Sweeney & Jerry

When you relocate your life to a new place, one of the most difficult things to leave behind is your friends. You know, the ones that you can count on for just about anything - like the time I volunteered for a Room Makeover in our previous town and I knew who would immediately give their time and talents to be a part of blessing someone.

Or the time when we decided to form a Mardi Gras Krewe  and, you guessed it, you just KNOW who is going to pitch in to help make it happen.

That's the kind of neighborly friends I'm talking about here...  you know the ones... when you say "I'm going to..." they say "count me in!".  Well, that's Sweeney. And that's Jerry.

And here's Sweeney, doin what Sweeney does. He cooks.  Actually, he COOKS, on the Texas size scale. 

When I met Sweeney, we were serving on the Stonewall Texas Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.  (He is third generation on the Board). And he is a doer.  Not afraid of a little challenge, like feeding a few hundred folks for breakfast...

Happened to see a photo on Facebook recently of Sweeney fixin' a BBQ for a couple hundred folks, and I commented I was doing a Warrior weekend - he fired back immediately to count him in.

Dang good thing too- mighta missed this!

And here's Jerry. (and Donna, Sweeney's sweetheart of a wife.)

When I met Jerry, I actually met Joni, his wife.  She, too, is on the Board of Directors for the Stonewall Chamber of Commerce.  Because she's sweet and smart and giving and helpful. And she's, well, Joni.  And she's married to Jerry, who is wonderful too.  And he can COOK!

We contributed our four cabins.  We were already here, working on our place to get ready, and planning the event.  Sweeney and Jerry, on the other hand, immediately began working, and came from "over there."  

Sweeney has rings to make coals for the fire pits.  He brought truckloads of wood.  A SERIOUS Cowboy Chef, he has pits in assorted sizes.  Each do different things.

Like this big one... and the little one on the far left.  And a couple of sizes in between (see metal boxes in above photos).  They brought it all to here.  And worked. And helped. And GAVE.

That's the thing: they gave.  Their time, their commitment to our convalescing warriors through food and fun, sharing and cooking, they GAVE.  

 

I wanna be on their team any time.

Here's the result of their efforts:

Better yet,  here's the payoff: 

It's still America. We Do support our troops.  Nice people live in America.  Like Sweeney, and like Jerry. 

PS- and our Warriors asked when the cookbooks were coming out!

The End. God Bless America.