like to insert the hospital new-born baby picture here, but (and I’m sure TJ will be thrilled about this) I don’t have it. It was included in all the pictures I gave him. I thought I had a scanned copy on my computer, but I don’t. So I will have to start with the first picture taken of him after I brought him home. What a head of unruly black hair.

Shortly after this picture was taken his daddy carried him to Al VanCurrin’s for coffee, much to my Mama’s displeasure. It soon became a family tradition (with Ray too).

This was the first professional picture taken of TJ – taken at Rose’s in the Outer Banks Mall.

Nanny Jordan had this picture taken by Olan Mills.

Taken at a family reunion at the Community Building in Midway.

Birthday party while we were living at the Pink Shell Cottages. I think there are 8 candles on the cake.

He wore this costume for the 400th. Manteo celebration. His teacher was Mrs. Argent Spake and the festivities went on all day.

One of the original cone heads, taken on the ferry to Ocracoke.

I can see now that I have this picture out of sequence. Sorry about that. It’s too much trouble to go back and change it now, but I imagine he was about 3.

He was a preppy kid back then. Taken at Muver’s house when we visited at Thanksgiving.

A visit to Oregon Inlet and south Nags Head with Aunt Sallie Nunemaker.

We were living at the Pink Shell Cottages when this was taken. He had just been stung by a huge jellyfish. It was taken after the medicine (meat seasoning) had been applied.

First day of school – check out the long legs!

Both boys were in Scouts and they both did really well.

I have to include a “geeky” picture. He looks so studious ( maybe sleepy?).

Taken at the zoo in Maggie Valley. He really got a kick out of holding this big snake. It weighed almost as much as he did. After he passed it back to the handler, it wrapped itself around TJ’s leg and as the handler walked off to put the snake back in the box, TJ was having to hop on one foot to keep from falling.

Taken on graduation day for the fifth grade. I think this was probably his favorite teacher. All of her kids loved her.

Also taken on 5th. grade graduation day. Cori McGuinness was his best friend in elementary school. After we moved to Manns Harbor, Cori spent almost as much time at our house as he did at his.

One of the many Halloween faces. I’m glad he spent the night at his Dad’s house and I didn’t have to help clean that face.

This is my favorite Halloween costume. Patti did the makeup job. Again, I am glad he was at his dad’s house.

Science project – it worked. We had just moved to Manns Harbor.

For some reason TJ doesn’t like this picture. I think it is a very good picture of him.

There is a real big gap in pictures here. I don’t have any high school pictures of him on my computer. He has all of them. This was taken after he moved to Greenville. This is his best friend, Clayton (Doc) Holliday. He is in the Army and he and TJ are just like brothers. I believe either of them would go to the end of the earth for the other.

Taken in Libya, Africa. He worked off and on over there for 3 years laying fiber optic lines. It was a great experience for him. During this time, I saw the greatest growth in his life.

I’ve never really asked for the story behind this picture and probably don’t want to know. He is on the balcony of his apartment in Africa. I suppose it had been a looooong day!

This is TJ’s daughter, Hannah. She is probably his greatest accomplishment, thus far, in his life. We had been out to visit his Dad in Georgia, shortly after he had been diagnosed with cancer. This was taken on the Nantahala Gorge on our way home.

One more taken on the trip home from Georgia.

This is Amy, the love of his life. They were sweethearts in high school. This was taken Thanksgiving of 2009. Hannah and I spent the weekend out in Albemarle with them.

Dakota is such a beautiful horse and she knows it. She will actually pose for a picture. TJ could be the “Marlboro” man.

On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, TJ called me and invited me to Albemarle for the weekend. At first I wasn’t too excited about it. I had work to do, etc., etc. Then he told me he and Amy would really like to have me at their wedding on Saturday. SATURDAY!! Three days notice. Needless to say, I packed my bags and headed to Albemarle. It was a beautiful wedding, in their home, with just family and some friends.

Taken the morning after the wedding. The house was full of family and they cooked breakfast for us. They both love to cook and are both good cooks.

Thanksgiving, 2010 in Manns Harbor. Bonnie, Hannah and Josh – his children – cause after all, Bonnie is almost human.

TJ is a multi-talented man. Here he is in his “workshop” – the garage - working on the yarn box he gave me for Christmas last year.

This was taken on my most recent visit on Memorial Day. We had gone to the clinic to do some target practice. He is very good with a gun….me….not so good. But I did manage to hit the target a few times.

This is a good picture of all three of us. It was taken at the family reunion in Merry Hill in either 2008 or 2009.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of TJ. This was his first glimpse of Amy as she came down the stairs to become his wife. I’ve never seen TJ as happy as he is now. He loves Amy and loves his life with her. Things are sometimes tight for them, as with a lot of young couples. They sometimes have disagreements, as most couples do now and then. But they respect, love and cherish each other.

I hope you have enjoyed this little journey through some of TJ’s life. And TJ, I want to wish you a very Happy Birthday. It doesn’t seem like it’s been 34 years since we welcomed you into our lives. Time has really gone by so rapidly.

I guess you can tell from this post and the post I made last month about Ray, I love my boys very much. I haven’t always been the best mother, I haven’t always made the right decisions for myself or for them. I’ve tried to teach them to be responsible and kind. I didn't get them to Church as early as I should have. But I don’t think I have done such a bad job. I have to admit it's been a great journey and I feel like my journey is coming to an end, which is the natural way of things. I have a few regrets but being a mother has been the greatest part of my journey and I have two wonderful sons to thank for that.

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